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December Vacation To India

Discussion in 'Schoolgoers & Teens' started by YoGirl, Sep 13, 2019.

  1. YoGirl

    YoGirl Gold IL'ite

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    This is my first time planning for kids december vacation to India.

    I wanted to know if elementary schools in usa allow 3 week vacation in december. This year there are 3 weeks between thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.. and i want to visit india during that time.

    School admin says that we can work with teacher.. but 3 weeks is too long and it might raise concerns with ISD and we might get letters from state and also may have to appear in court if needed.

    Other option is to take her off from school(unregister) and then re- register her after we return. Her place will not be guaranteed in the same class.

    The process feels complicated.
    Wanted to hear from you on what you did for december india visits
     
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  2. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Which grade is she in? The grade matters.

    How many school days will she be missing? 15? People usually take off 5 school days. Up to 10 is doable. More than that is too much work for the teacher and for the child also.
    Are they and you confident she will get a spot in the same school? If the school is impacted (over-enrolled) and has a waiting-list, they are required to give the spot to waiting-list students after you unregsiter.

    When I was in this position, I inquired with the 4th grade teacher. She was very cooperative and said they learn a lot from vacations. We only took 5 days off for the older child, and 6 days for the younger (had jet-lag after return).
     
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  3. peartree

    peartree Platinum IL'ite

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    Which state are you in?

    In our school district here in the Bay Area, kids are allowed a maximum of 10 days off from school. They have to be present on the 11th day. If not, they lose that spot. This is especially risky if your school district has a lot of overloads and has kids on wait lists to get to your home school. And this kind of 2 week absence can only be used for a maximum number of 3 times in the entire duration of school... i.e. from K through 12th grade.

    What we did was to plan for our vacation in the weeks right before their Christmas break so that they still miss school only for 2 weeks and have 2 more weeks of holidays.
     
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  4. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Very risky for overloaded schools. Even if the school admin themselves don't call up parents from the wait-list, if a waiting-list parent himself asks the school about it, they have to disclose that they have a spot available due to student who was truant for more than 10 days consecutive.

    I would double-check this. Attendance records do not carry over from year to year. And definitely do not carry over into the high school years which is a completely different school district. From the little that I remember, up to 10 days of vacation is fine till 5th grade, and can add few days with doctor's note if kid falls sick during other months. In 6th and upward, they have too much going on in school and missing more than 4-5 consecutive days is stressful for kid to catch-up.

    This usually works out good. Can get the more reasonable fare, not much happening in school before Christmas break. For example, this year, a family can technically leave on Friday Dec 6th after school and return from India by Saturday Jan 4th, rest for a day, back to school on Monday 6th.
     
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  5. YoGirl

    YoGirl Gold IL'ite

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    Thanks for the replies.
    Kid is first grade and we are in Texas.

    If we take 3 weeks off between thanksgiving and christmas break.. then we get total of 7 weeks(1 week thanksgiving+ 3 weeks christmas holidays + 3 weeks in between)

    Would be good for India trip
     
  6. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    7 weeks is too long for a vacation during the school year, IMO, even for first grade and even if it can be worked out with the school. Google "summer learning loss."
     
  7. YoGirl

    YoGirl Gold IL'ite

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    Actually you are right. 7 weeks seems long to miss classes.
     

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