Missing School
By bobmnu
@bobmnu (8157)
United States
March 9, 2007 9:24am CST
There is a School District in Calafornia that is sending parents a bill when they take students out of school for a Family Vacation. Having been in Education and in private Industry I think this is reducilious. Educators are constantly asking for more parent involvement with the children. I could support this if they were sending the bill to pareents who students were missing school for unexcusedreasons.
I wonder how the school district would feel if the parents sent a bill to the school when the teacher played a video when he/she was getting ready for a big sporting event at school or when grades were due and the teacher needed time and didn't want to stay after school.
Don't get me wrong, I am not against teachers but it seems that each district has a small percent of teachers who work very hard at getting out of teaching. Most teachers work very hard and help studetns but those few who don't give everyone else a bad name.
2 people like this
5 responses
@soldenski (2503)
• United States
9 Mar 07
Don't get me wrong, but I think family vacation is an unexcused reason. I live in California and although, I have had my children miss school for vacation, I know that they are not excused (if I tell them, that we went on vacation lol)
1 person likes this
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
9 Mar 07
I have worked in schools in different communities and many of the parents can not get off in the summer for vacation. I used to have students do a project when they went on vacation and then I counted it as excused. One student who struggled to write a paragraph turned in a fuve page report covering the week he was gone. Teachers were astounded, while a girl who was an Honor student turned in a report listing suntanning in the beach every day as her activity. I happen to think for some students a vacation with parents can be very educational
1 person likes this
@silvermoonmyst (943)
• United States
11 Mar 07
Both my husband and I like the idea. If you choose to take your child out of school then you should compensate them. They are asking that if YOU decide to take your child out of school then you should be held responsible. And i think its a good idea. A vaccation is not an excused absence here. The ONLY way to get an excused absence is to have a drs note for illness's and such. But thats our opinions.
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
13 Mar 07
Many families do not have a choice when they take their vacation. Some companies have manditory shut downs for retooling and you either takke vacation or you do not get paid for this weeks. My daughter in law just receivd a promotion in the hospital and moved to the bottom of the vacation list in her new department eventhough she has been with the hospital longer than some of the other people in the department.
With yoour line of thinking every time the school has a pep rally or lets students out early to travel to a sporting event then the school should refund money to you for the education they are not providing you student.
@airnavigator (369)
• United States
12 Mar 07
There is a simple solution to this and that is to get the government out of education and privitize the schools. Parents would then pay for their children's education and it would be money out of their pocket if they took the children out for a vacation.
In addition to the parent paying for education that their children are not using in a private, competitive market, there would be a further disincentive not to take the children out of school because their children might actually miss something. While I have always insisted that my children go to school as required, I could just as easily show them videos at home and teach them how to cut and past text from the internet (as one of my son's teachers has) and hand it in as homework.
@artistmel2000 (438)
• United States
9 Mar 07
I have a hard time with this, and I wonder if they can legally bill parents for this type of thing. I also agree that the school board should be sending bills to the parents of students who are serious truants. If the schools want parents involved in their children's education, I would think there are better ways to communicate this than sending a truancy bill. What's next? Sending a bill for poor grades instead of sanctioning teachers for poor teaching?
@Modestah (11179)
• United States
15 Mar 07
That is quite disturbing. So, do they also charge parents who home educate their children? This is a Public School, not a private day care center! I can not even see billing parents for unexcused absenses - class goes on with or without the child present. If they want to implement this they will have to also start paying parents for each school closure due to weather trouble or faulty mechanics (broken AC or whatever), and pay them for each day school is closed for teachers' conferences. Start paying the parents for each time the bus runs late or early picking up or dropping off the children.
Ridiculous? Yes! I agree.
