Kindergarten Questions - Long Beach,CA

Most schools have a limit on the amount of days a child can miss and still get credit for the year. That is because it is hard on the student and the teacher when the student falls behind. Being sick is one thing, but missing for other reasons should be limited regardless of age, so I would limit non-sick outs to only a couple a year.

My daughter is going into 4th grade this year. She's had wonderful teachers every year. She's learned so much, academically and socially. She missed a few sick days in kindergarten, I think. She did not miss even one day of school in 2nd or 3rd grade. She's an exceptionally healthy girl! We have taken her out of school for family matters one day, total.

strict attendance rules in our public school system....attendance is imperative.

It's just easier to commit to your child's education.....++ it teaches a good set of values for your child to carry thru life.

Sick time is different, but we still did not take advantage & take an extra day here/there.

What I liked about KG is that it gave my child the opportunity to blossom & grow....to learn a new set of values/rules.....to embrace new friends.....& to learn to "listen & learn". I think KG is one of the best starting points in any child's life!

To those wondering about the "school getting paid".. In our public schools in Texas,the State gives the school funding based on each student and their attendance.. It a child does not attend that costs the school.

I loved that she found her love of school in kindergarten. Her teacher had high expectations of each child in the class and she was so proud of herself for accomplishing these goals. I loved the independence she gained.

We tried to never schedule anything that interfered with school at any time during her school career. We wanted to make sure she knew her responsibility and our priority was school. If you are not there, you miss out. If we scheduled anything during the school year it was only the days off the district had in the school year schedule.

Our daughter really did not miss more than 4 or 5 days per school year when she was ill. I do not believe in sending children to school when they are ill. This means fever, Our daughter had asthma and there were a few times, I went up to the school and gave her the nebulizer treatments in the nurses office.

It was her Junior year in high school before she received a "perfect attendance". She was so excited (nerd)..

I loved our KG program in our school district...it is very progressive and my daughter was reading at a 1st grade level my the end of the year. And she was not reading at all in the beginning of the year.

Kindgergarten to me was the foundation for learning. Our daughter attended preschool, pre-k, however it was KG that I think has/will set the foundation for her school experience. Every day that a child misses of education is a day they are behind the student body.

So personally I don't think family vacation should take place unless the children are already on some sort of break. We are actually having a disgreement in our house right now about Winter Break. My husbands family is all going to Dallas the week before Christmas...She has school until the 22 of Dec. I am totally against us leaving the on the 19th and not attending school this week...since she will be out of school for two more weeks.

She missed a total of five days in kindergarten due to being sick. I may have to eat my own words here...I think I will lose this arguement.

here the schools are a bit more strict. all days absent excused or unexcused count towards toward the full year absent. If they miss a total of 6 they start sending home letters. If they miss 9 you're put on alert for retainment. My son (4th grade) had missed 9 days for asthma illnesses and was close to being retained in 4th grade because of it. Even though he had B's.

As for taking trips during the school year, look at the calendar. There should be several long weekends, a week between Christmas and New Years, time in the spring. We always get the first Monday and Tues of Nov off, so a 4 day weekend. So If I do a trip then, I can leave Friday afternoon after school and get 3 good vacation days before heading back.

At my child's school:
Kindergarten is everyday, full days.
My son just started Kinder. He was ready and is happy about it. THAT is what I most like about it. HE is, enjoying it very much.

Parents, some of them... take their child out of school for any little thing/appointments/outings etc. Sure, some may think it is just Kindergarten... but a teacher and per the curriculum and the school's rules about absences & attendance etc., there are certain requirements that a child, needs to do. If a child is absent...they do need to catch-up, with work that was missed in class and for homework.
My son, in Kinder, gets homework. And they have a full schedule/curriculum, everyday.
I would not want, my son to miss out, needlessly.

I don't know what you mean by, "the district doesn't get paid when a child misses school..."
Can you explain that?
That is not how it is, at my kids' public school.

My kids, do not miss any school during the school year, UNLESS they are sick, or if I have to schedule an appointment during school time and it is unavoidable.

Teachers, do not like habitual absences, that can be, avoided.
It impacts the child and their in class work/curriculum and rules for attendance. And it is, almost as though some parents don't care. I have seen some families, that routinely plan vacations and trips, during the school year. And they do this, in advance, knowingly. And their kids, miss a lot of in class time.
Sure, their homework 'packet' gets sent home.
But that is also a lot of catch up.

My kids, VERY rarely, miss school.
My daughter is in 4th grade and son in Kinder.

Parents, do receive the school Calendar, and you can also look at a school's website. In order to plan, family trips. Which would then coincide, with the school's calendar of school breaks.

my daughter was in K last year.
I loved that she was having fun and making new friends
She was not allowed to miss school unless she was sick. If she was out for any other reason, then the school would mark it as unexcused
I think she missed maybe 5 days (1 week of school) for being sick

.

We don't plan any vacation during the school year unless school's already planned to be out (school holidays). I know a lot of families if they are going to go see family will pull kids out and extra day or two if they are traveling out of state to see extended family.

As far as sick days, it doesn't matter really. If your kid is out more then 5 days then you'll need a note from the doctor that you've been seen (I had a kid this past year out sick for 10 and had doctor notes).

And yes the school doesn't get the $150-$200something each day (each child) that your child is not in the classroom. For us this includes days that our kids are out sick, too! Excused or not. Now if you can get your kid there for even 2 or 3 hours of the school day, the school will get that money... so if you have plans to leave town on a friday, send your kid to school for the couple hours it takes to pack the car and then pick your child up on the way out of town - lots of families do that here.

I liked the whole social aspect of kindergarden. It was different from preschool. There is more "teamwork" involved (kids in small groups working together independent of the other classroom groups to clean up, be quiet, line up, ect). Kids also "polish" the skills needed to function in a real classroom (raising hands, waiting to be called on, ect) or learn them if they didn't attend preschool.

I loved that my daughter thrived on being part of a group. Prior to that she had only done preschool for one year on T/TH. I did the rest of the teaching and my stepmother helped so she could be bilingual. She could read and write, no problem before entering kindergarten.

I loved volunteering in class, the kids and the teacher were a blast.

My daughter didn't miss school until the Friday before winter break in first grade....we were going to Paris and the class already had their party. She's a perfect attendance kind of kid. I was very fortunate that she just didn't get sick in school but she was like that as a baby as well.

What I liked most was ALSO one of the things I DISLIKED most: The time away. The days were just hands down TOO LONG. 8.5 hours, imho, is ridiculous. My second & third favorite things were his buds and bullies. Every morning he and his buds would have the *cutest* time together. I dug the school bullies, because my son is BIG, and super extrovert. He'd just look at them, shake his head, and lead the other kids they were tormenting away from them. "C'mon guys, he doesn't know how to be a good friend yet. Don't worry, he can learn how to be a good friend, but ya don't play with mean kids until they learn how not to be. It can take a WHILE." One of his besties actually turned out to have been one of those 'start of year' bullies / his K teacher's "pet project". GREAT kid, he'd just honestly never "learned to be a good friend" (as my son's preschool put it). A few other times during the year my son would "walk" when his friends started not including others. "I don't WANT to be in your club is Ricky can't be. I'd rather play by myself until you stop being mean."

We were sick at least once a month for 2-4 days. A couple times in that year for a week. Pretty typical. (There used to be no 'required attendance' for K & 1st because your first 2 years, you're sick a LOT. Used to be required attendance days started in 2nd or 3rd.)

We had an 'old school' teacher (over 30 years in, tenured) so she bucked the system for us all a LOT. She said that "Hands down, you're the parent, keep them home if they're sick, bring them in late if they need more sleep, and PLEASE take family vacation. They'll learn more in a week on vacation than they will all year."

The school POLICY however, said a max of 9 days a year absent, and 6 tardies. Out of the 46 K families the front office said 41 of us hit the "max" before thanksgiving, which was also pretty normal. That "perfect attendance" in grades k-3 just means parents are brining their sick kids to school and dumping their illnesses on everyone else, and that staying in district guidelines the first 2 years was just bad parenting. The school office (also all long time workers) and our WONDERFUL teacher, showed us all how to buck the system (aka appeal with the district), and that they COULD NOT penalize for doctor's note absences. So family vacations needed to stay within 9 days, and the rest to pick up doctor's notes for. But they were pretty DISGUSTED with the district policies, because in all the years gone by a "Note from your mom" excused and absence.

Every year from K-5th grade I would take my kids out of school for 3 days in Sept. for a family vacaction. We always did a few educational things. We would notifiy the teacher in advance and I always made sure they made up any missed work. I would also take them out for a "field trip".

In middle school, I took them out for a week to go visit family in Brasil.

As far as being sick, you never know when or how often that will happen. It also depends on the school's policy. In elementary, the school would rather have you keep your child home in they had a fever, cold, etc. In high school if they have 7 unexcused (keeping a child home sick in unexcused, unless under doctors care) absences from a class in a semester they fail the class, so I send them to school when mildly sick. If the nurse sends them home, it's excused.

My daughter's friend (currently a sophmore) has only missed one day of school in 11 years.

What did I like most? decreased child care costs. :) Ok, seriously, we didn't have a great kinder year b/c of a personality clash, so we were just ready to get Kinder over with.

We planned all family vacations around the school's schedule.

My son didn't miss a single day of school for either vacation or illness.

We went on a week vacation during the winter of my dd kindergarten year. She didn't miss much education, socially it was harder. She didn't want to go for a few days and had some trouble getting back into the games and recess.

My daughter was in kindergarten last year. I liked the structure of the program and that her class size was small... only 14 kids. I liked that she was busy all day & that her teacher ran a tight ship. She had the opportunity to blossom socially, too.

As far as missing school, she was sick maybe a total of 3 days. We didn't take vacation, mainly because I am a teacher & we had the same times off.

As far as vacations... when I started teaching, I was adamant that kids should NEVER miss school unless they were on their death bed. (I do work in a district where families take extended, extended vacations, meaning the kids are gone for over a month & I DO NOT condone this.) However, part of learning is gained from going places and seeing the world. If your child misses a few days to travel, my bet is they'll learn more on the vacation than they would behind a desk. The important thing is to let the school & teacher know ahead of time & to ask for any work your child might miss.

My daughter was in kindergarten during the Swine flu epidemic. She missed 4 days due to that. She missed one or two other days for illness at other times. We are discouraged from taking vacations but we still took 8 days off to go to Disney World last year. And many other parents did the same and the teachers told us it was no big deal. I did schedule our trip right before a break so she was missing more review and busy work.

Hi S H all family vacations should be tken during school vacations, missed school puts kids behind, and teaches them school is not important. The school is given so much money per child attendance, every time a child is absent they it's less money per absent kid. J.

I took my kids out for a few vacation days when they were in K and first, second grade, but they hardly missed any school days due to sickness. I think the most one of my boys ever missed was 6 days (5 of these were vacation days) for the entire school year. I always tried to line up our vacation with the kids school vacations, but sometimes it just doesn't work.

I think in Elementary school it's fairly easy to catch up when they miss a few days here and there, especially in Kindergarten.