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Special Needs
Auntie
I was curious about something you mentioned in another post that alluded to the fact that if you had unexcused absences from school it could put your child's services at risk (or at least that was my interpretation). We had planned on going to visit my IL's in Australia for Christmas this year. Unfortunately this means that DS#1 will miss a week of school (5-6 school days). Normally I wouldn't plan on doing this but you obviously can't pop over to Australia for only a week and my DH would like this last time of the boys getting to spend the holidays with his family. My general thought was it's better to miss a week of kindie than a week of 1st grade or higher. Our district's official policy on absences of this sort is that you have to submit a plan to the principal on how you are going to make it educational and its up to them to approve or deny. As long as the principal approves our absences do you think we are putting ourselves at risk for his services? Is there somewhere I can go to read in more details about this?
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Re: Auntie
Please do not use this "excuse" when you speak to the teacher or the principal. It is very insulting to Kindergarten teachers who work very hard to plan interactive and educational activities. Kindergarten is just as important as other grades--we just happen to have a different curriculum. Sorry, but this is something that really irritates me. Comments like this basically dismiss the hard work that Kindergarten teachers (and yes I am one) put in to making sure that each day is an important learning experience for the children.
That being said, I think that most schools and teachers will recognize the benefits of missing a week of school to visit family who lives so far away.
Auntie - This will definitely not be an annual thing, nor would I let them miss more than a week of school. I normally have a total ban on Christmas travel anywhere (I like for the kids to be in their own home on Christmas morning) but I also know that its very hard for DH to be away from his whole family every year. The Christmas timing is also due to the fact that my BIL lives in the UK, but always comes home for Christmas, so this the only time DH can see both of his brothers at once and a lot of people take off from Christmas to New Years so its easier to squeeze everyone in. There's also DH's job to consider, which has very specific times he can take off because of reporting deadlines. I agree that a week trip is doable for an adult (we've done it) or maybe even an older child, but for little guys I think its too much. Older DS is a pretty good traveler, but we haven't done too much air travel with DS#2 since we moved home when he was 9 months. On a purely superficial note, I also hate that if we always go during the summer break they won't get to do all of the wonderful outdoor stuff like going to the beach because it will be too cold.
I don't have much of a plan if they say "no", since I hadn't worried about it too much up until now. No one will die or disown us if we don't come, so I suppose we will just wait and go during the summer break. It's much more important to me that we get off on the right foot with the school, than making my DH and family happy about our travel plans. I will make an appointment to discuss it with the principal ASAP to feel them out and will definitely make it clear this is a one time situation. I do know for a fact that they've approved other typical students for regular vacations (Grand Canyon and D.C.), but as you say this is no guarantee. Thanks for the advice and making me realize I was dropping a ball.
JustinLove - I'm sorry if my comment offended you. I wasn't speaking to the relative merits of the K curriculum vs. other grades, I was only discussing it as it relates to my DS. I've seen the local K curriculum and have spoken with several K teachers here. My DS has attended 2 years of preschool and has already mastered about 95% of the academics that they cover in K according to his current teachers (a public pre-school in the same school district) and my own observations. However, because he has autism, his social skills lag significantly behind his academic skills and this is primarily what he will be working on next year.
While he will likely always struggle with the social piece, in future years we have no idea if he will have the same relative ease with the academic piece. I believe that Auntie has commented in the past on ASD kids that did well early on in school, that later struggled when the requirements moved more heavily towards critical thinking vs. memorization. There is also the possibility of one or more comorbids, such dyslexia, that we aren't aware of yet that we will have to deal with later. Auntie is somewhat familiar with my DS's skills and weaknesses from our previous conversations, so I didn't feel the need to explain all of those concerns out for her since I felt we were both aware of the potential issues there.
I agree that K teachers work just as hard and teach just as much and I believe this is compounded by the wide range of skills that kids come into the classroom with. I generally feel that missing any school isn't a good thing, but given our particular circumstances, if I have to pick now or later, I'm picking now. That was the sole reason for my comment, but I appreciate your concern and can assure you I would never make such a comment that way to a teacher or school official.