<p>Our school allows 2 days of excused absences for college visits for Jrs. and Srs. My S missed one day of sch. for college visit as a jr. I did not realize at the time that we had to let the school know 2 weeks in advance of the trip and bring back a letterhead from the school proving you had been there for a visit. So S's absence turned ut to be unexcused but it was not a big deal for him.</p>
<p>Yes. We used the 3 days allowed for visits, and, after speaking to the principal and explaining that S's choices were quite far away, so each trip could easlily take 3 days, he was granted other days, as well. The school was very accommodating. We usually left on Saturday or Sunday and returned Tuesday: 2 days missed.</p>
<p>Not yet, but she will miss two days next week for ADOCH at Brown. I figure if Brown is asking the admitted students to come, then HS can't really object. Besides, HS is very proud of her, so they are actually encouraging her to go despite missing AP review... Such a dilemma.. :)</p>
<p>D will officially exceed her allotted days this weekend, as she'll miss 2 days next week. She's always been hyper about getting behind, so she printed out a spreadsheet to give to all her teachers and has worked ahead in everything. LOL, she's the school's nominee for an All-star scholarship--she has to do a local interview, and the time she was scheduled for was 11:00 the week before APs! She sent a nice note, and explained that if the time could be changed until after school, she'd really like to avoid missing the AP Reviews. :) I figure that's got to be a good thing! The latest they could do was 1:30, but that's better. At least they know she's conscientious!</p>
<p>Yes, D has missed a couple of days to visit or re-visit schools that accepted her for scholarship days, overnight stays; she'll miss this Monday and then hopefully will have gathered all the info for her final choice. These visits have been invaluable and, although she really dislikes missing school, she realizes they are worth the catch-up.</p>
<p>Finding the time was really tough this year as D's spring break coincided with the Passover and Good Friday week, shortening the time available that week substantially (most schools were closed on Good Friday). And we get no February vacation which makes it even more challenging. We took D out of school one Friday in March (we have unlimited excused absences for this purpose) for another trip and we are planning to do the Boston loop in a couple of weeks on a no school day. We may use the summer to see some of the bigger places. The tough part will be finding the time to get BACK to some of these places for the interviews in the fall!</p>
<p>My son took his 3 days off senior year - well worthwhile for us.</p>
<p>My daughter missed two full weeks at separate times during fall of senior year to visit east coast colleges. She refused to consider a summer visit, as she only wanted to visit while school is in session. She made arrangements in advance with all of her teachers to get their permission to travel -- I honestly don't know what arrangements she may also have made with the school principal. I just know that whoever did attendance at her school was duly informed and I didn't get any phone calls from the school. (Generally the school was very diligent about calling for absences.). </p>
<p>I don't particularly recommend the approach. Did I mention that my daughter is kind of headstrong? It worked out well for her.... even though it rained very heavily most of the time on her second trip so she didn't make it to several of the colleges she had planned to visit.</p>
<p>No, didn't miss any school-didn't want to, but the high schools did give 3 days for college visits. Some visits were in the summer which isn't optimal..</p>
<p>yes, one day junior year, and 1-2 days senior year in April after school was almost over anyway.</p>
<p>I can't comment on the missed school part, because my daughter is home schooled/unschooled. I can comment on the advantages of mid-week visits.
We visited the last week of September and the first week of October. She was the only student at her info session at Swarthmore and one of two on her tour. She was one of two at her info session and tour at Princeton. She was one of two at her info session and tour at Dartmouth. Penn and Harvard were packed on Mondays, with about 35 and 40 on her tours.
She felt free to ask personal (not of general interest) questions at Swat, Princeton and Dartmouth. The ability to hear the tour leaders and to view the schools at what felt like a more relaxed pace was important. These schools seemed more like "hers".
I can't say that it wasn't coincidence, but these were her favorites.</p>
<p>Our hs allows 2 days per semester for visits. The Catch 22 is that beyond that they are "not school related" (not to be confused with unexcused) and if you have more than 2 non-school-related absences per semester you won't be exempt from your Sr finals. It all relates to the fact that the state pays the district by the number of bodies in the building per day.<br>
Two days is not enough if your kid is still weighing options in different states in April.</p>
<p>My kids (daughter college senior, son college freshman) each missed about three days each for college visits. Their HS did not have a maximum amount but they had to get permission before the visit and show proof afterwards. My strategy with my son was to compare our family schedule with the school schedule and then visit colleges whenever his school was closed (if we were available too!) and a tour/visit was possible. We had very poor luck visiting colleges in the summer. We just couldn't visualize the feel of any college without the students. I think we or he (son visited two alone) visited 12 colleges. My daughter and I visited about 6. One thing that suprised us was how early colleges let out. Many colleges are done by the first week in May and having exams the last week in April.</p>
<p>my advice would be to be careful with missed school days early on, as later in the process there may be some scholarship competitions that the student really needs to attend. That has happened to my S, who missed his allotted three days visiting and attending classes, etc. and now (as I type) is missing two days for an opposite coast interview and next weekend will miss an additional day for his last scholarship competition event. This means he is getting a lot of grief from teachers at school and may even see some grades go down from B to A, not because he doesn't continue to have an A in the class, but because you have an auto grade drop after a certain # of absences. This is just adding more stress at a time when he is already a deer in the headlights re: his decision - not what anyone needs, so maybe try to plan on having a couple of usable days after the admit decisions are out.</p>
<p>I have left school to look at colleges (I actually haven't gone to school a full Friday in 5 weeks), I'm not recommending regularly missing school or anything, but a Friday somewhere in the middle semester is not a huge deal to miss and it's worth it to see the students around and observe their schedule during a regular day.</p>
<p>It is interesting to me that schools have allotted number of days that students can miss. At our public school we just call a recorded number and tell them that the student will be absent. Obviously the student needs to work with the teacher to make up any missed work or suffer the grade consequences. I have never heard anyone talk about the school giving them a problem.
I would also guess that most of the schools would not look kindly on kids missing school to go skiing which is something that happens often. And on days of good surf I know parents who let their kids out early. But this is California with our high quality schools.
The district has been putting out a letter the last few years asking parents to not take their kids out of school for family vacations. The don't mention the academic reasons but site the loss of ADA funds they lose for each absence.
I think visiting while school is in session is important. Sitting in on a class and visiting with faculty is an important part of the decision making process. We don't have a Feb vacation and our school rarely has inservice days. This year the spring break fell at a bad time for school visits.
I think my son has missed a 1.5 days for visits and will miss another day next week.
I hope this isn't misunderstood as support of parents keeping their kids out of school. I am known as the mean Mom who doesn't give "mental health" days.</p>
<p>There is a lot of pressure on the schools now to keep attendance up due to NCLB. If a district already has a problem with low attendance I think they are apt to be tighter on excused absences. Our district is pretty leinent and families in any grade can request an absence for an educational trip for their students. We're taking our eighth grade son out of school in early June to see his sisters graduation in Illinois.</p>
<p>Our public schools also have allowed any amount of absence we've asked for, as long as son stays up on his work. As a result, he's been able to visit Greenland, Cuba, Northern Ireland, India, Venezuela, Brazil, Japan, a good hunk of western Europe, etc. His teachers say this has given him an International awareness that he brings back to the classroom in discussions or debate. I'm grateful the system has allowed this. They also have no problem with time off for college visits.</p>