<p>I would never have done this for my kid because he didn’t get the work done. I did do it several times in his senior year (he was going half days) when it was going to be busy work. He stayed home and practiced. He knew he needed to maintain his GPA, so he never did anything that would jeopardize his GPA and he always got his work in on time.</p>
<p>I have taken maybe two mental health days per semester. My parents write a note saying I am sick. On the most recent day I took off, I had four tests. I knew I wouldn’t do well on them, even despite sacrificing a lot of sleep, if I went to school on that day. My parents had no problem writing a note saying I was sick–after all, had I not skipped school on that day I might have gotten sick.</p>
<p>I really don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Of course, if a student misses class all the time for phony excuses it’s not fair to other students, but isn’t mental health important? If a kid is incredibly stressed out and needs a day, why is that less important than if the kid has a cough. In both cases the kid should rest, recuperate, and relax–it’s healthier for him than going to school.</p>
<p>Skipping for a good reason is not a big deal. I have taken my kids out of school for medical appointments, dental appts, a very special noon concert at a local university, and -gasp!!- family vacations. This last one specially caused me some angst, since it was an international trip and they had to miss about 4 days of school. But at the end of the day , i am happy to know they will ALWAYS remember this wonderful trip, the cultural exposure, and the priceless time shared with loved ones. The C on an assignment not turned on time is long forgotten!!!</p>
<p>Vacations is one thing my mom never pulled us out for, but this year our school didn’t tell anyone what week spring break would be until like two weeks beforehand, so my sister is missing a whole week because my mom refused to wait that long to book her vacation. I was really surprised that the school did that, normally the academic calendar is released before school even starts, but they really blew it this year.</p>
<p>People at my school don’t go to school when there’s only a celebration for 2 hours or so.</p>
<p>I won’t do it for my kids, but they say other parents do. I don’t think it is as much of a problem in the honors/AP track because it is so hard to miss the work and make it up, and most of the kids are there because they want to be. My one remaining high-schooler does not like to miss school and he knows I would not call it in for him anyway. He has a medical condition that requires monthly 1/2 day Dr. visits, and I have a hard time even getting him to go to those because he doesn’t want to miss. At our school, policy is that kids have one extra day to make up work for each day they were out. It doesn’t matter if it is a full of partial day. The exception is that if they are out for a sporting event (leaving school early for an away game, for instance) they are expected to turn their work in before they go.</p>
<p>There are reasons to take your child out and reasons you shouldn’t. I have let my child miss for a “mental health day” and for vacations. But I have never been asked by either of my children if they could miss because of homework and they have never called me to pick them up - one reason, they know I would not do it.</p>
<p>I think there’s a big difference between taking a kid out of school a day early to leave on vacation prior to a school break or because the parents have an opportunity to go to Asia or Europe and want to bring the kids but we know families that take kids out in the winter for a week simply to go to Florida and hang out on the beach. That’s one thing that I could never do.</p>
<p>
Wow, limabeans, sometimes there are only doctor’s appointments available during school hours. Why on earth would it be appropriate to skip for “all-day no-classes-for-the-day events” if you don’t even thing medical appointments are worthy? And senior skip day? That’s a ridiculous event, anyway – you think that’s worth it?</p>
<p>S attends a demanding magnet HS and does not want to miss school. </p>
<p>D attended the local public HS. Supposedly the school takes action if a student misses more than 9 days in a school year and I do know someone who was called on this (her child was sick and had surgery). Early in D’s HS years she had the flu twice and ended up missing 9 or 10 days in the same quarter. I picked up her books and she got all of the assignments online or from classmates. No one from the school ever called and I am not sure that any adults in the school even noticed that she was missing (the kids did). She ended up with all A’s that quarter.</p>
<p>So after that I loosened up a little and if she wanted a mental health break or not much was going on I let her stay home. I told the school it was “personal reasons” and they never questioned me. She only did this occasionally and did not take advantage of it. Still graduated in the top 5.</p>
<p>What I took away from D’s experience was:</p>
<ol>
<li>In her case, it did not hurt academically.</li>
<li>The school didn’t care/notice if she was there or not.</li>
</ol>
<p>I have no idea what the other parents did and I don’t really care.</p>
<p>Ok- I went to school in the Dark Ages so we did not have a Senior Skip Day. I assume how it works varies from school to school, but can someone share an outline? (This is kind of related to the original post I think.) Do students just not show up? Do they go to school and then sign themselves out? Inquiring minds want to know.</p>
<p>OWM post #26. Us, too. Our high school pulls from the very poorest and the very wealthiest neighborhoods in the district, so I guess we get both kinds of skippers. The kids with no college aspirations may not even be asking to be called out. Mom’s shift starts at 7; she doesn’t even know the students didn’t attend school. </p>
<p>The other kind of skipping, which really amounts to families believing that anything to get ahead is acceptable (including more time for projects), has to do with values. You probably can’t change another family’s values, so the only thing that will help that situation is policies that take away the benefit for skipping. Now, I’m in higher ed, not high school, but I don’t take late work. Period. And don’t even think about telling me you want your final early so you can go home for break sooner.</p>
<p>My own kids? Well the oldest will crawl out of her sick bed and go to school for calculus and physics and drag herself back home. Her classmates would probably rather not see her in those situations. Fortunately, illness is uncommon for her. I do call the kids out for illness, medical appointments, and college visits. They have also missed class for sports and other school sanctioned extracurriculars where the team travels.</p>
<p>In our area, they plan a fun day trip (amusement park, etc.). They don’t go to school. They go have fun. It is not school sanctioned in any way. I don’t think my S’s had these to the large organized degree we did back when I graduated.</p>
<p>I’ve learned a new phrase: “mental health day.” Never heard it before in reference to a high school student.</p>
<p>One of my S’s teachers told us parents at the beginning of the year, that if your child is sick on a test day, have him come to school just for the test; otherwise the make-up version will be at least three times harder. I had not heard of this before, but I liked it from the standpoint that it deters those slackers we are talking about.</p>
<p>I know this kinda veers off-topic, but I can’t even imagine my kid telling me that he needs a mental health day. Not that he’s such a brainiac and doesn’t need one, but his schedule just isn’t that demanding. If it were, I’d probably have him scale back. I just think that high school should be the easy part in life. If it’s stress filled beyond the “typical” teen angst, I’d think he was pushing himself too much.</p>
<p>Our high school has a limit on the number of days allowed to be absent per class for any reason. So if you leave early or come late you are absent for those classes you missed. You are allowed to miss 20 days of school or 10 days if it’s a half-year class and your parents are sent a note as it gets close. It doesn’t matter if the absences are legal or not, 20 days max. If it’s a real medical reason it’s worked out, but you had best be able to validate it!</p>
<p>With Senior Cut Day - my older GS troop was planning a last hurrah type of trip and needed to miss a Friday in March. I called the Superintendent over the summer to confirm with her that it was okay. Her response was as long as they didn’t go over their 20 days she saw no problem. Turns out it was Senior Cut Day - the girls were so excited - they didn’t need to worry about whether to cut or not, they had “permission” to do so. What great luck!</p>
<p>As for the end of Senior year our school does this great thing - they have a program that starts after spring break where the kids intern or apprentice somewhere instead of attending classes (except for APs which haven’t had their test yet). It’s brilliant because it keeps the kids engaged and allows them to explore potential careers or interests. Kids have worked at cheese factories and chocolate making factories (who knew these existed in Manhattan?), assisted in Nursery schools, my daughter worked for a very famous casting director, others were assisting in Off-Bwy theatres, etc. Almost anything you could think of is apprenticed, it’s great. They choose a teacher to mentor them, have to write a daily account of what they did and thoughts, and then give a presentation to a group of teachers, parents, and fellow seniors. They all love it, I think it’s brilliant and I know other schools do a similar thing.</p>
<p>
The students might have gotten the idea from the teachers! ; - )</p>
<p>Our daughter takes an occasional “physical health day” but we draw the line at the old mental health ploy. Fortunately, she wants to go to school and has bucked us a few times when we felt she needed to take a day off for illness. Not that she is all consummed with her studies – the problem for her is that if a student misses a day of school they can not show up that afternoon/evening for extracurriculars.</p>
<p>Do other kids take days off with the compliance of their parents? Absolutely. I’d estimate that 20% of her friends skip a few days each year with the knowledge and help of their parents. One or two of these parents have even been known to TRY to intervene with college professors/administrators on behalf of their progeny with far less success than they experienced during the high school years.</p>
<p><em>**One of my S’s teachers told us parents at the beginning of the year, that if your child is sick on a test day, have him come to school just for the test; otherwise the make-up version will be at least three times harder. </em></p>
<p>This is ludicrous. In order to stop the kids who are gaming the system, you’re punishing the child who is legitimately sick. It’s hard enough to come back from being sick (most kids return when they’re still not feeling 100%), and then to get a test that’s 3 times harder? Not cool, IMO. We have teachers who will do something like that if there’s a student with a pattern of missing school on quiz and test days, but not otherwise.</p>