Not a ‘thing’ here.
But I do recall a homecoming week prank at a local high school from a now-deceased alum who was later a cast member on SNL. It involved releasing 3 piglets numbered 1, 2, and 4 inside the school…
The new principal has effectively banned several ditch days, and has told teachers to schedule tests on those days so the kids show up at school.
Just dropped daughter at school and ran into a teacher friend. She said she really needs Ditch Day to catch up on all her work! She also said that this week has been filled with interruptions in class for " promposals". I asked her if that bothered her and she said “Oh not at all! It’s SOOO CUTE.!”
And this teacher teaches one of the harder AP classes. But the test is over and they are just coasting I think.
The athletic league for our high school mandates that students can’t participate in games on a day where they did not attend school, so the athletes who were in season for their sport (and just before playoffs) had to go to school. Many AP classes are mixed junior/senior and those all proceed normally, so those students had to go to school, too.
I think it would be better to have a post-season, post-AP senior day that is agreed upon and sanctioned, so that everyone can plan for it. Missing a day of instruction right before AP testing seemed foolish to me, so I made my senior go to school. In the end, less than half of the seniors ended up ditching.
My son’s school has a senior ditch day before a holiday, it gives seniors a longer weekend. The last one was the Friday before Spring break. Son has to have his teacher write me a note to confirm this before I let him participate. [-X
There are very few classes that are all seniors. Too many copter parents push their snowflakes ahead and courses that were once reserved for seniors now have a mix of juniors and seniors and a handful of sophomores. If the teachers aren’t getting a skip day break, then there’s absolutely no reason why they won’t schedule an exam or cover important material on skip day.
Our state doesn’t allow a district to offer both DE and AP credit for the same course. So, calc isn’t offered as AP but DE and the college offering the credit isn’t up for skip days.
My kids both ending up attending at least some classes on senior skip day.
I almost forgot to mention that at our school, seniors who don’t show up to school the Monday after prom are not permitted to walk at graduation. I think that’s severe, but they have their reasons related to the percentage attendance rules connected with government funding .
Ok, I can see why a senior might want to or need to attend school on Senior Ditch Day (athletic contest, etc). But what kind of parent would force a kid to attend school on that day just because they (the parent) “never heard of such a thing” - and even where the teachers themselves have assured the kid that nobody will be there and there’s nothing to do that day, so bring a book??!!
In our school it was an unauthorized absence and if a child didn’t show up the parents got a call from the attendance office.
At our senior skip day, all the seniors and a few senior teachers meet up for a grill out and kickball tournament. It’s right before IB and AP testing and a lot of fun for everyone involved.
Senior Skip Day was definitely not sanctioned at my kids’ school but that didn’t stop them. Lots of them go to the lake for the day.
After long hours at the lake, S1 and his crew went to a Brad Paisley outdoor concert on the evening of skip day.
The next day was prom. S1’s gf , a junior, called S1 (still at concert) in a panic. It was announced at the h.s. that all who skipped without an excused absence would not be allowed to attend the prom!
I wrote a note for S1 saying he was sick. Which he prob. was after a few beers on the lake.
I am kind of mystified how the kids who are testing in all their subjects even need to go to school on non testing days unless there are class based reviews for upcoming tests. Kids in IB are testing AP and IB over about 3 weeks. As the time progresses on more test are complete and thus the courses are complete. These kind of students have long completed HS graduation requirements so why insist they go to school outside of testing and incomplete classes?
Senior Skip Day is the worst kept secret at my kid’s high school. No formal date, but the kids start talking about it a month in advance. When the date is set, the seniors can’t keep it secret. They tell their BFs, GFs and siblings. Even kids from other schools know it.
It exists, but is highly discouraged by my kids’ school. I think less than 1/4 skip. (More of a thing for jocks and partiers, I guess.) My kids were nerds and they didn’t skip. They didn’t even want to because teachers made sure they would miss something if they were absent on that day.
We had it when I was in high school. I was actually sick that day–so sick I had to go to the doctor for the first time in about 10 years. The attendance clerk thought my doctor’s note was fake. I think about 1/2 or more of the seniors used to skip at my school.
Our district requires a parent note for every absence. But I refuse to lie for my kids, so in the past I just wrote notes saying “Barfly Jr. was absent on Monday because he was skipping school.” My boys enjoyed turning those notes in to the attendance office.
Some of these posts make me sad. How dare we take a day off to do something fun- especially when you’re 17/18 and the consequences are nearly zilch? Nope. Not allowed to have fun. That’s for when you’re retired after “making something” of yourself. No fun or breaks along the way! /sarcasm
I skipped quite a few days my senior year. Never enough to draw attention or get in trouble, but enough. My parents signed a waiver that allowed me to sign/call myself out of school when I was 17 because I was essentially living alone (long story). Life goes on and I have very fond memories of those times.
I think Skip Days, for seniors and others, are fine on occasion. One thing to be concerned about, though, is alcohol. Getting a ticket for underage drinking is not a good thing, especially right before graduation.
Modern Family has a senior ditch day storyline tonight.
We had one and we were told explicitly not to show up that day. So our “senior skip day” was really more official. We weren’t all breaking some rule, we were not supposed to show up that day.
My school had it, but it wasn’t officially sanctioned. I thought it was silly–and I actually liked my classes (plus I had to take a junior class as a senior for Reasons), so I went to school. Worked in my favor–our AP Lit teacher gave us all extra credit for the work we did in class that day 
But if the school doesn’t penalize at all, my all means, kids can do it. I just didn’t see the point #nerd