<p>My daughter took TWO full weeks off in September and October of her senior year (separate weeks) to visit east cost colleges - one time to NY & DC area, the other time to Boston area. I had absolutely nothing to do with arranging it, except that I paid the round trip plane fare for one of the visits. She made ALL arrangements with all her teachers in advance. In fact, my first contact with teachers, on parents back-to-school night, was when a teacher told me how impressed she was with my d’s organizational and planning skills – my d. had arranged to do assignments in advance, clear understanding on makeup’s for any exams, etc.</p>
<p>The only problem my d. ran into was that her dance teacher was inflexible about her grading policy and insisted on giving my daughter a B for the term because of her absences. D. was ticked off because the B was enough to knock her out of the running for salutatorian, but the grading policy for dance was in writing & pretty clear --I stayed out of it but told my d. that was just one consequence of her decision. </p>
<p>I have no idea what official school policy was and whether there were any waivers needed for my d. I assume I had to sign some sort of note to the school, but I don’t remember – my d. probably would have typed up whatever was needed and given it to me to sign. In any case it would have been truthful, since you can’t plan “sick” in advance. </p>
<p>I’m just sharing this because I think that where there’s a will, there is a way. But the “will” part in this case came from the kid, not the parent. I thought my d. should visit colleges over the summer, but she refused - she wanted to visit while the colleges were in session. I didn’t really care if she visited or not – I personally would have been happier if she had just opted to apply to and attend a UC campus, instead of insisting on visiting & applying to east coast schools. My son didn’t do any college visits until spring of his senior year – he wanted to apply first, see where he got in, and then visit the campuses that were his top 3 choices – he missed 3 or 4 days of school at most - though I think at least one of the trips was during spring break.</p>
<p>Sybbie, your suggestion about utilizing the time between when students start college and when HS classes begin is a good one, although many colleges do not offer tours and interviews during that time because they are getting their freshmen settled.</p>
<p>The NYS attendance requirement you refer to is 90 percent–or no more than 18 absences in a typical 180 day school year, which a few visits are unlikely to exceed, even with some time for illness added. </p>
<p>It is also not correct that individual absences from school at this level would reduce funding–there is no supercomputer somewhere calculating how many days each student takes off and docking funding. Funding formulas take effect when students do not attend the minimum amount of days–in your example, a school loses nothing by having a student attend 95% of school days rather than 94%.</p>
<p>Your reference to using holidays to visit local schools is correct, but irrelevant, as the issue is the difficulty of visitng distant schools; although I do not face that issue, many parents do.</p>
<p>As for teachers or administrators missing class for this purpose, many teacher union contracts grant them enough personal days to do this now.</p>
<p>You might also consider whether writing “While this may may not be a popular concept, you really have to plan” makes you sound more snotty than you intended.</p>
<p>DS applied to schools that were crap shoots. Why go see schools that he may not get in. He view that the any offers and school’s programs more important than a visit.</p>
<p>You are correct, however this policy does not give the student a “buy” to take 18 days off with out consequences. As I stated earlier, just because a student has an excused absence, does not mean that the teacher cannot fail the student for being excessively absent. Since each marking period is approximately 29 days long, depending on when one takes all of these days, a teacher can still fail a student or give a reduced grade for excess absences. I know teachers who consider more than 3 absences per marking period (which would come out to the 18 days a year you are talling about) a reduced or failing grade for excessive absences. But students do take of days when they are sick, have unexpected incidents come up in their family, they have senior cut day, they take of days to prep for the Prom (and if the prom is held on a weeknight, end up taking off the next day).</p>
<p>With the exception of medically excused absences which are categorized differently in ATS, excused absences are still charged as absences, they still show up on the student RISA, and if a student hits 20 days, a 407 will go out for Long Term Absence (LTA).</p>
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<p>What you have are days in your CAR and you accure days each month. Even if you have the days, they still have to be approved by your AP-Organization or Principal before you can take them. For example; You can have an uncharged day to attend the graduation of your children, however, you must bring in a copy of the graduation program. Because my D was graduating on a non-school day, I had to put in and have approved the days I needed to travel on the front and back end. It is not also a “given” that the days will be approved when someone wants to take them (our principal send out notes about taking days off before and after major holdiays and vacations). </p>
<p>Even if you have days in your car, you can still be docked for an unapproved absence and get a letter in your file for ecessive absences. A teacher who takes 18 days off during the school year just because they have them in their CAR, would most likely receive a “U” rating at the end of the year.</p>
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<p>The initial funding roster is set on October 31 and the attendance on this date determines whether or not you have met your roster. there are reports that are run through out the month or principals can see their attendance on a daily basis. While a school may not lose money on the day that their roster drops, they could find themselves at the end of the year short because money has been taken from their budget.</p>
<p>I do not disagree with what you say, but none of what you say supports your original claim that a student taking 5 days off to visit their out of state schools on one trip will either be endangering their schools funding or their ability to sit for the Regents exam.</p>
<p>I think we all agree that the school year should not be extended for college visits; parents should do the best they can to utilize junior and senior year holidays and breaks for college visits; and students should work with their teachers to ensure the student makes up any missed work promptly.</p>
<p>I wish we could also all agree that students looking at distant colleges–especially those with financial needs–should be given a reasonable opportunity to try to save expenses by trying to bunch their distant schools into one trip. From the replies to date, it seems that many schools do this, apparently without significant problems, and many take a wide variety of other approaches, with no one having seen a study of what percentage of schools takes each approach.</p>
<p>We just go, the D’s or S have always checked with teachers ahead of time. I even call the sibling’s “Family Weekend” a college visit, which actually it is! Around Columbus Day or Veteran’s Day is always good, but make sure to schedule any interviews way ahead of time-they get booked up. </p>
<p>This past winter, our school district lost 12 days due to the Ice Storm, a couple years before at least 5 or 6 days due to flooding in some areas. So our kids always start school BEFORE Labor Day, this year they start on August 31st.</p>
<p>Some schools down here opened Aug 3. The rest opened Aug.10. Earlier and earlier…
I used to be amazed when school started Aug 23. Now that seems late to me. Its wild</p>
<p>@calmom, Occasionally there’s a typo in a post that seems like a Freudian slip. In #41, you referred to “east cost” colleges. Yeah, QMP goes to one of those!</p>
<p>(I don’t mean to be picking on calmom–I’ve certainly added my share of typos, just none that seemed quite as apt.)</p>
<p>As a teacher, I know that it would be very difficult for schools to schedule time for college visits, given that, today, we are so test-driven (as in state testing). My son stretched his visits out over three years, starting just before his sophomore year. He left one visit for his senior year, and we did that just before Christmas since our break was a bit longer. Ironically, that school gave him the best offer, academically and financially. He moved into his dorm Sunday morning, and really likes the place. I also have an eighth grader who went on many of the visits. He knows what he likes and dislikes, so maybe we won’t be doing so many visits in the coming years.</p>
<p>Modadunn had mentioned that having a note on school letterhead sounded extreme; I have to say that at all the visits we’ve been on, the admissions desk person has asked us if we needed a note. They are used to that request since most high schools do require that when the students come back (I know all our area HS’s do.)</p>
<p>Unfortunately for us, school starts tomorrow and we don’t have those nice little fall breaks like we used to in the Northeast. No Columbus Day, Veterans Day, or Jewish holidays off here in TN. The kids have off on Labor Day, 2 days in October and then Thanksgiving. Spring falls pretty much the same: MLK, President’s Day and then Spring Break. That’s it till May
Most of the state schools have off for Labor Day, Thanksgiving, MLK & President’s Day; often the Spring Breaks coincide too. So those 2 days in October are really the only days my DD will have off without taking a day off just to visit schools.</p>
<p>Visits are overrated and I would not want to pay for Private High school week that my kid is traveling to colleges. High numbers of transfers explain why true good match could be determined only after they start attending. Some got lucky (even with not top choice), others not so with their #1.</p>
<p>LOL. Well that is definitely how I looked at them! (At the time, I felt very conflicted because my daughter was dead set on going east to school, but I felt ambivalent about expenses for her match/safety schools as compared to the UC system, where she had an edge on admission due to her high class rank. I still feel ambivalent about the money, but at least she ended up at a reach college where I have no doubt as to the quality of the academics).</p>
<p>Because colleges have their visit days at all different times during the year, they can’t accomodate everyone, and schools are mandated by their state to have a certain amount of school days?</p>
<p>Between teacher workdays, fall break if you have one, and spring break, plus the summers, you should be able to visit plenty of colleges. I’m of the opinion that one should not spend their money visiting too many far-flung colleges before they apply anyway – one should apply and then visit one’s top choices that are financially feasible after one is admitted. But then again, I came from a family that couldn’t afford to drive or fly me all over the country for colleges that I MAY or MAY not apply to, then MAY or MAY NOT get accepted to, and then MAY or MAY NOT be able to afford.</p>
<p>The exception being of course scholarship competitions that require you to come to the campus, and in that case I doubt a college-bound senior is getting enough of those invitations to threaten his or her graduation.</p>
<p>Getting a letter on letterhead isn’t special treatment or extreme. Many colleges automatically provide them in their folders that they hand out on Open House days, and even if they don’t most of them already have one typed up and just have to pick up a copy from admissions. I used to work in admissions at my alma mater and we had tons on hand.</p>
<p>My school sponsored a college tour every year and was generally pretty good about excusing one from school for college visits – of course, you had to come back and make up the work later. I don’t see what’s wrong with the system that’s already in place.</p>
<p>Juillet, can you tell us what your HS’s “college tour” consisted of? Is it the same as the “college nights”–where HS’s host colleges–that are common or do they actually tour campuses?</p>
<p>Juillet, it sounds like your HS’s system works well for you. As noted above, however, there are some families whose high schools are not as tolerant of minor absences and families which feel out of state visits prior to applying are better for them. I hope it was unintentional, but your post seemed angry at those whose circumstances or views differ from yours. For example, if a child who has spent their entire life in one part of the country wants to check out another region before applying to schools and the family can afford it, it is their decision to make.</p>
<p>And no one has suggested not meeting the mandated number of school days (which can only be done by the state) or increasing the length of the school calendar (which requires teacher union and other approvals). Instead, as shown in prior posts, there are many families reporting that their schools are not as tolerant as yours about reasonable absences.</p>
<p>When my son was a senior in high school, our problem was “Admitted Students days” at the colleges he was accepted to, which are held during the month following issuance of acceptance letters. Because we did not receive our college decisions until after our spring break, and because a couple of these “Admitted Students” days were on weekdays, we had to take him out of school for these, and one of his teachers gave him a really hard time about it. Since I would think most college-bound seniors will be experiencing this situation, and will need to take time off during the month of April, I would think high schools (and the teachers) would be accustomed to this and be a little more reasonable in their responses.</p>
<p>That’s how our school was. One teacher said something at open house about a lot of seniors missing days in April, so they do expect it. My D missed 5 school days in April due to admitted student visits, which I think was the maximum allowed to be excused absences. There is no way the school could schedule time off for everyone to coincide with each school’s visit days. We made all our initial visits during the summer, and then once the acceptances came, we felt it was important to attend to make a good decision.</p>
<p>I took my sophomore S out of school one day last April for a special college visit day. It was excused as long as he had someone sign a note that he attended.</p>
<p>We did spring break and summer visits; too bad if the campus isn’t as full as normal. Maybe when it gets closer to decision time he’ll do a “sleeping bag” weekend somewhere to see how he likes the atmosphere.</p>
<p>Our HS has excused absences for visits; you just have to fill out the paperwork. But missing a day of an AP class is almost not worth it.</p>
<p>S has to miss school one day for an Engineering College tour that is only given on Fridays. It’s NOT given on the one Friday he has off for Teacher Records Day. :(</p>
<p>Arachnophobia, yes students not graduating at all is a bigger educational issue–so are high school pregnancies and violence. They can all be discussed separately.</p>
<p>Visiting during the Summer or on the weekend does not give you a look at classes or at nearly as many students. CC visit reports often have references to kids not being interested in schools based on seeing kids who are all dressed like preppies, or include no minorities, etc. Parents should, of course, use vacations and hoilidays for visits as much as possible.</p>
<p>I agree that students should visit, if possible, before they apply–but they would still need time to visit and many parents cannot afford to visit distant schools prior to admission and varsity athletes often cannot visit during their seasons.</p>
<p>I think a high school does not have the responsibility to be reasonably flexible about allowing a family to make an informed decision that involves 4 years of a kid’s life and perhaps $200,000 of a family’s money. High schools never deny kids absences so they can attend sports events; is higher education less important than sports events? Obviously, kids should make up missed work on their own time promptly and work with their teachers.</p>
<p>Since no teacher would find a day where they had no students present, the question of paying them is moot.</p>
<p>Yes, this has been a problem for us as well. Our school only allows so many absences excused or otherwise and then students can no longer exempt semester exams - that’s a huge deal with the way our system works as it can have a critical impact on final grades. I absolutely hate the way things are set up where we are.</p>
Occasionally there’s a typo in a post that seems like a Freudian slip. In 