Should You Take Your Child Out of School for Your Trip to Disneyland?

Whether to take your kids out of school for your family trip to Disneyland is sometimes a tough decision to make. There can be both pros and cons to taking your kids out of school to visit Disneyland, and these are influenced by your children's ages, their progress in school so far this year, your specific school district's attitude towards such absences, and even your budget. If you are trying to make the decision whether or not to take your kids out of school for your trip to Disneyland, the following considerations may help you.

Does your Disneyland budget restrict you to just a day or two in the park? Obviously, the biggest advantage of taking your kids out of school for your Disneyland vacation is that it means you can visit the park during the less crowded off-season. And if your budget is quite limited for this particular trip to Disneyland, then you already know that in order to make it onto most of the attractions you will really need to visit on weekdays during the school year in order to avoid the most crowded days. Missing a couple of days of school for a family trip is acceptable in the eyes of most parents, and oftentimes your school administration won't give you any hassles over it, either.

How old are your children? Obviously, younger children are going to be less affected by any missed school days than a child in middle school or high school will be. Missing even a full week of school isn't going to cause a First Grader to miss much academically. On the other hand, a kid in high school is going to have a lot of work to make up when they get home. This honestly can cause more stress than it's worth. You can notify teachers weeks in advance and ask them for assignments that your child can take with them to complete during travel or at the hotel. But the teachers are not required to do so, and our experience has been that teachers usually will not provide assignments in advance.

Is your child already struggling to keep up in school? If you know your child is already struggling to keep up in school, then taking him or her out of school for several days to go to Disneyland obviously has the potential to make things worse. Additionally, your child's teacher isn't likely to have a supportive attitude in such a situation. The best plan of action in this type of circumstance is to make a concerted effort on your child's behalf to help them to catch up at school before your trip to Disneyland is scheduled to occur. This will likely mean meeting with your child's teacher, collecting all missed assignments, and then dedicating time in the evenings and on weekends to help your child complete them. Not only will your child feel really good about getting caught up in class, but they also won't have the stress of falling further behind looming over them while at Disneyland.

What's your schools' attitude concerning non-medical absences? Some schools are very lax when it comes
to parents taking their kids out of school for non-medical reasons, such as a family trip to Disneyland. There are teachers and school principals out there who really appreciate the educational value in family travel, even when it involves some missed school days. Other schools seem to be completely against it. So, you may want to find out where your child's school stands on the issue, before deciding whether or not it's a battle you want to pursue. Some schools require parents to submit forms outlining the educational benefits of the scheduled trip.