School Troubles?

Originally Posted By vbdad55

schools absolutely lose funding monies on a per day basis when kids are absent - they do in Illinois I can tell you for a fact. I am a school board member and deal with this question all the time.

It is the reason here if we end up with snow days in the winter, kids have to go extra days in June. There is a set number of days kids must attend class to get full funding - it is driven from the absence rate.

In the city of Chicago itself - some areas have horrendous absence rates, especially at the beginning of the school year - they have offered contests for things like ipods etc , but the kids have to be there the first day of school to have a chance to win - all in an effort to drive up attendance the first day.

warning legaleze below - but statefunding IS directly affected by absence rate -- check the web site for your local state administration of school boards. i.e. in Illinois it is the IASB


""Equalization is still an issue . Base revenue limits were
rebenched in 1998-99 to offset the exclusion of excused absences
pursuant to SB 727 (Rosenthal), Chapter 855, Statutes of 1997.
Under the SB 727 rebenching, a school district's base revenue
limit was adjusted upward to offset the loss of excused
absences, based upon a district's excused absence rate in








AB 193
Page 3

1996-97. Consequently, school districts with high excused
absence rates that year received high increases in their base
revenue limits, while those with low excused absence rates
received low increases in their base revenue limits. Due to
this, some districts that were at or above the state average now
have base revenue limits below the statewide average, while
quite a few districts that were below the state average and
received equalization aid multiple times in prior years now find
themselves above the statewide average.

Under the SB 727 rebenching, a school district's base revenue
limit was adjusted upward to offset the loss of excused
absences, based upon a district's excused absence rate in
1996-97. School districts with high excused absence rates that
year received high increases in their base revenue limits, while
those with low excused absence rates received low increases in
their base revenue limits. The result of this was that some
districts that had formerly been "low revenue" became "average
or high revenue" while other districts that were "average or
high revenue" became "low revenue." The committee has received
numerous letters from the districts that were adversely affected
by the SB 727 shifts.

 

Originally Posted By vbdad55

<I just read that link. Woah! That's not how it is in my state (Arkansas).

Schwarzanazi's really kinda' insane, huh?

Is he still spending your retirement money?<

It's like that in Illinois also...

 

Originally Posted By Labuda

^^^ Texas, too.

 

Originally Posted By davewasbaloo

This happens in the UK too, and schools have started to fine parents for taking their kids out. We are seriously considering home schooling as I cannot always take leave during the school holidays, and kids seem to only learn how to pass tests these day, not about life. I will take my kids out whenever I darn well please. I wish we had year round school with an alloted number of days that could be booked off with advanced warning. Right now, the world seems to stop functioning during the school holidays and it totally sucks.

 

Originally Posted By sun-n-fun

In New York as well. That is why our 1st period attendance is so important. If we forget to submit it right away, they call us. That is what determines the "daily numbers". But in the district I live and the one where my kids attend (which are 2 different districts), I don't think too much is done unless it starts to get abused.

 

Originally Posted By davewasbaloo

School attendance is indeed important, as are the child protection issues associated with them. But there needs to be different levels of acceptability. Personally I think I learnt far more travelling with my family then I ever did in a classroom. I was always so board in the classroom while waiting for the other kids. thankfully the GATE programme made life a lot more bearable.

 

Originally Posted By LESOS

I apprieciate and respect all of your input, Thank You all so much! Here is a few of my thoughts I gave the school and a little more info.

My daughter is in a Special Ed class, this trip is not happening during school times because of the money issue...although the money saved is amazing and leaves us extra to spend elsewhere! We are going during off season because going during peak vacation season would not be a good experience for her. I realize there will still be crowds, but we are crossing our fingers that they will be smaller crowds. She loves anything Disney related and thinks going to the Disney Store is a trip to Disney World! This is a surprise trip for her and her sister,and even if all she gets to do is see that Mouse, the benefits way outweigh her missing 4 days of school. She is a pretty near perfect attendance student, hardly ever gets sick thankfully!
My plan always was for her to do a picture journal with a one or two sentence explanation of something new she saw or learned that day. (The teacher liked this one very much!) They will OK her going I am sure. I guess I just started getting the panic because I felt a little(very little) guilty about her missing 4 days because it is going to be out of her structure and routine. But I am certain it will be Ok once she figures out where she is!

I agree with year round school! Again Thank you all so much for your support...especially the teachers who said Go for it!

 

Originally Posted By davewasbaloo

Lesos - havingtaken special needs clients to Disney parks, I can say you are likely to have one of the best times of both hers and your lives! Have a great time!

 

Originally Posted By sun-n-fun

You definately made the right choice. I know you will all have a great time!!!I never complain about the amount of time off I get as a teacher, but sometimes wish I could go to WDW at times that aren't so busy.

 

Originally Posted By layna

I'm not really finding much in my state. I did find something about funding for special needs students based on something about days enrolled and absences, but there is so much information here, I'm having trouble deciphering it.

There is not a huge emphasis placed on attendance here, like all of you in NY, CA, and IL are saying are in your states. We have a huge absentee problem. I didn't realize that it was linked to funding, and I'm now wondering why I am just now hearing this on a Disney board of all things!!

The policy in my district, and it is one of the largest districts in the state, unless I'm mistaken, is that you can have no limit on excused absences. 5 excused absences can be a written note from parent only. The rest have to be dr's note, funeral notice, court document, etc. As long as they have the documentation, they are fine. If they have more than 5 UN-excused absences, it is at that point that they get a No-Credit for the year and have to repeat the year.

I had no idea about the funding issue.

 

Originally Posted By beamerdog

LESOS, I have taken both my sons out of school when they were younger to go to WDW. They were both in a special ed school.

The picture journal is what we did in the early grades. In addition to their own drawings, we used cut up souvenirs from the parks (maps, schedules, etc.). Map reading is a great skill to learn. Schedules can be looked at in ways to teach basic arithmetic. Squished pennies are also a good way to start a journal entry.

Just a little tip. The kids were often too tired at the end of the day to focus on the journal. So we had them take a break in the afternoon (before swimming, which tired them out). Sort of milk, cookies, and journal time, lol.

Hope you have a wonderful trip!!

 

Originally Posted By ourmagicears

Okay I just re-read my post.....
Sorry "passed" yikes! >>>> "past"

 

Originally Posted By Tigger-n-Pooh

I don't know if anyone has said this, but have her go to the animation academy and learn to draw a character for "art class" If you're on the DDP have her calculate how much each meal would've cost out of pocket and measure the savings at the end of the trip.

In WS have her talk to a CM from each country and have them tell her about some of the major differences between their home and living here.

History - attend the hall of presidents and american adventure to learn a little about american history.

 

Originally Posted By jkayjs

Go to Inoventions. They have an area on fire safety and many other exhibits right up any educational systems ally.

 

Originally Posted By NikkiLOVESMickey

We're taking my nephew out of school for two days (Friday and Monday) to take a short weekend trip to WDW during the holidays. He's only going to be in 2nd grade and he's made straight As two grading periods in a row, so I don't think two days will have an adverse affect on him.

 

Originally Posted By DVC_dad

This post is going to sound condescending but it isn't meant that way.

This entire thread outlines some of the reasons that make me loathe public schools.

Now take into account, I live in Georgia and our public school system ranks like...I dunno 45th or 48th?

Our state funding doesn't work on a per day formula. In other words there is no penalty to the school if a kid misses days. The formula here uses number of kids enrolled plus the teacher salaries are impacted by scores from standardized testing.

Now having said that, our kids in public schools here get standardized testing probably 20% of the time they are in school and it drives me nuts, or it used to until we left. When it got to the point that my 1st grader was being tested a whole week with "practice tests" to prepare him for the "real" tests, well that was the last straw for us.

The nature of our business is that we cannot go on vacation when school is out. We must go while school is in, if we go for a week.

I love the schools that my children attend now. In fact all of my 6th graders teachers emailed class notes and one even emailed a voice recording of his history lecture to my son daily! When we came back from vacation my son wasn't that far behind, other than some written assignments which they gave him 2 weeks to complete on his own time.

I don't know the answer to the mountain of ills that public schools bring, and private schools are far from perfect as well, but there has to be a better way.

Again, remember before throwing stones at me, I'm coming from the viewpoint of a parent in one of the poorest public educating systems in the Union.

I'll have to admit, other than my 6th grader being about 2 full grade levels ahead at this point, I love the ability to be able to pull him from school and go to WDW and get full cooperation from the teachers, not condemnation.

 

Originally Posted By FenwayGirl

Our school system frowns on taking your kids out of school,but I refuse to go to WDW during the summer or school vacation. Our oldest is never sick, so I don't feel too guilty taking her out of school...and I feel your frustation with the tesing. We have MCAS here in Massachusetts and we spend the whole year getting ready to pass these 2 weeks of tests.. too much stress!

 

Originally Posted By rockcow1

I remember the mcas when we lived in Mass. Here in Colorado it's the CSAPS. My kids also take "practice" tests. In upper grades kids will fail the trimester if they have 5 days of unexcused absences. Thus, the June trip to WDW. In California my kids did year round school. I loved it. They had February, June and October. The perfect months to go visit my dad in Orange County and see Disneyland.