Travel With Kids: Skipping School

When my kids were little, I talked a big game about pulling them out of school for travel. Not for me a life that revolved around school calendar. There was more to education than the classroom. And so on.

Fast forward a few years.

I don’t know about you, but my kids get two weeks off at Christmas, a week in February, ten days for spring break, and eleven weeks of flipping summer vacation. In a perfect world, I would rather have acupuncture of the eyeballs than pull them out of school for even one day more.

I don’t live in a perfect world.

There are as many reasons to pull kids out of school as there are places to go. Family reunions, cheaper off-season rates, weddings, funerals, airline blackout dates to name just a few.

Only you can decide whether the unique opportunities that travel offers are worth missing school for. Is your child anxious about school? Struggling in math? Often ill? She may not be the best candidate for prolonged absences. And what about those unique opportunities? A trip to Cairo is one thing. A trip to Cancún is quite another.

When to go
Assuming you have any say in the matter, it’s better to miss the end of the term than the beginning. Not much academic happens in the days just before winter, spring, and summer breaks. Also, it’s easier for your child to rejoin the class after a break than mid-term. Check the school calendar for standardized testing dates before inking anything into your calendar.

Independent study
Schools take a dim view of kids missing class for travel, and many public schools don’t get funding if your kid doesn’t show up. Debbie DeSoto Kundrat signed an independent study contract with her daughter’s school for a family ski trip to Taos in February. “We did our homework and handed it in.Then the teacher reported back to the administration, and the absence was excused.” Check with your school district, policies vary.

Don’t ask don’t tell?
As tempting as it is to just throw up your hands and call in sick, it’s a bad idea. Kalee Tock wants her kindergartener to see the world. She also wants to teach him about responsibility. “We want to emphasize the priority we give to his education by arranging our schedules around the school's schedule,” she says. What about when that’s not possible? “Tell the truth,” says Jane Rytina.“ Children learn more from what we do than what we say.” And they are always watching. ■

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Jamie Pearson is a writer, mother of two, and the founder of travelsavvymom. She has traveled extensively with and without her children.

Her top three pieces of family travel advice are 1) Never leave home without peanut butter, 2) No child is too big for a stroller, and 3) Bring plenty of new toys—$50 for three pounds of plastic crap will seem like the deal of the century at 3am in a London hotel.