Our trip is two weeks away, and I spoke with someone who worked at my child's school about missing while we were gone. She told me to lie. She said the policy had gotten so bad that everyone got 0s for an unexcused absence, even kindergartners. What?! She said to tell them that our child was sick. I wanted to be able to work with the school during the absence, but now I feel guilty about this lie. I'm going to have to even ask my kids to lie when they come back if the teacher asks why they were out. This is not right. The school systems get money for attendance, so they don't allow any room for family time. I feel like they are getting too far into a family's business. My husband says if they push it too far we'll homeschool. They punish everyone instead of dealing directly with the people who have excessive absences. I take school very seriously and don't let my children miss unless they're sick or the few days a year we go on a trip, but I'm very angry about this policy. It's putting a damper on my upcoming trip.
One of the teachers complained about their school's policy at church one night, saying that kids were coming to school sick. She had one with 104 temp. that week who said he'd be fine and that the day was almost over.