I’m a little astounded that parents can’t authorize student absences. For 12 years now S has been in Catholic schools that state that “parents are the primary educators of their children”. I gave S a day off early this year after several grueling days of papers and tests. He was worn out and was going to either get sick or be a zombie in the classroom. Wrote a note, excused absence. Same with the four days we took off in November - two consecutive Th/Frs - to visit two different colleges. He’s missed school for sports and club trips, too - are those a problem at other schools?
I know public school funding many places is calculated on a “butts in seats per day” basis, but there have to be exceptions or allowances somehow, especially for college visits…
Well, our crash and burn continues here. S called a school he submitted his application to-to be considered for scholarships and as it turns out, he never sent the supplemental essays and it’s too late now. This is a college in which there is no way I can afford without scholarships. So to quote Queen, “Another one bites the dust.” Community college is starting to become more and more of a reality. Lol
Our school allows 4 excused absences for college visits each year for juniors and seniors as long as you bring something on letterhead from the schools.
I had a malapropism on topic today - DH said, “we have to remember that DS will be able to grow up and find a happy life regardless of what the admissions news brings,” and I said, mindful of his one admission so far, “Yes. And if he’s a big fish in a small pond, he can rise to the top.” Oh wait. Fish rising to the top of the pond, not so great.
@Mysonsdad I am sure kid who applied to Stanford and has few 800 subject tests will not end up at cc. It still time to apply to many schools. DD still has 7 more application to do. I hope everything works out for your son.
Congratulations to all acceptances and scholarships this week. Great start of the week. Hopefully this will continues throughout the entire week.
Thinking I need to check on our absence policy. I know seniors were told that there are no make-ups (tests, assignments) for certain classes due to college visits.
My son may have missed four days of school in the last twelve years. I don’t send sick children to school but I have been blessed with very healthy kids who seem to like school. He has taken three days off this year. One to attend a STEM open house. One to have a sudden interview for a departmental scholarship, and last week he took a mental health day to get caught up on school. He has seven weighted classes this year. He has a big physics project due before Christmas. If I call the school and send a note the absence is excused.
His only EA school releasing before Christmas will post results tomorrow. They sent us both an email yesterday. I’m not going to mention it again to see if he bothers to look. He won’t hear until late March from his top 3 because they were ED schools. I guess it was a bad call not to ED his top choice. We don’t need aid but I was dying to see if he’d get any.
@Mysonsdad - something will work out. There are still many, many schools with RD deadlines floating around out there. I know that because my S has at least two (maybe three?) still to go. I’m pretty sure that this process is meant to test endurance as much as anything. Or resilience. Maybe a meal of his choice to commiserate, and then pick it up and keep going?
@Mysonsdad So sorry your son missed the deadline . Was this one of his top choices? You may want to check the status of other scholarships. It’s hard to keep up sometimes.
@mysonsdad. I am sorry another thing went wrong. My S has started using a spreadsheet to track everything. Right now he has a printout that includes specific essay prompts, dates, places to check off what is done, etc. It might help to sit down and get all his info into one place for better organization. Then you can pin it to the wall.
A school administrator once told me (in middle school) to always put down absences as out for illness. This was after I was honest about an absence (I can’t recall why we kept D out of school - I’m sure it was a valid reason on our part), but it then became unexcused. Basically, I was told to lie. Just looked up our school policy. 10 absences is considered excessive. So anything below that is apparently ok.
Wow lots happening since I checked the posts this morning. Congrats to all receiving great news. So sorry for the not so good news received. Regarding the absences…in our school a college visit is considered an excused absence (as long as you bring in proof of attendance - we do not have to even worry about that because my D’s GC knows how intense she is about this entire college process and just tells me to email him (when and where she is touring) and he will put her in as an excused absence. I cannot believe schools limiting absences for students visiting colleges…that’s just ridiculous as far as I am concerned.
We are still waiting for the decisions to come in but D is busy with assignments and EC’s so she does not seemed to be affected by the wait as much as I am!
@2manybooks I have to believe that there are ways around the strict attendance policies but I have not tried to buck the system yet this year and I imagine that the 3 unexcused no graduation walk policy is flexible depending on the circumstances. Although last year D18 and her entire high school cheer team was denied an excused absence returning on Monday from NCA High School Cheer Nationals that was a weekend long distance out of town school sponsored event (Guess bringing home a 3rd Place National title was not good enough).
D16 was accepted to the 6 year BS/DPT program at Quinnipiac today! Came with merit money for the graduate school portion too!Up until now none of the BS/DPT programs she has been accepted to carried the merit money past the 4th year undergraduate portion of the program. That might be a game changer.
Congratulations to all who have received good news! (I am not going to mention specific names, because I know I will leave someone out.) @Mysonsdad, I’m sorry to hear the latest. As others have noted, I’m sure something good will work out for your S. But I know it is so discouraging when this sort of thing happens. Sending you good thoughts.
