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 Professional Amateur
Posts: 6750
    
Location: Oklahoma | The Child Gone Wild has really good grades and does her homework PRIOR to taking off for a weekend barrel race. I am having trouble with the school. We had a meeting today to discuss getting her absence situation figured out. I was informed that they have 2 athletes working toward Olympic try outs that miss a lot of school due their practice, etc., but I'm being hassled over the Child Gone Wild and her barrel racing. Mind you, this is middle school, we haven't hit high school yet.
Any guidance / info here? She could be home schooled, but then I would need medication or start drinking because that would make me nuttier than I already am! ;)
I will be prank calling my teacher friends, but I thought I would start here.
Edited by Pocob 2015-11-05 1:58 PM
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 617
Location: London Ontario | There was a really neat letter floating around for parents for their teachers explaining how important this sport is. it also gave the parents contact info and the dates they would be missing so the teacher knew in advance. Maybe try googling it? |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 434
Location: Northwest Florida | She could do what I did - make friends with a doctor's kid. Get all the written Dr excuses you need. Let the barrel racing begin. 
On a serious note- If they won't excuse them the only option I would know of is homeschooling. It's hard to say, whether or not I agree with the public school attendance policy. On one hand, it seems if they can keep their grades up then attendance shouldn't matter. On the other hand, school is meant to prepare you for college or a career, both of which require attendance. Good luck to you and Child Gone Wild! |
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 Strong Willed Woman
Posts: 6577
Location: Prosser, WA | Good luck. Always interesting how schools pick and choose what is an acceptable absence and what is not. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | BigStarBound - 2015-11-03 2:49 PM She could do what I did - make friends with a doctor's kid. Get all the written Dr excuses you need. Let the barrel racing begin. On a serious note- If they won't excuse them the only option I would know of is homeschooling. It's hard to say, whether or not I agree with the public school attendance policy. On one hand, it seems if they can keep their grades up then attendance shouldn't matter. On the other hand, school is meant to prepare you for college or a career, both of which require attendance. Good luck to you and Child Gone Wild!
Edited by Three 4 Luck 2015-11-03 3:06 PM
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Professional Amateur
Posts: 6750
Location: Oklahoma | Exactly! I even told them I am preparing her for college and a career. She knows how to communicate, schedule, budget, cook, clean, keep track of things and be responsible. There are other kids in her school already pregnant (this is middle school. . 6th grade!), some kids do not have good grades and do not have engaged parents that are raising productive citizens. She is not an academic problem, behavior problem, etc. She's a good kid. They took her out of class and put her into "In School Detention" and counted that as an additional absence because she was in detention! I was informed today that it doesn't really matter at this point if she fails all of those classes because she will not be held back. Middle school doesn't count for transcripts she will just not be able to make honor roll, etc. They cannot take her knowledge away from her. SMH  |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 617
Location: London Ontario | Shut the front door...6TH GRADE?!!?!?!?1 |
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Veteran
Posts: 249
Location: Oklahoma | Had the same problem in high school, I had good grades and had a ton of absences. I ended up getting my Ag teacher to excuse my absences, he said he could excuse them because the events I hauled to had a state finals. He said that if they wanted to push the issue we could make them form a high school rodeo team and the school would have to buy a truck and trailer. I don't know if what he said was really true, but it might be an angle you could try.
Edited by Zinger 2015-11-03 3:11 PM
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 Expert
Posts: 1898
| Every state and school board/district attendance policies are different.
Contract school work is something you may want to look into if your district offers it. You can pull a contract for "x" amount of days, this allows a student to complete their work while on the road and still get attendance credit for it. The downfall is some district and states limit how many times a student can be out on a contract throughout a year. Our district requires a contract for a minimum of 5 consecutive days and a maximum of 10. I do believe however, they can pull as many contracts as necessary.
When I was in high school I had a boy in one of my classes who was trying to qualify for the Winter Olympics. Because of his traveling schedule the school board made a special exemption for him. For the exemption he had to petition the school board, attend the school board meeting and prove that he was a serious competitor. For the exemption he had to attend school every day he was not on the road or have a doctor's note stating he was not able to attend school, he had to complete all of his school work on time, maintain a 3.0 gpa and document what he was doing on the days he did not attend. I don't remember what the exemption was actually called. This was, dare I say, 15 years ago so it's possible this is no longer a viable resource.
Be careful with the attendance issue, some district can and do hold parents financially responsible or have the court sentence them to jail time. It's a load of bull and exceptions should be made when a student is thriving academically.
Homeschooling, or a private academy ($$$) might be your best bet if you want to avoid being the dog or pony in a circus act.
Edited by cyount2009 2015-11-03 3:22 PM
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12841
| In Texas you can only miss some many days per semester or you do not get credit for the semester. It is like 8 days. One friend of mine went to a Christian school so she could miss when she had rodeos. Find an accredited private school |
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Expert
Posts: 1695
Location: Willows, CA | We had the same issues with my daughters when they were in High School. They went to the High School Rodeo National Finals five times between the two of them. The school liked to make a big deal about absences even though they had great grades. You are right about ADA money being a big thing. My youngest daughter won the High School Finals her senior year, and the school then made a big deal about having a National Champion. They want it both ways. |
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 Porta Potty Pants
Posts: 2600
| My niece and nephew homeschool. Not sure what program they use but they travel all the time. Works for them. Wouldn't work for my son as he is a social kid and not into rodeo ...
Edited by azsun 2015-11-03 3:29 PM
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Professional Amateur
Posts: 6750
Location: Oklahoma | I'll get it all lined out for this semester and I don't see it being an issue in the future, but the Child Gone While earned her honor roll grades, etc. and she is going to keep that status because I will fight for her to keep it. This is not her fault. Trying to take away what I have taught her to work for (good grades and what she gives up in order to barrel race). In order to succeed you need to be disciplined. She gives up school dances and other activities to focus on riding. We have been in communication with the school since before school started and asking what we needed to do to prevent any issues. We have been doing what we were told to do and gotten conflicting instructions from the school. When I mentioned home schooling. . I was told NO. .we will work with you, she's a good student. Yup, she has good state test scores.
I was just seeing what other people have done to get through this. Usually it's not a big deal. She doesn't get sick and uses her days for barrel races.
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 Off the Wall Wacky
Posts: 2981
Location: Louisiana | Zinger - 2015-11-03 3:09 PM Had the same problem in high school, I had good grades and had a ton of absences. I ended up getting my Ag teacher to excuse my absences, he said he could excuse them because the events I hauled to had a state finals. He said that if they wanted to push the issue we could make them form a high school rodeo team and the school would have to buy a truck and trailer. I don't know if what he said was really true, but it might be an angle you could try.
Totally illegal but my Ag teacher would cover for me. She'd write a note to my last hour teacher, saying I had a project or something to work on in her class. I'd go out the back and mama would slow down and I'd jump in lol.
We were a small school and I was one of their "money kids", I made straight As, was in gifted classes, taking college classes, and had the highest ACT scores in my class. So they kinda ignored my antics lol. |
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I AM being nice
Posts: 4396
Location: MD | My high school (and middle school) had exemptions in place for those who were working towards a career. I could get absences excused, but had to turn in copies of entries, proving that I was going to attend a show. I also had to jump through a billion other hoops. I had a private tutor on the road and always had my work done on time, if not ahead. There were still a couple of semesters when I had to appeal to the school board for having missed too many days, but they were always taken care of. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 927
Location: Iowa | If it's a public school, homeschool her when she has to be on the road. When things slow down, re enroll her. They will excuse the time she's gone because they won't want to do the paper work everytime you pull her and re enter her into the public school system. I've seen kids come and go 4'xs in a school year.
Edited by memory 2015-11-03 5:07 PM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1131
| I'm from Indiana, and am now a college freshmen. I started hauling competitively when I was a sophomore in high school. I did miss a lot of school. I was an average A/B student with an attitude, it was my way or the high way and the school knew that I didn't give two flying craps what they had to say about it. I was on an 'attendance contract' for basically all year, and had probably 30 after school detentions assigned to me. know how many I went to?? a big whopping ZERO. I told them to bite me, and shove all of them where the sun don't shine. I got my academic honors diploma in May and was in the top third of my class. That worked for me, but I'm also from a small town and as a senior, my history teacher became the dean of students and let me do whatever without a single word about it. haha He rocked. |
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Expert
Posts: 1561
| Meanwhile theyre letting Kaitlyn Jennar wannabes full access to locker rooms in schools. Private or internet school is the only way to go. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1440
Location: Texas | I am totally going to be the odd man out on this one. I am so happy that your kiddo is making great grade that is awesome! And I will also say being around the horses and hauling is probably making her somewhat responsible. BUT what you you really teaching her about rules and respect for rules. If the school says you have to be there X amount of days is t it irresponsible to say to her " don't mind them we have a rodeo to go to". Depending on what kind of career she goes I to she may not be able to have such a flexible schedule. With the precedence you are setting I see a lot of calling in sick or having to change jobs in her future. That's just my take and I wasn't brought up from a young age around horses but it seems to me school should be your first and foremost concern for your daughter as that is where colleges and future employers will look. |
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 I Prefer to Live in Fantasy Land
Posts: 64864
Location: In the Hills of Texas | I think all kids need to suffer like I did and have to attend school and ride a bus an hour in the morning and an hour at night. LOL |
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