Should kids miss school to travel? It may be controversial, but I recommend it!
Important note, before we do a deep dive: You know your child best. If missing school causes stress for them, then this might not work for you, and that’s ok. The strategies below require missing some school, but they help you to minimize the number of missed days – to make it more manageable.
I’m a big supporter of taking kids out of school for travel (spoken as a former teacher who’s married to a teacher, and also the daughter and granddaughter of teachers. Education runs deep around here!). Travel offers some of the BEST education.
Ok, let’s back up a bit. Why take kids out of school for travel? Why not just travel during summer or school breaks? Because unfortunately, those breaks are high-demand travel times, which means higher prices and heavier crowds. If you’re planning an Orlando trip, you can enjoy infinitely more pleasant weather by visiting in the November – March time frame, and avoiding the summer swelter.
As my kids have gotten older, making up schoolwork is more complex. To minimize the missed school days, we aim to schedule travel for when they have at least 1 day off from school, while avoiding the classic (and crowded) school breaks.
Here are the dates to travel to minimize missed school and avoid the heaviest crowds/highest prices. (The first 3 might surprise you, since they’re holiday weekends. These times may see a slight surge in crowds, but nothing like what you’ll experience with the “dates to avoid.”)
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Martin Luther King weekend
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Memorial Day weekend
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Labor Day weekend
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Week after Thanksgiving (If you live in Western PA like me and have the Monday after Thanksgiving off from school.)
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My personal favorite: Any “random” dates your school has off. Go over your school calendar with fine-toothed comb! Example: My kids have the first Monday & Tuesday in November off for Election Day. This is a GOLDEN time to travel. Perhaps a teacher in-service day. Check your calendar and capitalize on those days!
And here are dates to avoid – the popular school break travel times that equal high crowds and prices:
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Thanksgiving break
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Christmas/Winter break
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President’s Day weekend
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Spring break (This varies by school, but the weeks surrounding Easter tend to be the worst. If your spring break is far removed from Easter, you make be ok.)
My tips on how to prep for missed school:
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Fill out any Trip Request form that your school requires in plenty of time. Ours needs to be submitted at least 2 weeks before travel.
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Communicate with your child’s teachers about their planned absence. Some teachers will send work in advance so kids can get a head start. Others will give the work after your return. You may get the occasional unicorn teacher who just “blesses and releases” them for travel with no makeup work, but don’t expect this!
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Set expectations with your kids. They will have makeup work to do, but you’ll help them to pace themselves and get it done. Baby steps.
No matter what timing you decide on, I am here to help you plan your next vacation. As your travel advisor, you can ask me questions, bounce ideas off of me, and lean into my experience to help you craft your vacation. We’ve got this!
Samantha Booth
Independent Travel Advisor
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(412) 215-4354 | samantha@mainstreetmagicllc.com |