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I always feel so BAD when my son misses school when he's sick. He's 4 1/2 and goes to a special full-time preschool for children with autism. They are super strict about illnesses so when in doubt, I just keep him home. If I send him in, and then have to pick him up later in the day for illness, it's about a 15 mile drive to get him. He got the sneezes and sniffles over this past weekend and ran a low-grade fever all day yesterday. He feels SLIGHTLY warm this morning to me, even though he seems to have no temperature so far. I think the school wants them to be 24 hours fever-free before coming back, so I figured better safe than sorry. Last year, he barely missed any days of school. This year, he's probably missed 5 or 6 days so far. I know it's only preschool and he'd be miserable if I sent him, but I just always feel guilty when he misses. He'll be in kindergarten next year, and I hope he doesn't miss a lot when "real" school starts. I taught school for years before my 2nd son was born, and I remember doing the attendance on the report cards, but I really can't remember what the average absent days were for the kids (this was first grade I'm thinking about). We almost NEVER pull him out of school for anything other than sickness, although this year, I didn't pay attention to the Veterans' Day holiday schedule and we had a trip to Orlando planned and he missed one day (I thought they had Monday off, but it was Friday) - my fault completely. Next month, we're going up to Orlando again, and he's going to miss one day again.
How many days of school have your kids missed on an average?
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I think mine averages about 3 a quarter. But I am a believer that if he feels ill, he isn't going to learn, is going to be crabby and could make other sick, which could come back on him by catching it again. In addition, if he doesn't rest, he can get sicker than if he keeps pushing it (I'm the same way, but...). I will keep him home. Last week he hurt his knee at night on his bed and couldn't walk that night or the next morning. I did keep him home, doubtfully. He was OK by the afternoon, but really couldn't move much in the a.m. so I told him he had to stay in bed (no fun). I could only imagine in school, if he couldn't walk, they would send him to the nurse and she would have me come get him anyway, since he couldn't go to lunch or anything else without assistance. I would love for him to stay in school each day, but I'm realistic. I hate seeing sick kids sent to school, for their sake and ours!
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We've lucked out in that my kids don't pick up a lot of colds, so when they were smaller, they might miss 2-4 days per school year. Now they're 8.5 and 11.5 and they usually have perfect attendance.
I would try not to worry too much about absences at this stage in the game...most kids do pick up a lot of new bugs when they start preschool and it's not like they're missing trig.
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Since he's still in preschool, he's still building his resistance. I think it's better to miss than take the chance of getting other kids sick or catching other germs while he is weak from being sick. When he gets older, he won't get sick as often. I agree with Oregano. My 4 year old seems sick all the time but my 7 year old only seems to get 1-2 big illnesses a year and rarely misses school.
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What drives me absolutely nuts is that when my kids DO miss a day of school, their schools act like they have commited a crime. My daughter, who is a senior in high school, missed her FIRST day of school yesterday for the ENTIRE year. I had a call mid afternoon that I needed to get ahold of the TRUANCY dept. at the school to discuss just why she was out!!! Like none of the TEACHERS ever get sick?!?!? Give me a break. She has a GPA of 3.98 and perfect attendance until now. Don't EVEN threaten me over a sore throat!!! GRRRR......
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Okay - I am over attendance at our school. As far as Middle School, if you have 5 unexcused absences you get a letter letting you know what can happen to you if your child continues to miss school. I think that is acceptable - now lots of kids miss more than 5 days but the parents write notes and/or they have Dr. Notes. A great deal of the pressure regarding attendance is from the "no child left behind". BUT I am telling you about Middle School, not preschool. Hey don't worry!!! Preschool is just that Preschool!!! Don't worry. Let your child stay home if he does not feel good. My suggestion is to enjoy this time when attendance is not so important. Take those vacations during the off-season when the rates are good. I commend you for being so interested in the attendance of your child but I would say let it go. Soon enough they will be in school like my girls are and they feel like they cannot miss one day because they will be behind.
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If my kids aren't feeling well, I keep them out. Luckily, they have been pretty healthy. DH and I use all of our sick days on the kids and never have any for ourselves. As a teacher, I can say unless a kid has a really extended absence in the younger grades, a few days out here and there isn't going to ruin their education, IMO. Now I had one little girl who was constantly out last year and ended up being retained b/c she was so far behind...BUT mom was very obviously not reading with her or doing anything at home to help make up for such long absences (usually due to travel). This year I have a boy who is also absent a lot due to sickle cell, he is only a bit behind and the mom is really working with him. I can't imagine why a school would go nuts over having a kid out with a cold now and then. If they come, they spread it around and then you have a REAL problem...just my thoughts.
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The schools in our area are very strict about absenses (the county even has a truancy officer now), so I have a tendancy to panic if my dd has to stay home from school. My dd missed 3 days in Kindergarten, no days in first grade (but I had to check her our of school a few times thus disqualifying her from receiving perfect attendance ), and so far no days in second grade (but she's been checked out a few times so bye-bye perfect attendance). On average, I'd say that my dd only misses 1-3 days per year, but she has to be at death's door before I let her stay home from school.
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My eight year old rarely misses any days. He missed 1 day last year, but he has missed three days this year because of a stomach bug. My DD - 16 always misses about 15 days. This is because she has Crohn's Disease and gets sick quite often. When she was in middle school, they really gave me H*LL about this - even though I have Dr notes about the illness and everything in her folder. The past two years in high school - they have been super understanding about her condition. I only wish the ones who didn't understand could walk a day in her shoes when she has a flare up.