Parents defend taking their kids out of school for family vacations: 'Booking flights 4 days later to match their school's vacation was going to cost me $7,000 more'

Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor

Oct 16, 2025 8:00 AM EDT

Taking your kids out of school to go on vacation can be controversial in some circles. A lot of people think there is plenty of time during the summer, Winter Break, and Spring Break to travel with your kids, so parents shouldn't take them out of school for a vacation.

My public school district made the smart move of extending Thanksgiving Break to a whole week instead of just two or three days. The logic was that parents were already taking their kids out of school for vacations during that week, so they might as well give us that time off. That extra week of vacation time allowed my family to travel to England, Paris, and Italy during a time of year when most Americans weren't traveling internationally. We didn't have to miss school for any of it, and made memories that will last a lifetime.

But what about kids who go to schools with less generous vacation policies? Truancy laws can be overly strict towards families who don't deserve the threat of going to court because their kid was sick too many days or missed a week of school for a family vacation. Is it so wrong to opt out of school for something that brings so much value to families?

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The parents in this story certainly think that they have every right to pull their kid out of school whenever they please. They were enraged when a principal tweeted her frustration with parents taking their kids out of school for unnecessary reasons, like family vacations, in the middle of the school year.
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