Should kids skip school for family trips? Education experts and parents weigh in

A few weeks before winter break began, I sent an email to each of my children’s teachers letting them know that my family was headed for an epic trip to Antarctica. It would be a highly educational trip, I assured them, before dropping the news that my kids would need to miss a few days of school to reach such a remote location.

One of my children’s teachers responded enthusiastically, noting how much my daughter would learn on the trip and assuring me that her absences would be excused. My son’s teacher, at a different school, sent an email back with a terse response, thanking me for letting her know. Midway through my trip, I received an email from his school underscoring the importance of school attendance and asking to meet when I returned.

Our trip to Antarctica wasn’t the first time I had taken my kids out of school to travel. They have missed classes to see Morocco, the Caribbean, and beyond. I try to follow some rules, such as planning trips around breaks so they don’t miss too many days at once, and asking teachers if there is any work they can do while we are away. However, the mixed reactions from teachers confused me. Why is one of my children’s schools so supportive of family travel, even if it means missing a few days of school, while the other is critical? The answer, it turns out, is complicated.

Travel company Intrepid Travel has seen North American bookings rise so much, it’s had to add more year-round trips to accommodate demand.

Research shows that attendance matters.

Kids who attend school regularly have better academic outcomes, full stop. A 2026 study by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University found that students with high absenteeism rates were significantly more likely to score below expectations in reading and literacy assessments. In 2023, Alan Ginsburg, a former director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Policy and Program Studies, found similar concerning results. According to his research, fourth graders who said they missed three or more days of school in the month before taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress scored significantly lower in reading than those who had not missed any school.

Missing 10% of the school year—which is 18 days in many school districts—for any reason can have catastrophic effects on academic performance, says Kara Stern, PhD,a former school principal, mom of four, and Director of Education for SchoolStatus, a company that works with districts across the country to improve attendance and family engagement. Stern notes that some students may miss a lot of school due to factors such as transportation issues or feeling unsafe at school. However, students who miss a significant amount of school due to a combination of travel and illness, for example, may also suffer.

Teachers see the impact of missing school for travel beyond academic performance.

Missing school for travel has consequences aside from learning loss, too. “What kids miss goes beyond content,” Dr. Stern explains. “It’s the daily practice of learning how to learn. Can I keep up when today's lesson builds on yesterday's? Do I know how to ask for help? Am I building relationships that make showing up feel worthwhile?”

“School is critical for their growth and development not only academically but also socially,” says Hannah Takajo, a credentialed K-12 educator and co-founder of CultivaTeen Roots, an online learning platform and resource for parents of tweens and teens.

Additionally, although many parents think it will be easy for students to make up for missed work, that's not always the case. “I design my lesson plans to include collaborative activities, discussions, and hands-on exploration,” says Hezekiah Herrera, EdD, an elementary school teacher, K-12 education specialist, and father of two. “I am unable to package this type of learning into a folder.”

Postcard featuring a quote by Michele over a background of colorful postage stamps.

Why do parents take their kids out of school to travel?

Despite the consequences, parents still take their kids out of school to travel. For some families, the reason is simple. Michele Treacy, a mom of two boys and founder of MRT media, regularly took her now-grown children out of school. “My mantra when my kids were little—and now that they’re grown—is spend as much time together as you possibly can, and create core memories that will live forever for you and the kids,” she explains.

Some parents travel during the school year because they can’t afford to travel during the peak travel season, which usually coincides with school breaks. Others prefer to travel off-season when crowds are lighter or when the weather is ideal at their destination. Sometimes families want to take a specific tour or cruise with set departure and return dates that overlap with school. Additionally, some parents have rigid work schedules and can’t take time off during their children’s school breaks or over the summer without risking their jobs.

No matter what the reason, data shows that more parents are taking their kids out of school to travel. According to Intrepid Travel, a travel company specializing in small-group trips, family trip bookings from North America are up 21% from last year in the first quarter of 2026 alone. Intrepid has noticed a shift and now sees more family trips filling up throughout the year, rather than just during school breaks and the summer holidays. To meet demand, Intrepid significantly expanded its family trips in late 2025 and now offers more destinations and departure dates year-round.

Are there benefits to taking kids out of school to travel?

The benefits of taking children out of school for travel are numerous, but harder to quantify. Even though Stern studies the impact of missing school for a living, she admits to having taken her kids out of school to travel. “Some experiences are genuinely irreplaceable,” she says.

When my children traveled to Antarctica, I purposefully chose a company, HX Expeditions, that provided plenty of on-board educational opportunities. Our trip included a kids-only meeting with Antarctic scientists. It also included a ride on a science boat, where we collected samples from frigid waters and examined the creatures we caught under a microscope. Other trips my kids have missed school for have been less overtly educational, but still involved plenty of learning.

“Cultural immersion experiences that occur outside of textbooks have a unique ability to foster vocabulary, global empathy, and experiential knowledge that classroom instruction cannot provide,” Herrera says. Classroom instruction cannot replicate this type of learning, he adds. Moreover, “Traveling also requires patience, adaptability, and an open mind, all important soft skills that we want our children to develop,” Takajo says.

So what’s the answer?

“Here's the uncomfortable truth: whether kids should miss school for travel depends entirely on the individual kid, family, and circumstances,” Stern says.

Before deciding whether it’s okay for their child to miss school for travel, parents “should consider their child’s current grades and educational needs,” Takajo says. “If you have a child who struggles to complete work independently and struggles to catch up, it may be much more difficult and stressful for them to miss school.”

Children in elementary school may have an easier time adjusting to missed school days. That’s especially true if their parents partner with their teachers to create a plan to help them transition back to the classroom and minimize the impact of lost learning, Takajo says. A successful plan usually involves the parent being heavily involved in making up missed work, so parents should consider their own bandwidth for support before taking their child out of school, even if the child is very young.

Bridget Shirvell, a member of her local Board of Education and author of Parenting in a Climate Crisis, found out that even preschoolers may have a difficult time missing school for travel. When her daughter was 3 years old, Shirvell took her daughter on vacation to Hilton Head, North Carolina, for a week. “She hadn't had any drop-off anxiety until I took her out of school for the week, but then, when we returned, it was hard to get her to settle back into school,” she says. “Because she hadn't had any issues when she started school, I wasn't prepared for that.”

Nevertheless, Shrivell continued to take her daughter, now 7, out of school for up to a week to travel, including trips to the Adirondacks and London. “I'm a big believer in experience-based learning, which you get through travel, but I do think the older a child gets, the harder it is to do,” she notes.

For middle and high school students, “The expectation is that they are responsible for their educational experience and outcomes,” Takajo says. “This requires supporting your child in building self-advocacy and communication skills, time management, and how to prioritize responsibilities so they are able to get back on track after an absence.” When I take my high school student out of school to travel, we talk through what she’ll miss and her plan for catching up. Sometimes this means she misses out on activities during our trip to complete school work. I trust her judgment to find the right balance, and so far it’s worked well.

Steven Griswold, the owner of Pixie Vacations, has taken his now 16-year-old daughter out of school to travel regularly. “It can be challenging to get your kids to do the make-up homework, as they can feel overwhelmed,” he says. “So we have to help sometimes break down the assignments into manageable pieces and help her get focused on just doing one make-up assignment at a time.” However, despite the struggle, Steven and his daughter think missing school to travel is worth the trade-off.

Sometimes, there are other considerations parents need to take into account. If a student has a disability, requires accommodations, or receives special education, the impact of missing school to travel may be significant, Herrera says. These students, who may have 504 Plans or Individualized Educational Plans (IEPs), can take weeks to recover. “The absence of a student with support needs does not represent a ‘pause’ but represents a full reset of the student's behavioral and academic momentum,” he explains. For these students, the benefits of missing school to travel will rarely, if ever, outweigh the benefits.

In all cases, if parents take their kids out of school to travel, “this needs to be the exception, not the norm,” Dr. Stern says.

Graph illustrating the correlation between school absences and academic performance.

Here’s the real reason why teachers may discourage taking kids out of school to travel.

Many teachers recognize that traveling is valuable for their students and can provide educational opportunities not available in the classroom. However, many parents don’t recognize the impact taking kids out of school has on teachers and the rest of the class. “When a student returns from a weeklong excursion to Iceland, the instructional time I previously reserved for all of the students in the class is now spent on providing a period of remediation for one student,” Herrera explains. This “results in a tax levied upon all of the other students in the class. The rate of the class slows significantly because of the need to accommodate the catch-up needs of the absent student.”

The impact of higher-income families taking their kids out of school to travel may strain school resources, Herrera says. He thinks it’s unreasonable for parents to ask teachers to provide work for their students to complete while they are on vacation. “When a parent requests a week of make-up work for their child, they are requesting hours of unpaid labor on the teacher's behalf,” he explains. “Teachers are already working far beyond the limits of their contracted hours.” Because teachers have to accommodate wealthier families’ vacations, students whose parents aren’t as well off may pay the price, he explains. This may further exacerbates inequities in education.

Moreover, “Because attendance is so closely connected to funding for certain schools and districts, absences have a direct impact on a school’s financial resources,” Takajo explains.

Here’s how to minimize the impact on your child’s education if you take them out of school to travel.

For families that do decide the pull kids from school to go on a trip, there are smart strategies to use to keep them from falling behind without putting undue stress on their teachers.

Find out your school’s policy regarding missing school for travel.

Start by asking your child’s school about their policy for missing school for travel. “Every school is going to be different, but these are good questions for parents to ask at the beginning of the school year or at orientation: How far in advance would you like us to notify you about travel, and what is your policy on making up work?” Shirvell recommends.

Calendar for April highlighting Spring Break.

Plan travel strategically.

Herrera recommends that parents avoid taking their kids out of school to travel during the first three weeks of school when students are establishing routines and developing relationships. During the rest of the school year, parents should plan strategically to avoid missed instructional time. I do this by planning trips around long weekends or school breaks so my kids only miss a few days of school instead of an entire week at a time.

Additionally, “For middle and high school students, parents should be aware of timing, so that their child is not missing important assessments such as midterms, final exams, and AP tests,” Takajo explains.

Ask your child’s teacher about key concepts they will miss, and work collaboratively.

“Respectfully collaborating with the school can set a positive tone and show the school that parents value their child's education,” Takajo says. Instead of demanding that your child’s teacher compile a packet of make-up work, “A better request would be, ‘Can you tell me the three key concepts you'll be covering the week after next?’ I'd like to see if we can incorporate those topics into your learning while we are on vacation,” Herrera says. This approach establishes a partnership with the teacher and places no demands upon the teacher to complete make-up work.

Create educational opportunities during travel.

Some trips, like the one my family took to Antarctica, are inherently educational. Other trips may involve going to museums and learning about history. However, any trip can involve opportunities to learn, Herrera says.

“While on vacation at Disney World, the student could be responsible for managing a daily budget, reading a transit map, and planning the route from one land to the next,” Herrera suggests. “These are examples of applied math and executive functioning skills in action.”

Create a narrative log.

While on vacation, ask your child to “capture photographs of signs, menus, and monuments and write a single-sentence caption for each,” Herrera recommends. “This will allow the student to maintain writing fluency and real-world literacy without placing any additional demands upon the teacher.”