Senior Skip Day

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Senior Skip Day (or Senior Ditch Day or Senior Cut Day) is a tradition in some American high schools where (nearly) the entire senior class will absent themselves from school on a pre-determined day. The skip day is normally picked close to graduation to give senior students a "day off" prior to entering the periods of final examinations. Some schools have it as the first day following the senior prom, or, some schools have a senior skip day related to the graduation year. For example, graduates for the year 2005 would hold their Senior Skip Day on 05-05-05, or May 5. In years where that takes place during the summer, like 2006 (for some schools), it might be something like 03-03-06 because 03+03=06. It is sometimes followed or preceded by a "Senior Prank", where the members of the student class will play a trick or prank on the school administration.

School administration reactions can vary greatly in response to Senior Skip Day. Some schools openly encourage the practice, helping the students pick a day to take off and advising teachers not to schedule quizzes or exams on the given skip day. Other schools, however, may severely punish students for willfully being absent from school to the extent of assigning detention or even going so far as to provide a failing grade or withdrawing a college recommendation.

The origin of Senior Skip Day is unclear, but the practice has been in effect since at least the late 1960s. The film Ferris Bueller's Day Off was a catalyst for several Senior Skip Days in the 1980s and mid 1990s.^{[citation needed]}