<p>
[quote]
I also don't understand why California cannot follow the school schedule in other states (start after Labor day and end in end of May)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>coolweather: I'm confused. What is your [nonfactual] point? Kids attend school ~180 days nationally. San Fran has an extra holiday or two, such as Chinese New Year, but the state only pays for 180 days. Adding the holidays extends the calendar, but the kids are only in school for 180 days...</p>
<p>I always ended in early june and started in late august, so I just got used to summer being about 9-10 weeks long. Now that I'm in college, my summer is close to 4 months long. It's crazy...</p>
<p>bluebayou - I already explained. Start 8/25 - end 6/18 last year for my kids compared to Start 9/4 -end 6/8 in other states. So my kids had to stay longer than 2 weeks in school. These 2 lost weeks gave me kids a hard time with their summer plans. All I want to say is kids need more summer time. It does not matter kids have to be in schools for 180 days. The last 3, 4 weeks of school year is a waste of time for my kids. By the way, my kids don't go to SF school districts.</p>
<p>With the 180 day law it's pretty much any 180 days. The local high school started August 20th, gets out June 6th. Two and a half weeks off at end of the year, a week in Feb. for winter break, a week for spring break. The time off in the middle of the year adds up.</p>
<p>If anyone else is getting out on June 8th after starting on Sept. 4, then they must not have a Spring break. Our schools start September 4 and have their last day on June 13. We have one week for Christmas break, 2 days for Presidents day weekend, two days for Thanksgiving, two days for Easter and that's it. There are a few days built into the calendar for snow and if they aren't used then the kids get out a few days earlier at the end of the year.<br>
Still too much time after the AP's are done. </p>
<p>Our kids also have required reading and sometimes paper for all honors and AP classes during the summer but I still think the kids that start earlier have a leg up on those that start later.</p>
<p>Our state has mandated that all state public schools start on Aug. 25th and not one day earlier. It used to be up to the individual county school boards but that resulted in so many different schedules that it became chaotic. Some counties were starting the first week of Aug. and others two or three weeks later. </p>
<p>This year we started on the 27th because the 25th was Sat. The last day of school for my senior S2 will be June 9.</p>
<p>for those of you who like the start earlier/end earlier schedule, can you give more reasons for it? I understand the part about test dates such as APs, but here in the NE I think the weather is better in Aug than in June and I'd prefer the after labor day start. I also spent my summers in a vacation area where workers get a preference if they can commit to stay after labor day. These days, the articles in the papers say they take fewer students because they can't work until the end of the season.</p>
<p>I'd like a slightly earlier end here in NY (maybe by curtailing the Feb break) because the late June start really interferes with many summer programs. He was hoping to be a CIT at his PA summer camp. The orientation was during Regent's exam week. One year Mathson had his last day of school on Friday and was at CTY on Monday with no break at all. (There was of course second session, but that wasn't possible that year.)</p>
<p>Weatherwise, I'm not sure it matters. It could be hot as easily as it could be cool in June or August. Since all of our buildings are air conditioned I don't know if that matters as much. By the time the end of May rolls around the kids are so darn antsy (and so are some teachers) that the last two weeks in June see to last forever. I think that the academic test dates should take precedence over weather or economic concerns. In our area most HS kids don't start working until they are 16 at the earliest anyway, most of the jobs are filled by college kids.</p>
<p>I think that when kids see the end of the school year approaching, they will start getting ansy and into summer mode whether this is May or June. They get spring fever when the weather starts getting nice anyway. </p>
<p>I think the more divergent different states/districts get, the more things like summer programs, vacation area jobs, test preps will also diverge as some try to get a leg up on others. I certainly don't think summer jobs are more important than test prep, nor do I think the schedules should be dictated from above, but the kids from more non-traditional scheduled schools will be shut out of more opportunities.</p>
<p>Florida legislature just this year changed our schedule. Prior to '07-'08 it was up to the individual county when school started. Last year we began 7/31. We also got a fallbreak in Oct., which was very nice and were out around Memorial Day. I loved it. My kids loved it. But parents, mostly of middle and elementary school age children, lobbyed for the change -- early starts interferred with family vacations with those up north, messed up sports competitions when kids made it to tournaments (regionals, states ... etc.) However, for H.S. the change will not be as good. We began 8/20 this year, and we won't get out 'til June. We cannot begin any earlier than that, I believe. H.S. lost AP class time; we lost FCAT instructional time (doesn't hurt us as D's already a jr. and passed her graduation requirements); and we lost that early start on summer jobs. However, Disney's glad ... 'cause now the kids can work more towards labor day, and they always had to scramble towards the end of the summer for workers 'cause we were on a different schedule than up north. </p>
<p>zebes</p>
<p>Let's keep the tradition. School starts in the fall and ends at the beginning of summer. That's why we have Fall semester and Spring semester. Don't let bureaucratic politicians run our schools.</p>
<p>What's a non-traditional schedule?? I could be wrong, but I think most of the East coast and the west coast have an after labor day start and a 1st or 2nd week of June end.</p>
<p>I sort of agree about Summer fever starting when the weather is nice, but if kids are taking AP tests in May and still have weeks of school left isn't that worse then starting a bit earlier and being done right after those tests?</p>
<p>What percentage of high school students take AP tests? I would assume single digits. And is there nothing left to learn in a subject after this one test is finished? Maybe it is because our school is not AP focused (small private school which does offer a dozen or so APs, but I don't know if any Jr or Sr who takes more than 2-3 at a time) but I would hope there is plenty of education that could occur after that test date for the small number of kids who are taking that test. And don't several kids then take an SAT II test in the same subject the beginning of June? </p>
<p>I think of the labor day to mid-June as the traditional schedule. I understand the history of this schedule don't apply anymore for most families. </p>
<p>I would put year round and that one school mentioned which started at the end of July (!!) in my definition of non-traditional. I see mid-August as becoming more popular. Our family took a vacation in late August a few years ago and found that hotels were shutting down their pools because their HS lifeguards, and the rest of the state, were already back in school!</p>
<p>What rubs me the wrong way is schools who move their schedule earlier to try to game the system and get a leg up in the testing arms race. Besides the AP tests which affect such a small number of kids, I really don't see the point. If a whole state or large area changes and everyone is on the same page for sports schedules that is one thing, but those kids will be left out of other summer experiences.</p>
<p>The schools in our area start in August to get a semester in before the Dec. break. They found students who get two weeks off in Dec were having trouble remembering the entire semester's worth of knowledge for finals in January, not enough time to review if the student actually took the two weeks off.</p>
<p>In our town, two public high schools, AP is pushed and since there is NO COST to the student, AP tests are STRONGLY encouraged. The school benefits from the number of kids who take the exam and the number of kids who pass the exams. So during AP exams weeks, kids do not go to school on the days of the exams, and since so many take the exams, especially soph, jr. (huge amount), seniors school learning is essentially shut down for those weeks. My D is taking 4 AP classes this year; that's 4 days of school she won't attend, and the teachers look at it as ... okay, test is over, we're done. I like what someone said about encouraging that time for SAT II subject test prep (the time after the AP exams until school ends). However, SAT II subject tests aren't even discussed with the students unless you go in with a specific question about them. When I found out about them last year and called our GC, he was like, "yeah, you can take them, but since most of our kids only apply to the state schools, which don't require them, we don't really discuss them." So, I know the idea of additional study towards them ... won't be happening. So instead of a couple of weeks wasted ... now we'll have almost a month. </p>
<p>zebes</p>
<p>When I was in high school (Florida) we had to come back after New Years and complete the first semester/take semester finals. I hated that! It was on everyone's mind the entire holiday. Even worse, some teachers scheduled the due dates for end-of-semester projects, notebook checks, etc. after the break so everyone was scrambling to get last minute work done over vacation. I like it so much better in college when you got a totally fresh start after the New Year. You have the giant push after Thanksgiving, then it's over!</p>
<p>Florida just changed their schedules, so my kids missed out on all the fun of coming back after New Years and having to tie up loose ends. They are very happy about that.</p>
<p>No matter what the current situation is, there are always people who complain and then when things get changed, they complain again. They did this with our school hours. Junior high and high schoolers weren't getting enough sleep, whine, whine, whine. The moved their day start times and now junior highers are getting home between 4:30 and 5:00. "Wahhhh. Now our kids can't do sports/dance/cheerleading/orchestra...too little time in the evenings to get everything done..." First it was too early, not it's too late. Some people are never happy.</p>
<p>It's amazing that my kids were able to start their (private school) day at 8 AM for the 6 years (7th-12th). How did they ever do it???</p>
<p>About the later calendar...it's going to be interesting to see what happens if we have another three hurricane year like we did a few years ago (knock on wood). We missed something like 10 school days between August and October that year. What are they going to do when the school year ends up slipping almost to July?</p>
<p>Here in Texas, we have the 'new law' that prohibits start date from occurring before the fourth week of August. So, this year, our kids started August 27 and will get out May 29. To accomplish this, we have two days for Thanksgiving rather than a week, two weeks for Christmas rather than three, and Spring Break coincides with Easter Holidays rather than being two separate holidays.</p>
<p>I understand the desire to start later...it was getting absolutely ridiculous here with start dates inching up to the first week of August. But, this late start is a killer...especially for those involved in anyway with football season. My son is in marching band and they literally had their first game on the fourth (!) day of school. </p>
<p>It's a tough introduction to h.s. for a little freshman. Not only are the classes more strenuous, the responsibilities and stress heightened, but now there is practice everyday after school (sometimes two sessions in one evening and some running until 9:30 at night.) We've already had two nights of homework/study run past 1 a.m. and I don't know how my son does it. It would have been nice to spend a week getting acclimated academically before launching into this hideous schedule.</p>
<p>(Oh and btw...also having a college student means I'm enduring the 'neverending summer'. The college student is home in early May and the h.s. student doesn't go back until the end of August. Unreal.)</p>
<p>Doubleplay, it is interesting about the hurricanes, after 2004 and 2005, when several weeks of school was missed each year, there was discussion here about pushing school start from mid-August to late August or after Labor Day. The reasoning was that our biggest danger of missing weeks of school was over after Labor Day - Sept 9-10 - so that if we did have a bad hurricane, the weeks of missed school would come at the very beginning of the year. In '04 and '05, school started about Aug 12/15, then the storms came on Aug 29 (Katrina) and Sept 4 (Ivan), and then kids were out for most of the rest of Sept - this effectively meant that even what had been covered early in Aug was gone by the time classes resumed in Sept.</p>
<p>It won't happen, but there has been a fair amount of discussion about it.</p>
<p>Jeez, they'd have to really push it back here, as I recall we got hit by storms in the middle and late part of September (I get them all mixed up- Jeanne? Francis? Ivan?). They'd have to start school in October and end in July if they want to avoid hurricane season.</p>