Why do K-12 schools start so early in the morning?

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Current Events » Why do K-12 schools start so early in the morning?
I was reading the daylight saving topic and someone using the old KIDS WALKING TO SCHOOL IN THE DARK argument when I remembered how early my grade schools start times were.

I think it was 7-2:30 for elementary school and 7:30-3 for junior high & high school. I had to wake up at 6-6:30 to eat breakfast, get dressed, and commute to school

My Corporate America job is 10-6. Occasionally maybe 9:30-5:30 or 9-5 if there were special meetings.

Ive read a number of reasons for why schools had to start so early. None of them made sense to me. My school district already staggers the school buses, so no reason they couldnt start at 8/830 instead. The percentage of kids with after school jobs/camps/sports/whatever was in the minority. Any parents who picked up their kids at 3 would have to return to work until 5/6pm, so most of my coworkers with kids use daycares or nannies.

Seems like torturing kids with early start times for no reason
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A high school history teacher of mine explained that it's supposed to fit into the five-day work week of parents. Children wake up, get ready for school and get taken to school, and in theory it wouldn't interfere too much with parents who generally have to be at work between 8-10.

So basically children are being forced to wake up early so their parents don't potentially miss a half-hour of productivity lmao
Thanks for reading!
CRON posted...
A high school history teacher of mine explained that it's supposed to fit into the five-day work week of parents. Children wake up, get ready for school and get taken to school, and in theory it wouldn't interfere too much with parents who generally have to be at work between 8-10.

So basically children are being forced to wake up early so their parents don't potentially miss a half-hour of productivity lmao

Its this, plus by getting the teachers in early you can squeeze more hours out of them, which is essentially the same issue.
Like 8 or so. Not a big deal, it's good for them.
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Its so adults can get their kids to school and then get to their jobs
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Are you *sure* your elementary school started at 7:00 AM? That's incredibly early for an elementary school. My entire teaching career, secondary schools have started between 7:20-8:00, and the elementary schools almost always start later because the school buses pick up the high schoolers first.
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SSj4Wingzero posted...
Are you *sure* your elementary school started at 7:00 AM? That's incredibly early for an elementary school. My entire teaching career, secondary schools have started between 7:20-8:00, and the elementary schools almost always start later because the school buses pick up the high schoolers first.

Ive taught in primary schools that started at 7.
So the kids' parents can slave away more of their lives for the sake of making red line go up another tiny fraction of a percent before the end of the fiscal quarter.
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SSj4Wingzero posted...
Are you *sure* your elementary school started at 7:00 AM? That's incredibly early for an elementary school. My entire teaching career, secondary schools have started between 7:20-8:00, and the elementary schools almost always start later because the school buses pick up the high schoolers first.
Yes. And strangely, my school district had elementary schools start before junior high & high schools.
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I remember my high school had a precise 8:23am start time and I think my middle school was 7:30am. I can't remember beyond that.

Those times aren't bad at all. Wake yo ass up.
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CRON posted...
A high school history teacher of mine explained that it's supposed to fit into the five-day work week of parents. Children wake up, get ready for school and get taken to school, and in theory it wouldn't interfere too much with parents who generally have to be at work between 8-10.

So basically children are being forced to wake up early so their parents don't potentially miss a half-hour of productivity lmao
Are there that many corporate jobs that require being at your desk by 8? My previous jobs were 10, 10 and 930, except one-off meetings. But even for 8-4 or 8-5, students getting off at 2-3 means parents would still need afternoon daycare, or picking up their kids & returning to work to finish their shift. What if students started later but there was an option for morning day care instead?
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TheSuperSilver posted...
I remember my high school had a precise 8:23am start time and I think my middle school was 7:30am. I can't remember beyond that.

Those times aren't bad at all. Wake yo ass up.
Im glad I dont have to wake up at those hours anymore. Adult life > student life.
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when i was in high school we got there at like 7 and were out by 2
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iGenesis posted...
Are there that many corporate jobs that require being at your desk by 8? My previous jobs were 10, 10 and 930, except one-off meetings.
you are not this oblivious

But even for 8-4 or 8-5, students getting off at 2-3 means parents would still need afternoon daycare, or picking up their kids & returning to work to finish their shift. What if students started later but there was an option for morning day care instead?
Its a lot more work getting kids ready for school than them getting dropped off somewhere (like afterschool care, home, or a friends)
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K-5 started at 8am, 6-8 started at 9am, and 9-12 started at 7:30am.
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7:15 in middle school and after, busses drop kids off at 7:00

honestly cant remember elementary times
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Mt K-12 school started at 9am.

Middle school started around 8am and high-school 7am.
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CRON posted...
A high school history teacher of mine explained that it's supposed to fit into the five-day work week of parents. Children wake up, get ready for school and get taken to school, and in theory it wouldn't interfere too much with parents who generally have to be at work between 8-10.

So basically children are being forced to wake up early so their parents don't potentially miss a half-hour of productivity lmao

Well, they have to. It's against the law for children to be left alone at home. Or left to walk to the school bus stop unattended.

So they have to go to school before the parents get to work.

Make it legal to leave children unattended at home and legal for them to walk to the bus stop alone... and school hours can be different than parental work hours.
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Had to be at bus stop no later than 6:50am for high school, and school started about 7:25am.
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The primary purpose of school is basically state sanctioned childcare that aligns with the standard parent work schedule, & acclimating children to the work schedule most of them will have to look forward to in adulthood. The lack of schools during covid, revealed this quite clearly.
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I don't remember my earlier schools but highschool for me started at 8:50
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My school started at something like 8:30 - 9am and got out around 3-3:30. We had to be in formation like 10-20 minutes before that that since it was a military school. I don't remember exactly, its been almost 20 years.
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Glob posted...
Ive taught in primary schools that started at 7.

iGenesis posted...
Yes. And strangely, my school district had elementary schools start before junior high & high schools.

I will agree that 7AM is way too damn early for a primary school. Although, from my experience, usually everyone agrees that that time is way too early, and there's a good chance that there are some logistical reasons that they start that early (i.e. shared bus company with another school district).

I teach in a school district where high school started at 7:50 AM, middle school started at I think 8:25, and the elementary school started closer to 8:50. I think that...seems to work. The school time is generally built around the parents' workday - if school started at 9AM, only parents who don't have jobs would be able to take the kids to work.

iGenesis posted...
Are there that many corporate jobs that require being at your desk by 8? My previous jobs were 10, 10 and 930, except one-off meetings. But even for 8-4 or 8-5, students getting off at 2-3 means parents would still need afternoon daycare, or picking up their kids & returning to work to finish their shift. What if students started later but there was an option for morning day care instead?

That's why most schools have afterschool programs and why it's really bad for schools to cut them. Hell, I'd argue that these afterschool programs really should be mandatory or damn near it, because nothing is worse for a kid's development than going home and scrolling on social media for a couple hours until mom and dad get home.
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I think my elementary school was around 8:30-2:30 or something like that?
Junior High was like homeroom a little before 9 and then out by a little after 3 I think.
High school, 9-3:23.

Of course, busses would get you there earlier. Those who had to travel longer would have started earlier. I don't think the bus ever picked me up before 8. I don't remember the exact times. And for elementary school I walked or was dropped off. To close for busses.

This was in Atlantic Canada. I hear about some schools in the US starting before 8, sometimes well before, and I'm like, WTF? Nobody should be catching a bus at 6am or something.
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8 am for all grades for me. My brother went to a fancy pants private school so he had to be there pretty damn early. Which sucked for me, because it was like an hour before me, so I just had to wait in the parking lot with my mom. I usually just tried to catch up on sleep in the car :<
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Sometime around 7:30-8:30

All the way through school I was too tired to focus properly for the first couple of classes. It would have been so much better if school had started at 10
SSj4Wingzero posted...
I will agree that 7AM is way too damn early for a primary school. Although, from my experience, usually everyone agrees that that time is way too early, and there's a good chance that there are some logistical reasons that they start that early (i.e. shared bus company with another school district).

I teach in a school district where high school started at 7:50 AM, middle school started at I think 8:25, and the elementary school started closer to 8:50. I think that...seems to work. The school time is generally built around the parents' workday - if school started at 9AM, only parents who don't have jobs would be able to take the kids to work.

That's why most schools have afterschool programs and why it's really bad for schools to cut them. Hell, I'd argue that these afterschool programs really should be mandatory or damn near it, because nothing is worse for a kid's development than going home and scrolling on social media for a couple hours until mom and dad get home.

Lots of talk of buses ITT but you realise that much of the world doesnt have the school bus system that the US uses, right?
Joelypoely posted...
Sometime around 7:30-8:30

All the way through school I was too tired to focus properly for the first couple of classes. It would have been so much better if school had started at 10
Then you wouldn't get out of school until 5-6, and then have several hours worth of homework and not get to go to bed until 12am or so.
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TyVulpine posted...
Then you wouldn't get out of school until 5-6, and then have several hours worth of homework and not get to go to bed until 12am or so.

That would help people prepare for a career in teaching.
TyVulpine posted...
Then you wouldn't get out of school until 5-6, and then have several hours worth of homework and not get to go to bed until 12am or so.
Many teens still probably stayed up that late. Teens have a later clock, on average, than adults, making really early start times even worse.
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TyVulpine posted...
Then you wouldn't get out of school until 5-6, and then have several hours worth of homework and not get to go to bed until 12am or so.


Well also I'd cut out some of the unnecessary classes and homework. Probably finishing at 4 with just 1 hour of homework, in an ideal world.
I work from home 430am to 2pm so that I can take two 1hr breaks to drive my lower schooler both ways and not have to continue working once she gets home. School is 830am-3pm.
IIRC, all the schools I attended here started between 8AM and 9AM - moving more towards the 8AM side of that as I got older.
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It was always 8:30 for me, but I graduated in 97, so I'm older than a fair amount of this board.
It was about 7, but I still remember it being like 4:30-5 that I had to start waking up. That bright CRT screen in a dark room searing my eyes unable to see what the hell is going on.
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When I was in high school there were two different schedules. The regular one started at 830 and then there was an "early bird" schedule that started 40 minutes earlier.

I don't really remember what my schedules were before that.

My kids' schools usually started around 830-845.
School gates open at 8.40. Be in class at 8.50.

There were breakfast and after school clubs for kids whose parents both worked.
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I've never been to a school that starts before 8:10.
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School has always started at 8 am and ended at 3 pm. In high school, the 8 am class was called E period, short for early period, so if you were lucky and didn't have an E period class you start school at 8:45. My town was small so no one used buses unless they went to a county based school instead of the regular town high school. I lived 2 blocks away from my high school so I just walked up and down my street every day.
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My kid's elementary school starts at 9. Bus comes at 8:40.
If my wife didn't stay home/sub at his school, we'd have to pay extra for before care
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Pretty sure it always started at 9am for me. And it ended somewhere in the 3pm-4pm range.
Mine started at 7 and I got out after 2. I kinda liked it cuz I got an extra hour in the afternoon
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For me elementary school started at 8 am, middle and high school started at 7 am.

Middle and high school let out at 2:30 pm, and elementary school let out at 3 pm.
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To have buses available for three sets of runs.

Youngest kids typically have the earliest bedtimes.

Alrhough when I was in high school in Houston in the 90s, high school started first.
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iGenesis posted...
Im glad I dont have to wake up at those hours anymore. Adult life > student life.
As an adult I miss those times. My current job has me start at 4 or 5 am occasionally
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darkbuster posted...
basically state sanctioned childcare that aligns with the standard parent work schedule,


I mean, is this supposed to be bad? Public education for kids with schedules that mostly aligns with work schedules for parents
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K-5 was 9am
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emblem-man posted...
I mean, is this supposed to be bad? Public education for kids with schedules that mostly aligns with work schedules for parents

I think the area where people take issue with it is that it should be education that happens to function as effective childcare for some people, rather than childcare that happens to function as effective education for some people.
Current Events » Why do K-12 schools start so early in the morning?
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