It varies, my experience is with a large district with separate buildings for elementary, middle and high school.
Yes typically high school starts at 7:30, meaning we’d get picked up by the buss anywhere from 6:45-7:15 depending on how far from the school, and your luck of being first or last on the route.
Middle and elementary start, and end, later.
A lot of that is due to bus logistics, you’d need a lot more busses to get everyone to school at the same time. The same busses drop off the older kids at high school, and then go pick up the younger ones.
Some places are trying to flip it it so high school kids start later, and the elementary kid starts at 7:30.
Starting high school kids later would be nice, but create new challenges for child care. Older kids are more likely to have more after school stuff, so getting out at 2 (14), spending an hour or two time at club/sport will get them home around 4 (16). If school ended at 4 (16), they’d be getting home around 6 (18). Because home work is still a thing, that would leave kids about 0 hours of family/personal time before going to bed to get the recommended 8hrs sleep. At least, getting home about 4 gives you about 2hrs a day…/s
If an elemntarty age kid got out at 2 (14), that would make it even harder on parents.
With older kids getting home earlier, that can cover the little time between the young kid and parent getting home (assuming there is an older kid - the first is always complicated)
A lot of tines its easier if a parent has to go in “late” to work at 9 for a few years, than trying leave at 1:30 (13:30) to get their 5 year old off the bus. (Thats also part of why half day kindergaden is being phased out). Schools are major part of our “day care” system, whether they should be or not.
It varies, my experience is with a large district with separate buildings for elementary, middle and high school.
Yes typically high school starts at 7:30, meaning we’d get picked up by the buss anywhere from 6:45-7:15 depending on how far from the school, and your luck of being first or last on the route.
Middle and elementary start, and end, later. A lot of that is due to bus logistics, you’d need a lot more busses to get everyone to school at the same time. The same busses drop off the older kids at high school, and then go pick up the younger ones.
Some places are trying to flip it it so high school kids start later, and the elementary kid starts at 7:30.
Starting high school kids later would be nice, but create new challenges for child care. Older kids are more likely to have more after school stuff, so getting out at 2 (14), spending an hour or two time at club/sport will get them home around 4 (16). If school ended at 4 (16), they’d be getting home around 6 (18). Because home work is still a thing, that would leave kids about 0 hours of family/personal time before going to bed to get the recommended 8hrs sleep. At least, getting home about 4 gives you about 2hrs a day…/s
If an elemntarty age kid got out at 2 (14), that would make it even harder on parents. With older kids getting home earlier, that can cover the little time between the young kid and parent getting home (assuming there is an older kid - the first is always complicated)
A lot of tines its easier if a parent has to go in “late” to work at 9 for a few years, than trying leave at 1:30 (13:30) to get their 5 year old off the bus. (Thats also part of why half day kindergaden is being phased out). Schools are major part of our “day care” system, whether they should be or not.