School districts across the country are considering moving to a four-day week amid staff shortages and financial challenges.
Like healthcare, school districts are seeing staff salaries increase without a similar revenue increase, and many have trouble recruiting and retaining talent. Others aim to use the four-day week to have a more consistent year-round school schedule so kids can more easily retain what they've learned between grades.
The changing school schedules would affect working parents, including those who work five days per week in healthcare and ASCs, where competition for talent is fierce. Surgery centers in some areas are trying to expand hours to accommodate more procedures and relieve the backlog of nonemergency cases postponed during the pandemic.
The four-day school week is already in effect for districts in Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Minnesota, Arkansas and more.
Here are a few other places where the school districts are making or considering a switch:
1. At least nine districts are planning to move to four-day school weeks in Missouri, which means next year 25 percent of the state's districts will be on the four-day schedule, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
2. Iowa City schools are considering a four-day schedule that would keep kids in school yearround with fewer weeks off in the summer, according to the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Schools in Eldon, Iowa, approved a proposal for a four-day school week to begin next year, according to The Hawk Eye.
3. Schools in rural Texas are considering the four-day school week, according to the Houston Chronicle.
4. The Milwaukee Public School District held a town hall this month to explore the four-day school week possibility. The district proposed four days of academic instruction and one day for students to get mental health help, internships or community programs, according to a WTMJ-TV report.
5. The Bayfield School District in Colorado joined several others in the state in February to make the four-day school week switch for the 2022-23 school year, according to the Durango Herald. The change may help with teacher retention, according to the report, and the district plans to pay for child care on Fridays when regular school isn't in session. Sixty percent of the schools in Colorado will be on the four-day week schedule next year.