TEXAS, USA — Public school districts across Texas either have four-day school weeks or are on track to implement them for the upcoming 2023-2024 school year. Locally, Academy ISD, Rockdale ISD and China Spring ISD already approved this change. However, the Texas Senate is proposing a bill that would get rid this.
State Sen. Donna Campbell proposed Senate Bill 2368, which revokes the four-day week and mandates five-day school weeks.
She believes students cannot afford to lose anymore instructional time following the reading and math score gaps created during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another reason behind the bill is that a shorter week can have negative impacts on both students and families, as families have to find child care during the one-day off, she said.
"You still have your fixed costs, you still have all your salaries, you still have all of those expenses, whether you're there four days or five days," Rep. Hugh Shine with District 55 said. "You have parents that depend on childcare, they're going to be able to get somebody to take care of kids one day a week."
Academy ISD Superintendent Billy Harlan says four-day weeks help smaller districts like Academy ISD compete with Texas school districts offering a bigger starting salary for teachers. Harlan also said a shorter school week could also help with the teacher recruitment seen across Texas as well as the nation.
"Anybody that's in favor of 175 mandatory days and a five day school week, they're really missing the idea of teacher retention and recruitment," Harlan said. "If we've created a system to have more teachers, then how is that a bad thing? When we passed the four-day model that we're doing, we have had a tremendous response of applications."
Despite the push for the new bill, that's not stopping Harlan and other school districts to push for solutions.
"We're in the process of working with some local organizations and providing every Friday that we're off, we're going to have a free daycare, that's going to be open from probably 7 a.m. to about 6 p.m.," Harlan said.
If SB 2368 passes, schools would have to:
- Have 175 minimum instructional days during the year
- Include time for instruction, intermissions and recesses for students in a minimum of 75,600 minutes
The bill is still in committee. For more information on the bill, click here.