Four Day A Week School Schedules? It’s Happening In Texas.

We're only about a week away from most schools getting underway in Amarillo and across the state.

Some schools will be experiencing something very new this year, and it seems more schools across Texas are moving to something like this.

As many of us adults have talked about more businesses moving to a four day a week work model, schools have been doing the same.

Sadly for most of us, it seems the schools are more open and adept to moving to that four day a week schedule than businesses are.

HOW MANY TEXAS SCHOOLS ARE DOING FOUR DAYS A WEEK?

There are nine school districts in the Texas Panhandle and West Texas that have adopted the schedule already, with one school dating all the way back to the 2016-17 school year. It was a very new concept back then.

Since then, many more Texas schools have adopted the concept. There were over 60 schools last year in Texas on the four day a week system and it seems to be working.

The 2024-25 school year will start with 103 different school districts in Texas doing four day a week schedules.

WHY ARE THEY MOVING TO THIS?

One of the main reasons for it is that teachers have been talking about burnout for quite some time, and the hope is that by giving them a day without the kids will help that.

Burnout and low pay leads to teachers not sticking around very long, and finding teachers these days is becoming a bit tougher.

Many still work five days a week, but that Monday or Friday they don't have the kids, they use to catch up on things such as grading assignments, setting up classrooms, etc.

BENEFIT TO FAMILIES

This can be a bit tricky, because immediately parents think about how they're going to handle their kids being out of school on a day they're expected to work.

Many of these school districts understand that and offer up child care for that fifth day to ease the burden.

The upside to families with this is that they can take those long three day weekends and not have to worry about kids missing school. It truly does allow more time for family activities and mini-vacations within the school year.

IS AMARILLO ADOPTING THIS POLICY?

As of now, we haven't heard any conversations about Amarillo ISD or Canyon ISD adopting this schedule, but that doesn't mean they won't.

Every year, school districts look for ways to improve, and with over 100 school districts in the state running on this schedule, they'll have more data to run off of.

It wouldn't be a terrible thing however. Imagine having more opportunities to stay in a place like this with the family at any point in the year instead of just during longer breaks in the school schedule.