Did your school have early release days?

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No-Banana247@reddit

In Texas, each school district is independent and can structure their week how they want as long as the students attend the required number of school days. My youngest has Mondays off almost every week except when other holidays are occuring that week.

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MageDA6@reddit

When i was in school from 1999-2012 we only had two half days a semester for teacher workshops. There was never an instance where we would have any other days where we would get out early.

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Longjumping_Bar_7457@reddit

Not common when I was in school. We had half days but those didn’t happen every week

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Responsible_Side8131@reddit

It’s fairly common because those extra hours are often used for the teachers to have professional development or team planning time during their contractual work hours. In the school district my children attended , it’s once a month, not every week.

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holymacaroley@reddit

No

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Narrow-Research-5730@reddit

Me, no. My kids had a late start day once a week.

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Yeahboyeah@reddit

Not really. Only in an emergency and even then I don't recall any? We did have optional attendance assemblies the last hour of the school day. If you wanted to leave then, you could. Maybe two a month? No bus service, but many of us drove or could bum a ride. Some lived close enough to walk. We also could ride bikes on nice days.

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iowaman79@reddit

Every Thursday out at 1:30 for teacher inservice training

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khak_attack@reddit

Yes, Fridays ended 40 mins early, but that ended after I think my freshman year in high school.

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ImDistortion1@reddit

No. Never even heard of it until now

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CaddyJellyby@reddit

Yes, on Monday we got out an hour earlier. One of my classmates once asked a teacher "Why isn't Friday early day?" and she said early dismissal was for teacher having meetings and she wouldn't be able to pay attention during a Friday meeting.

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Vachic09@reddit

Mine didn't. In highschool, we left after our last class for the day regardless of what time school officially ended.

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winerdars@reddit

Ive seen it practiced a lot more recently. I assume it is to give teachers planning time

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OceanPoet87@reddit

2pm releases for professional development on many Mondays during the middle of the school year for my son. My private middle and HS occasionally had half days but they are more common nos.

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tn00bz@reddit

We do late starts. Teachers meet by course during for the first hour before school starts.

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meg1019@reddit

When I was in school? No. Now? Yeah every Monday here they get off an hour early. It serves as a planning period or team meeting time for teachers. They are mandated to stay through the usual release time unless they use PTO

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No-Lunch4249@reddit

Which county are you in? JW as a fellow Marylander with no kids, I had no idea this was a thing now

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meg1019@reddit

Whoops never changed my flair. Living in FL temporarily so that’s the schedule here. Worcester County, where I’m from, has early dismissal like once a month for this same purpose though. Wasn’t a thing when I was younger. Also still had half day kindergarten back in the day tho lol.

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unbotheredcapybara@reddit

Ayo fellow Worcester county native!

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elphaba00@reddit

My kids' school district would have a 1:30 early dismissal once a month on a Wednesday. It's also used for either meetings or just getting caught up on work.

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Libertas_@reddit

Not when I was in school.

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khurd18@reddit

We occasionally had half days so instead of getting out at 3 wed get out at 11:15, but that's about it

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bh0@reddit

We had an alternating schedule of 4 classes (1.5 hours) every other day, and if we didn’t have a 4th class that day, we could leave. This was generally just seniors that had all of the credits/courses they needed. Our high school was much more designed like college than your normal high school though.

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RedSolez@reddit

My district growing up and the district my kids go to now would have occasional half days for teacher professional development. The district I work in never has half days, instead they have full days off for PD.

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andrewclarkson@reddit

I have a kid in school now. There aren't regular early release days like your example of every Wednesday but we do have them randomly throughout the year for different reasons. You have to check the schedule.

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Positive-Avocado-881@reddit

We actually had scheduled late starts which I liked more

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RelevantShock@reddit

Yep. Growing up our K-12 schools got out an hour early every Thursday so teachers could have building meetings/professional development, etc. It completely messed up our classes in high school since there was never enough time on Thursdays to get through a lesson or a full chemistry/physics/biology lab.

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gioraffe32@reddit

Starting in like junior year of high school (so like 03-04), like once a month, we had the opposite: a late start day. Like instead of second bell at 7:30a or whatever it was, it was at 9:30a. If I remember correctly, it was to give teachers time to work on things without having to deal with students, along with having meetings with parents if needed, during the school day. Or any other staff meetings they needed to have. So often students would go get breakfast together at like IHOP or meet at Starbucks. Or just sleep in.

That continued senior year, and then I know it started expanding after I graduated; happening more frequently. Like maybe twice a month. And maybe even extended down to the middle and elementary schools. I'm not sure what that district does these days.

I don't have kids, but it seems like this is much more of regular thing from what I've heard and seen. Like I feel like I've heard some schools doing early releases or late starts like once a week.

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Emotional_Trash2283@reddit

I graduated in 08 but growing up we had the occasional early release until I got to highschool. From there we had late arrival. Was kinda nice to sleep in once in a while.

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crispyrhetoric1@reddit

We did sometimes for fires…

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CaptainAwesome06@reddit

We did, but they were few and far between. We called them "half days" despite them not being an actual half of the school day. I almost preferred them more than full days off because instead of waking up late and being lazy, I was already up and ready to things at noon when we got let out.

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meowmix778@reddit

It's pretty common now.

When I was in school, it wasn't. We seldom had the early release days sans a teacher's workshop. The more common thing was a 2-hour or 90-minute delay due to snow.

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danhm@reddit

Interesting, it's the reverse for me. Growing up every Wednesday was early dismissal by something like 90 minutes or even 2 hours. Now my kid's school rarely has them, usually the Friday before a long weekend but not always.

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GovernorGeneralPraji@reddit

I remember my cousins in the next district over had half days either every Friday or every other Friday. Back then I was so jealous.

Now, as a parent, that just sounds horribly inconvenient from a “who’s going to watch my kid?” standpoint.

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meowmix778@reddit

My daughter has a 12 pm release on Wednesdays, and every 4th Friday is off.

I couldn't imagine what we'd do if her grandmother wasn't able to help on those days. I work from home most Fridays so I'm sure I could manage it. I'm aware of other schools that have it worse than ours.

They say it's for professional development, which is bullshit. At least here, we get letters all the time from the school about absentee rates and kids failing to meet testing standards. IMO keep them in school all that time then, cut remote options.

It's also frustrating because schools made this change when the rest of the workforce isn't prepared to accommodate. What do they think people either have the money to arrange after-school care or work in roles where you can flex/afford less hours.

Any school board meeting I've attended it's been a hot button issue and they just keep pushing back saying it's 100% required and makes tons of sense.

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Reasonable-Company71@reddit

When I was in public school yes, Wednesdays were short days. When I went to a private high school it was the opposite; Wednesdays and Thursdays were our "long" days and we ended 45 minutes later than regular days.

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BouncingSphinx@reddit

The only times we had early release when I was in school were on Fridays or Thursdays and no school Friday, and then only due to something else going on that necessitated the early release like teacher "work day" or "in-service" days. Very rarely would we have one for something to do with sports, either football or basketball, like the team making the state finals or something like that.

Never just to have a short day.

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Dramallamakuzco@reddit

I never had that (mid-millennial gen for reference). Why early release on one day? Wouldn’t that throw off a lot of parent work schedules?

The only times we got early release or late start was for snow, and we had maybe 3 half-days throughout the year that were for the last days before big breaks (Christmas, Thanksgiving, spring break).

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HudsonYardsIsGood@reddit

I'm a generic American corporate employee. My boss takes time off many afternoons to pick up his kid (he makes up the work later in the evening). Once in a while, he takes the time off earlier in the afternoon. I haven't tracked his schedule diligently enough to know if it's the same day each week, but I would not be surprised if his kid's school ran the same early release schedule.

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psu256@reddit

I remember that on Wednesdays the Catholic kids got to leave about 5-10 minutes early because there was a bus running from the public school to the Catholic school for CCD classes. (I was also Catholic but didn't live on a street where I was allowed to go to that school and was sorta jealous. I had to do my classes on Sundays.)

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lesbyeen@reddit

We had them on Fridays my senior year, but for the first 3 years of high school we had late start Wednesdays! Honestly preferred late start.

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OtterBoxer@reddit

Yes - and it was weird to me that friends in other school districts did not. Every Friday for us was an early dismissal at 12:30 in high school with no lunch period. The middle school and elementary schools were staggered later, about 12:50 and 1:15 if I remember correctly. We started every day at 7:50 AM in high school with dismissal at 2:45 Monday through Thursday and then 12:30 on Fridays. This was late 90s and early 2000s. I think they are still on the same schedule now but I’m not 100% sure.

Now that I’m an adult, I could see why this would be super annoying for parents. It makes it so hard to plan for child care and your own adult schedule. As a student though, we absolutely loved it. Fridays were great for sports, club activities, working your part time job, or just hanging out with friends. Some teachers even had “office hours” on Friday afternoons where students could stick around and work on art projects or shop projects or building sets for theater club, etc.

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Abi1i@reddit

Yes, in elementary we had early release days but those days usually were so the teachers could have the rest of the day as a work day. So while we elementary kids would get out 2 hours early, the teachers did not.

I don’t remember if middle school had early release days or late start days, but I did remember high school having late start days and it was similar to what I described for elementary schools in my area. Teachers still had to show up to get some work done or have faculty meetings, but students showed up 2 hours later.

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Western-Finding-368@reddit

Very, very occasionally. The last day of the year ended early, and a few times when a big storm was coming. I vaguely remember one day that ended early so they could do some sort of upgrade to the school plumbing.

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Western-Finding-368@reddit

lol at whomever downvoted me for this

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Tigerzombie@reddit

I’m went to school in NJ and never heard of this. My kids go to school in NY and that’s also not a thing here. They have the occasional half day where they go to school from 7:45-10:08 but that’s because of teacher conferences or a school budget vote. My kids have a half day today due to a budget vote. I’m letting them play hooky since they are only at the school for 2 hours.

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rawbface@reddit

10:08 is crazy early for a half day. My youngest kid's bus doesn't even pick her up until 9:15 on regular mornings.

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Tigerzombie@reddit

7:45-10:08 for high school, 8-10:40 for middle and 9-11:20 for elementary. I really don’t get half days, they are there for so little time. The high school is had a mini college fair for their half day. But my kid isn’t interested in any of the schools. My middle schooler is having a hard time socially at school. I figured it was better for her mental health to just skip a half day and recharge for the rest of the week.

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Gallahadion@reddit

Not when I was in school. The only times I remember getting out of class early were when I had an out-of-town game or track meet and needed to get to the team bus, if I had a free period as the last class period of the day (and even then I almost never went home early due to sports and other after school activities), and maybe the last day of final exams.

I don't have children so I don't know if this is a thing now.

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bloodectomy@reddit

Elementary school did, yeah. Thursdays I think.

In high school you could dip out if your last class of the day was an open period (you weren't supposed to but open period "classes" never met and didn't have school faculty assigned to monitor them so....)

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ThingFuture9079@reddit

Yes. Mine was the last day of the grading quarter bit that was over 10 years ago. I had early release my senior year of high school because I had all study halls the end of the day so each day, I would go in at 7:35 and get out at 11:35 because I would skip lunch also.

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JulianTheBeefy@reddit

only occasionally during my k-12 days. most early release days were planned (fun event or parent-teacher meetings at the school during the afternoon) OR suddenly declared due to weather getting worse faster than was predicted (much rarer).

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Consistent_Damage885@reddit

No. But I have worked at schools since then and many have something. My first teaching job had early release Fridays. My current job has late start Mondays.

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rawbface@reddit

No?

We had half days, where we got done at 12ish instead of 3ish. And we had assembly days, where periods were shortened so we could attend an assembly for an hour or so.

But I can't think of a reason we would be let out 45 minutes early. What was your district's reason for it?

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minnick27@reddit

Every Wednesday we got out at 215 as opposed to 305. We also had one or two late start days per year, but I don’t remember the times on them. Worst part was if you forgot and showed up at regular time you had to stay in a classroom

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itsmyparty45@reddit

Never.

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Vegetable_Fly_8687@reddit

My kids’ school starts late on Wednesday. Never had standard either late start nor early release when I was a kid, though.

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GuanoLoopy@reddit

90s in CT, never had half days growing up. But there were occasional In-Service days off that were for the teachers that weren't normal holidays, a couple or few times a school year.

2020s in ME, kids vahave a half day one Wednesday a month, for teacher development activities.

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mvanpeur@reddit

2000s MN, we got off early one Wednesday a month.

Today in Ohio, my kids get off an hour early on the last day of school, and that's it. We do usually have one long weekend a month where the teachers are working. I suspect it's easier for parents to find childcare one day a month than having to get off early.

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nowhereman136@reddit

Occasionally, but it wasn't regular. There are days like right before spring break or right before Parent Teacher Night that would be half days.

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DefrockedWizard1@reddit

never, but I'm also old and went to a religious school

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gravely_serious@reddit

Not for me, but for my kids. Our middle school (6-8) has delayed start almost every Wednesday for teacher administrative stuff.

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purpleblazed@reddit

In my high school upperclassmen could take either 6 or 7 classes. So you could do a 1-7, 2-7,or 1-6

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sneezhousing@reddit

My high school did that in Thursday and clubs met in the afternoon during that time

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Natsuya_None@reddit

When I was in school it wasn't, but it's very common with the schools I live near now.

However, most of the districts in my area have gone to a 4-day school week so they don't have a weekly early release day anymore. Any extra PD and collaboration for teachers are done on Fridays scattered throughout the school year.

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Ambitious-Elk5705@reddit

When I was in school? No, my district didn't have early out. My boyfriend at the time was in a different district and they had late start once a week.

Now, my kids are in the same district I was and the high school/jr high/middle school all have early out once a week. The elementary schools do not.

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Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit

I went to a private school and we had longer classes and an additional period. We actually just went Monday through Thursday, and had Fridays off. So we didn’t get early release, but an additional day off.

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therealbamspeedy@reddit

Early out one day every week? Never, for me when I was a kid or now for my kids. Only early out days (that wasnt weather related), was final day of the year and the last day before holidays/breaks.

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Elegant-Analyst-7381@reddit

We had half-days, but definitely not on a weekly basis. Maybe several in a semester. They were scheduled days for the teachers to work on administrative tasks or something like that.

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maktheyak47@reddit

We had early release Mondays in elementary school every week! That was county wide. They no longer do this

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Boopa0011@reddit

When I was in school in the 90s we had "half days" every other Wednesday, and we would get out at, like, 1pm. I have no idea why they did this. Seems like a very disrespectful thing to make parents have to deal with. It was a catholic school in the suburbs and 95% of parents would have to make some kind of elaborate arrangement to ensure their kids had supervision/a way to get home/etc.

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sydni1210@reddit

I work for a district that has a four-day week, so it’s not a thing for us.

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FifiiMensah@reddit

My school never did growing up although we'd get released a few minutes early on the last day of school

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BigPapaJava@reddit

We had that in Kindergarten on Fridays because… Kindergarten.

Otherwise, not really. A few times a year we’d have a half day or release early for snow, but that was it.

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TSells31@reddit

Yeah, in elementary on one day every week (I think Wednesday but it has been a while) we got out at 2:15 pm instead of 3:35 pm. Then in jr high and high school we had one day a week that we went in at 9:30 am instead of 8:15 am.

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TsundereLoliDragon@reddit

No, unless there was some special reason. I've never heard of this being a regular thing.

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DaniChibari@reddit

Nah, we had late start days instead. Monday's started 45 minutes later

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manicpixidreamgirl04@reddit

In elementary school, kids were allowed to leave early on Wednesdays for religion classes. Everyone else got a study hall.

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dohlparts@reddit

When I was in high school 2006-2009, they started early release and we got out 1 hour earlier on Wednesdays IIRC. Now I have a kid and it’s still 1 hour earlier on Wednesday’s.

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Asparagus9000@reddit

Not where I live. The bus schedule is too tight to mess with it much.

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notaskindoctor@reddit

No, and they are a pain in the butt as a working parent, so our district just has a few days off throughout the year as teacher plan and continuing education days. It’s easier for me as a parent to pay for a full day of child care for my school aged kids than to be required to use PTO to pick them up at a weird time.

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glocktimus_prime@reddit

In junior high we got out an hour early on Wednesdays, and in high school we started an hour later

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FireCorgi12@reddit

We got out an hour early on Fridays.

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DeFiClark@reddit

Never in the public schools when I was growing up. Private schools did for parent teacher conferences.

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FamousCow@reddit

My high schooler has a late start on Fridays instead of an early release. It’s nice.

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UnderdogDreams@reddit

No we never had this when I was a kid.

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KieshaK@reddit

Only got early dismissal in case of weather.

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SMF67@reddit

Only about once a month on some friday

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pikkdogs@reddit

Never heard of that.

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Historical_Tax6679@reddit

Same.

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AbiWil1996@reddit

On the other end, we had late start Wednesday’s. School started an hour later

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Elevenyearstoomany@reddit

My kids have early release every Weds (k-8 school). We didn’t have anything until late arrival Thursdays in HS when I was in school.

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Eratticus@reddit

In high school yes but only for juniors and seniors who were on track to graduate on time. That's the only context I've ever heard of this in.

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Mental_Freedom_1648@reddit

I recently found an old article about my old school saying that they were doing away with early release days. This was back in the 70s or so, before I was born, so I never experienced it.

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Garlan_Tyrell@reddit

Yes, Thursdays.

However there was a rule that sports practices couldn’t start until a certain time in the afternoon, to avoid athletic-focused schools trying to carve out of the school day to give their student athletes more practice time and a competitive advantage.

So if you played a sport instead of practice starting right after school, we had to go to the library or leave school grounds and wait an hour before practice began.

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2pnt0@reddit

We had late starts. They were like once every 6 weeks, though. They would have all staff and department meetings, so teachers would all need to be there at normal times.

As someone who is not a morning person, those days were great.

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lackaface@reddit

Our district did this for a few years then went back to one day per month off for professional development

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JtotheC23@reddit

1st thru 7th grade we'd usually get one at the end of each semester. 8th grade would just get the one before winter break because 8th graders finished about a week or so earlier than everyone else. In high school final exam days wouldn't be full days, so we'd get 3 at the end of each semester.

What my high school had that's more comparable to OP is that we had a late start on Wednesday every week. We'd start at 9:30 instead of 8am, but still end at 3pm (shortened periods plus skipped homeroom). I honestly think it was something the teachers' union negotiated so that they could hold their weekly department meetings during the existing contract hours as opposed to coming in early or staying late.

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CleverGal96@reddit

Every Wednesday it was an hour early release for elementary and middle school and then in high school it was a 2 hour late start, so school didn't start till like 10 am or something like that.

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sparklestronaut@reddit

Grew up in Atlanta in the 80’s-90’s. On a few occasions (non-federal holidays, teacher conferences) we would have early release, but never on a regular basis.

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CluelessKnow-It-all@reddit

Back in the early '80s, when I was in elementary school, we got off 1 hour early on Wednesdays. I believe they let us out early on because the teachers had meetings every Wednesday after school.

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AesirKratos@reddit

When I lived in California every Wednesday was early. I don’t remember how early.

When we moved to Maryland there was no such thing

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penni_cent@reddit

I was in California and did this too. At my school 1st through 3rd grades got out earlier (maybe a half hour?) than 4th through 6th but on "Wacky" Wednesdays we all got out at the same time. This was in the 90s.

7th through 12th grade we didn't have early release unless it was for a holiday or something.

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Phantomtastic@reddit

I went to school in California in the 70s and 80s. Wasn’t a thing in my schools.

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Graflex01867@reddit

When I was a kid in elementary school (age 5-10 for non Americans, in the early 1990s) we had half days every Wednesday where we got out around noon instead of 2.

Then in middle school we had them maybe once or twice a month, not as often.

Maybe we had 3 or 4 over the year during high school, honestly I don’t really remember.

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thej611@reddit

Mine was exactly the same! Every Wednesday was 45 mins early

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InfidelZombie@reddit

Never heard of this. Now I'm jealous.

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Drew707@reddit

When my high school moved to block scheduling, Mondays were slightly shorter than the rest of the days.

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Artistic-Fish1125@reddit

We had half days when it was prom or school dances, but not like set days.

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ChunkyHabeneroSalsa@reddit

Yes - started when I was in high school I think, Every other Wednesday iirc

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creeper321448@reddit

Never.

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Nickvv52@reddit

Yeah

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Outside_Complaint755@reddit

Not in the 90s, no, except maybe the last day of the year and possibly winter break.

Now, our local school district has late start Mondays, where Mondays start a little after 10.

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machagogo@reddit

My kids did not. Same schedule every day, save for events%holidays etc.

Growing up my parochial K-8 school every Weds was a little more than half day as school closed early to prep for Wednesday CCD classes.

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Lostinstereo28@reddit

Yeah, in elementary and middle school we got out at 2:30 on Wednesday. Every other day was 3:10.

Then in high school we just got out at 2:23 each day. (All of our blocks and schedules ended at random minutes lol)

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RunStitchRepeat@reddit

My entire district does. 1 hour early every Friday. It used to be Wednesdays, but they changed it some years back.

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BranBranMuffinWoman@reddit

I'm in the PNW and I don't remember having weekly early release days when I was in school but my partner teaches elementary school now and they have early release every Monday. The students leave early but the staff stay and have meetings and seminars and such during that time.

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morosco@reddit

We had half-days. Not every week. I think it was for some kind of teacher training. They were great days.

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EatLard@reddit

We had a different schedule for final exams, where for those two days school started at 7:30 and ended at 12:30. Three exams per day. The district would also use this schedule for the high schools if they knew bad weather would be coming in during the afternoon so they could send everyone home without declaring it a snow day.

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Mrcoldghost@reddit

it was Friday’s for me!

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Mist2393@reddit

My district never did, but a nearby district did half-days every Wednesday because they couldn’t afford to serve the students lunch 5 times a week and couldn’t afford keeping the power on for a full week.

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Imaginary-Ad4134@reddit

I didn’t, had never heard of it. My kids do, out 1 hour earlier on Wednesdays

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TheBigWhatever@reddit

Once in a great while there'd be some kind of district event that required teachers to be there, so we'd get let out a couple hours early. That's pretty much it.

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Potential_One1@reddit

We had "late start" Monday's every Monday that was a full school week. I think we started like 50 minutes later than normal

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SectionLopsided4189@reddit

during conference week and that’s it! now conference week is shortened to about 2 days twice a year.

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Nature_Girl_831@reddit

No but we start 25 minutes later on Wednesdays

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ToughFriendly9763@reddit

not often, every once in a while we'd get off early on a Friday

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madogvelkor@reddit

Mine didn't usually in the 80s and 90s but my daughter's does now.

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SnooPineapples280@reddit

Yes. Wednesdays we got out 1 hour early.

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illuminn8@reddit

When I was younger, occasionally for parent/teacher conferences and stuff like that. When I got to high school it was every last Wednesday of the month. Kids in my neighborhood now have an early release day once a week. It's gotten way more common in my part of AZ.

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