how many days are in your elementary school year?

[AnnieW625]

The crazy leader of the Diocese of Los Angeles (my opinion only) Cardinal Roger Mahoney is calling for all Catholic schools in the diocese to raise their days of enrollment from 180 to 200 per school year. If my daughter gets into Catholic school she would be going to one of these schools. Here is the article (http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/01/27/archdiocese-adds-20-school-days-for-catholic-elementary-schools/#comments) from our local news station.

For me it honestly doesn't matter much right now as it will be less days that I will have to pay for full time daycare, and DD1 is only 5 and will be kindergarten.

What do you think? Is 200 too much?

ETA: the feds. mandate that 180 is the minimum.

[egoldber]

VA law mandates 180 instructional days. Right now our district schedules a 183 day school year with 3 built in snow days.

And based on the last couple years, 3 snow days is not enough.

I would actually prefer a year round schedule with one or two week breaks every 10-12 weeks

[bubbaray]

194 days is the requirement here.

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

We only have 175. It was always 180, but last year they cut 5 days to save money.

[kdeunc]

In our state it is 180 and has been for as long as I can remember.

[vludmilla]

NY- 183 days.

[MoJo]

VA law mandates 180 instructional days. Right now our district schedules a 183 day school year with 3 built in snow days.

And based on the last couple years, 3 snow days is not enough.


:yeahthat: except I'm in Ohio (and don't have an opinion on year-round school yet).

[janeybwild]

177 (Illinois)

[noodle]

172. And probably fewer next year. It is shameful.

And Beth, ITA. I would much prefer a year-round schedule. It has so many benefits.

[LD92599]

Nj - 180

[sariana]

When I worked at an Edison charter school, our year was 200 or 210 days (can't remember exactly), so it certainly is not unheard of.

Annie, count your blessings. Lockyer recently threatened that if the tax extensions don't pass, public schools may have to CUT the year by 20 days. We already lost 5 days last year and are down to only 175. Think about it--20 days is 4 WEEKS! That's an entire month!

I don't think it will happen. At least I hope not.

To answer your question, though, no, I don't think 200 days is too much, as long as it is a good balance of academics and other interests (music, art, P.E. etc). I would not support sitting at a desk for 6 hours straight, 200 days a year.

[KrisM]

Michigan specifies 1098 hours of instruction. Our district schedules us for 185 days. Up to 3 can be missed for snow days and we usually come in under that. If we go over, they add minutes to the day for a few months.

[belovedgandp]

We're scheduled for 170 days. The state law is in hours. Around 1,100 if I remember correctly.

We've had districts go to longer days only four days per week to save costs.

[n2ou]

We are AZ and have 180.

[JBaxter]

MD has 180 we have 8 snow days built into the calender so if we dont use them we get out sooner. If the govn'r declares a state of emergency then they can ( and have) forgave a few snow days.

[marie]

180 days plus 5 contingency days.

[galvjen]

177 (tx)

[thomma]

180 (ma)

If you'd asked me before kids I would've told you that 200 was doable but now that I have kids I think it's too much.
Yes...I'm a teacher. :)

[wolverine2]

Yes, 180 in MA... 184 for me as a school counselor, and 89 left to go! (but who's counting?)

[C99]

I personally believe that the more days of instruction, the better. For lots of reasons. But it also depends on how many HOURS are included in each day. Our district sets 178 days in the calendar and there hasn't been a snow day called in several years.

[blisstwins]

I teach in a very expensive private school and we have at least a month, if not more, less school that the public school (180). I never plan for more than 120 meeting times a year. I get through the whole AP curriculum and my students do very well, though they are mixed abilities. The key, I think, is class size, not the number of meeting times. I would take fewer days and small classes over more days and larger classes any time. FWIW, I never have more than 15 kids in a class.

[strollerqueen]

The crazy leader of the Diocese of Los Angeles (my opinion only) Cardinal Roger Mahoney is calling for all Catholic schools in the diocese to raise their days of enrollment from 180 to 200 per school year. If my daughter gets into Catholic school she would be going to one of these schools. Here is the article (http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/01/27/archdiocese-adds-20-school-days-for-catholic-elementary-schools/#comments) from our local news station.

For me it honestly doesn't matter much right now as it will be less days that I will have to pay for full time daycare, and DD1 is only 5 and will be kindergarten.

What do you think? Is 200 too much?

ETA: the feds. mandate that 180 is the minimum.

Ohhh, I just posted above, before I saw your post. But LAUSD just announced that they were cutting back, to 175 days.

[Tondi G]

Ohhh, I just posted above, before I saw your post. But LAUSD just announced that they were cutting back, to 175 days.

LAUSD is in trouble. Just had a meeting with our area school board rep and he was talking about how serious the budget situation is. His words were "I believe there will be a decentralization of LAUSD" and a lot more is going to fall on the families/parents and their school community as a whole. He also said he didn't believe they will actually be able to implement the push of the 2011-2012 calendar this year, to start back in the middle of August rather than after Labor Day (even though the LAUSD website says something different, for now). It will be interesting to see how things go.

oh and to the OP ... wow 200 days seems like a long school year.