Issues in the Debate

EARLY SCHOOL START DATE FACTS

• Students who start school early do not spend more time in class. Early school start dates simply shift vacation days from the summer into the school year. Colorado state law requires public school students receive a minimum of 175 days of teachers working directly with students.
  
  
• Valuable instructional time is lost in the days preceding and following each break in the school calendar. When their routine is disrupted, children require time to readjust.
  
  
• No academic benefits from early school starts have been shown to exist, in fact, schools in top-performing states start classes later than schools in Colorado. The top 10 academic states, in four commonly used state education ranking systems, have two things in common - they begin the school year in late August or early September and administer semester finals after the winter break.
  
  
• The early-August school start date creates numerous breaks during the school year -- forcing parents to find child care at non-traditional times. These small breaks often force parents to pay higher prices for care or leave their children home alone.
  
  
• As school starts have crept into July and early August from Labor Day, children have difficulty being able to participate in church or civic-sponsored summer programs, attend summer camps and work.

OTHER STATE FACTS

• Tulsa, Oklahoma Public Schools moved their school start date from August 19 to the day after Labor Day and saved approximately $500,000 through reduced utility costs. When local school systems increase their operating efficiency, the savings become available for teacher salaries, classroom supplies and educational programming.
  
  
• Other school systems across Alabama were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece each year due to the low attendance during the first 40 days of the school year when attendance figures were calculated and used to determine state funding. In 2005, acknowledging this low attendance, the Alabama Legislature revised state law to require attendance calculations be made during the 20 days of class following Labor Day. The Legislature did not address the underlying problem of low attendance before Labor Day, legislators simply recognized that fact and provided a way to increase state funding for schools in spite of the low attendance. From an instructional point of view, it's obvious that even the best teachers can’t teach students who aren’t in class.
  
  
• Studies in Texas and North Carolina have found early school start dates cost their economies hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
  
  
• Giving children their summers back would also raise revenues without raising taxes. A South Carolina study estimates over $8 million in lost state and local tax revenues due to early school starts.
  
  
• Prior to passage of a late-August school start bill in Texas, research found over 250,000 students not in school on the first day of class. The year following the law’s implementation, attendance on the first day of school increased 60%.
  
  
• The Alabama Legislative Fiscal Office confirms economic losses in Alabama due to early school starts.
  
  
• In 2006, the Florida Legislature passed a law requiring schools in that state begin classes no earlier than 14 days before Labor Day. North Carolina, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Virginia and Texas all enforce school start date laws. Many other states are considering them, including, Georgia, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
  
  
• Kids today no longer need to attend classes on the agricultural-based school calendar that our grandparents remember from the early 1900s and the Great Depression, when schools were regularly closed down in the spring and fall so children and teachers could work on farms and help with the planting and harvesting.

CONCLUSION