When did it become a fad to promote back to school early?

[RangerPooh]

Elk Grove Unified School district here is the 5th largest school district in California and some of their schools are still year round. Four tracks, 3 in session always, 1 always out. No summer break.

Where I grew up in CA, our town had two year round elementary schools back in the 80s/90s. I loved it! My track had Oct, Mar, and July off. Haven't had that schedule since 1991, but I miss it. I wish year round was more common. My college roommate's school district (elsewhere in CA) had a different year round schedule for K-12 that was intriguing. They were in 6 weeks (or maybe it was 8 weeks), out 2 weeks. They started late July/Early Aug and the breaks allowed for students who participated in 4H or FFA to show animals.

 

[anniemae]

Retail always pushes stuff early. That's why we start seeing Halloween decor in July and bathing suits in January. LOL. I was in TJ Maxx the other day and saw people buying up ghost pillows, ceramic pumpkins and other Halloween decor. If people buy it, they will put it out. Also why Disney starts Halloween parties in August. People buy up the tickets so they do it for 3 months instead of one.

 

[ncc1701]

It's probably due to different School Year starting times in the U.S.. Here in New Jersey most schools don't start until a day or 2 after Labor Day. . The earliest in this area is the week before Labor Day.

 

[goofyernmost]

50 years ago, I managed a retail department store and July 1st started the clearance markdown for summer items and summer clothing and mid-July started the back to school sales. Nothing new or really any sooner. Back then most schools all had standard school years, now they are everywhere, including year round schools.

 

[tvguy]

Where I grew up in CA, our town had two year round elementary schools back in the 80s/90s. I loved it! My track had Oct, Mar, and July off. Haven't had that schedule since 1991, but I miss it. I wish year round was more common. My college roommate's school district (elsewhere in CA) had a different year round schedule for K-12 that was intriguing. They were in 6 weeks (or maybe it was 8 weeks), out 2 weeks. They started late July/Early Aug and the breaks allowed for students who participated in 4H or FFA to show animals.

They opened a year round school in my District in 1975. 10 weeks in session, 3 weeks off. It lasted until 1987. It just didn't sync up with the rest of the schools and parents lives.
Elk Grove started year round school in the 2000's because the city was growing so fast they couldn't build schools fast enough, so it was a way to squeeze more students in the same number of schools. Declining enrollment has prompted many schools to drop it.

 

[neverlandsky]

Our schools start tomorrow.

 

[robinb]

Because all promotions start early now. I saw pumpkin spice coffee on the shelf last month, and the first Halloween candy has just appeared. Next month, we will probably start getting reminded that Christmas will be here soon.

I saw Halloween candy today.

 

[SirDuff]

Because all promotions start early now. I saw pumpkin spice coffee on the shelf last month, and the first Halloween candy has just appeared. Next month, we will probably start getting reminded that Christmas will be here soon.

Christmas decorations are already up where I live (they LOVE Christmas here - I live in South-East Asia). Hallowe'en isn't really big (though we get All Saint's Day as a holiday) and, obviously, no Thanksgiving.

 

[barkley]

Where I grew up in CA, our town had two year round elementary schools back in the 80s/90s. I loved it! My track had Oct, Mar, and July off. Haven't had that schedule since 1991, but I miss it. I wish year round was more common. My college roommate's school district (elsewhere in CA) had a different year round schedule for K-12 that was intriguing. They were in 6 weeks (or maybe it was 8 weeks), out 2 weeks. They started late July/Early Aug and the breaks allowed for students who participated in 4H or FFA to show animals.

my bff and her dh both worked for the same school district their 2 kids attended in nothern california. for YEARS b/c of the alternating (by school) year round school schedual that district had none of them were on the same schedual. with the exception of legal holidays and two weeks at christmas they were never all off at the same time-they were never able to do a traditional 'summer' vacation. they were thrilled when the kids both hit high school b/c those were on traditional tracks so there were 3 people of them in sync.

i see some tremendous advantages to the year round method (my special ed kid would have tremendously benefited from it) but when districts have a different calendar for every freaking school it can be a nightmare for parents.

 

[kathyk2]

Where I grew up in CA, our town had two year round elementary schools back in the 80s/90s. I loved it! My track had Oct, Mar, and July off. Haven't had that schedule since 1991, but I miss it. I wish year round was more common. My college roommate's school district (elsewhere in CA) had a different year round schedule for K-12 that was intriguing. They were in 6 weeks (or maybe it was 8 weeks), out 2 weeks. They started late July/Early Aug and the breaks allowed for students who participated in 4H or FFA to show animals.

My sister lives in North Carolina when her kids were younger they went to school year round. The new school year started in early July and ended in June. I think they went for six weeks and had two weeks off. This lasted until high school. My nephew is three years older than my niece and sometimes they would have different school schedules. She was glad when they were both in high school.

 

[tvguy]

my bff and her dh both worked for the same school district their 2 kids attended in nothern california. for YEARS b/c of the alternating (by school) year round school schedual that district had none of them were on the same schedual. with the exception of legal holidays and two weeks at christmas they were never all off at the same time-they were never able to do a traditional 'summer' vacation. they were thrilled when the kids both hit high school b/c those were on traditional tracks so there were 3 people of them in sync.

i see some tremendous advantages to the year round method (my special ed kid would have tremendously benefited from it) but when districts have a different calendar for every freaking school it can be a nightmare for parents.

Never thought about spouses working in the same district with year round school. Every school around here with year round school put siblings on the same track.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

In my county in metro atlanta, kids go back to school end of July, beginning of August. They then get a week off in September for fall break, a week at thanksgiving, 2 weeks at Christmas, a week in February for winter break, and a week in April for spring break. School then is out for summer right before Memorial Day. It is a great schedule for travel during the year!

That's part of why we go back so early. We started on Aug 7th and end around Memorial Day, but we also get...

• A fall break week off in October
• A full week for Thanksgiving
• Close to 2.5 weeks off around Christmas/New Year's
• A week off in early to mid February for winter break
• A week off in mid March for Spring Break
• A few (but not all) of the single day holidays (Labor Day, MLK, Good Friday)
  • Elementary has four additional full days off.
• Middle School and High School get something like 23 late arrival days. On select Thursdays, school start time is 2 hours later than regular days.

 

[JimmyBean42]

This year I saw Halloween candy on display by July 5th. I would have been annoyed but the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Pumpkins are the best PB Cup outside of the original.

 

[RangerPooh]

Never thought about spouses working in the same district with year round school. Every school around here with year round school put siblings on the same track.

My brother and I were on the same track all but one year, as they too tried to keep siblings on the same track. The one year that we weren't was because my mom wanted my brother to have the same 1st grade teacher that I had had. The issue really lied in those families with elementary age and middle/high school as that's when the schedules differed. As year round was only elementary due to only having one middle and one high school in our community.

 

[pezgirlroy]

I cannot get over the schools that start at the start of August. We are in New England and we get out mid June (like second week) and we start after Labor Day.

 

[EACarlson]

State law here that schools can't start before September 1 without a waiver from the state. Last year my kids started 9/1, then had the next three days off for Labor Day, and went back on 9/5. We ended the Thursday after Memorial Day.

 

[dez1978]

In my county in metro atlanta, kids go back to school end of July, beginning of August. They then get a week off in September for fall break, a week at thanksgiving, 2 weeks at Christmas, a week in February for winter break, and a week in April for spring break. School then is out for summer right before Memorial Day. It is a great schedule for travel during the year!

I'm super jealous of this. We have a pretty long summer break. Last day of school was May 16, and they go back Aug 21. We do have 2.5 weeks off for Christmas, but just a 4 day weekend for Easter for spring break. No real fall break most years. 1 year we did have like 5 days off over halloween for some reason and that was cool. I hate tho that the only opportunity for travel is when it's hotter than the surface of the sun or thanksgiving/christmas. So we pull them out a few days a year. I think this next year they will miss about 9-10 days for trips.

 

[cvjw]

I'm super jealous of this. We have a pretty long summer break. Last day of school was May 16, and they go back Aug 21. We do have 2.5 weeks off for Christmas, but just a 4 day weekend for Easter for spring break. No real fall break most years. 1 year we did have like 5 days off over halloween for some reason and that was cool. I hate tho that the only opportunity for travel is when it's hotter than the surface of the sun or thanksgiving/christmas. So we pull them out a few days a year. I think this next year they will miss about 9-10 days for trips.

It was great while my kids were in school. Some of the school board members tried to take this schedule away from us. The people were so unhappy with the change that the offending board members had their districts tweaked and were promptly voted out. Got our great schedule back and no one has touched it since.

 

[barkley]

kind of an aside but i took advantage of the back to school sales to get some christmas shopping started. there's a major bluey fan in our family and i caught sight on target of the bluey spiral notebooks so someone's going to be surpised (i love shopping for stocking stuffers!).

 

[QueenIsabella]

My brother and I were on the same track all but one year, as they too tried to keep siblings on the same track. The one year that we weren't was because my mom wanted my brother to have the same 1st grade teacher that I had had. The issue really lied in those families with elementary age and middle/high school as that's when the schedules differed. As year round was only elementary due to only having one middle and one high school in our community.

We had the same issue when we moved to North Carolina. There was one year-round elementary school, but we had 4 kids--only one was in elementary. So, he would have been on a different schedule. Interestingly, we have multiple middle and high schools, so they could have, theoretically, had all 12 grades on the year-round schedule, but didn't.

The school board tried to push for us to start school in mid to late August--they did a big survey, parents didn't want it. It seemed like it was more to help businesses that employ teens--we're a big tourist area--rather than concern for students. Then, the pandemic hit, and the board used that as an excuse to change the start/end dates of school to the way they (not the parents!) wanted it. Lo and behold, next election, they were all voted out, and the new school board changed it back to the way it was. We start late August and end by Memorial Day, BTW.