Over 20,000 parents, grandparents, teachers and other concerned citizens signed the Save Our Summers petition asking the General Assembly for later school start dates.
Past polls have shown 70%-80% of North Carolinians support later school start dates. Why?
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The
most common reason given by SOS-NC supporters was family
time. Parents repeatedly stated that they viewed summer
vacation as a time for family members to reconnect and spend
quality time together.
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Summertime allows for
outside-the-classroom education. Camps, special summer
learning programs (such as Governors School or Duke's
TIPs), sports, church activities all provide learning experiences
to children that parents believe are critical to child development.
Summers in North Carolina were becoming so shortened that parents
found that the first day of school was often scheduled before
the last day of a summer camp. Several counties began classes
before the last day of the states own Governors
School. |
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Summer
jobs... these are not only an important learning experience
for teenagers, but sometimes can make the difference in being
able to go to college or buy clothes and supplies for the next
school year. In some counties, summer vacation became so short
that local businesses did not consider it worth the effort to
hire high schoolers for summer jobs |
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Daycare expenses place a heavy
burden on family budgets. Daycare providers and parents know
that finding or providing childcare for single days scattered
throughout the school year is much more expensive than the week
or month-long programs available during the summer. What is
also true is that many families depend on summer scholarship
programs that provide opportunities children might otherwise
never experience. |
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Parents of young children are especially
worried about school buses without air
conditioning in the early August heat. Children with asthma
are particularly vulnerable. |
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Kids
playing fall sports in late July and early August, when
temperatures still hover in the upper nineties, is another concern
parents share. Football practice began on July 25th last year
for many high school athletes. |
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A uniform start date across North
Carolinas school systems makes sense. It improves
athletics scheduling and helps extended families coordinate
time together. |
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Parents
with extended family out-of-state found coordinating summer
vacation extremely difficult when school started in early
August. August is the traditional vacation month in many parts
of the country, and with 39 states beginning classes the last
week of August or the first of September, many North Carolina
families had to forego traditional August family get-togethers
and reunions. |
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Divorced families with shared
custody arrangements found early school start dates especially
difficult if one parent was out-of-state. This is an oft overlooked
point that merits attention when one considers the quagmire
it could cause in our courtrooms. It also has the potential
to create misunderstandings and resistance in relationships
that are already strained. |
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Families moving into North Carolina
in the fall were shocked to realize that their children had
already missed two or three weeks of school. As amazing as this
sounds, most parents from northern or western states where school
has always begun around the first of September never even considered
that school would begin so early in North Carolina, and their
children would actually miss weeks of school. |
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Many
parents are extremely concerned about the increasing pressures
of testing and stress their children are experiencing during
the school year. Children are experiencing burn out at
very early ages and parents believe that summers are an absolutely
necessary way for their children to rejuvenate. |
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Teachers also support later start
dates. One of the most important incentives for retaining
and recruiting teachers is the summer break. |
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Teaching is not a high-paying profession. Many
educators depend on summer jobs to make ends meet. |
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With
a traditional calendar, teachers have the opportunity to further
their education and professional development. When teachers
had to report back to their classrooms in late July, many were
unable to attend summer sessions at the states colleges
and universities because those sessions did not end before public
school classes began. |