New Texas Law Could Mean More School Days Off

A new Texas law could change the number of days kids go to school, and some administrators are saying that they will make those changes.

A bill passed in October changed the Texas requirement for the school-year length from 180 days to 75,600 minutes.

It comes out to be the same amount of time using the standard seven-hour school day.

But with the requirement being minutes instead of full days, school officials can get creative and maybe even cut some full days out of the calendar.

For example, a school could add 15 minutes on to every day and earn a couple of extra days off. It would also help if bad weather cancelled school for a day or two. Those days would already be made up, so an extra makeup day for weather wouldn’t be necessary.

The Arlington School District is doing just that, district spokeswoman Leslie Johnson told the Associated Press. Arlington schools will get an extra day off in October and April, and if there is no bad weather, the semester could end “one or two days earlier.”

The Frisco School District is considering adding 10 minutes to elementary school days and five minutes to high school days to get an extra three days off, according to the Dallas Morning News.

“What you’re trying to do is hit that sweet spot where you don’t make everyone totally mad, but you know that you’re not going to make everyone totally happy with it,” Frisco Assistant Superintendent Doug Zambiasi told a school board meeting, according to the Morning News.