These Iowa Schools Will Be Using A 4-Day Week For The 2024-2025 Year

We're getting close to the back-to-school season.

Summer always flies by and before too long, we'll be shopping for our kiddos to head back to class. For a lot of us, we're used to a school week that's Monday-Friday, about 8:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. That's becoming less popular of a format and the new trend is spreading through Iowa too.

How The 4-Day School Week Works

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the week goes either Tuesday-Friday or Monday-Thursday. Kids get into class earlier in the day and stay later. For example, at North Iowa Community Schools, classes will be Tuesday-Friday from 8:05 a.m.-3:45 p.m.

According to Education World, most school districts that do the 4-day school week do offer childcare on the extra day. A sweeping 84% of parents like the idea of a 4-day school week as opposed to 5 days.

Like with anything in life, there are drawbacks and benefits to this. The extra day can be a time when kids can go to doctor's appointments or get things done with their families outside of school. A lot of smaller, rural districts are adopting it too since it's more cost-efficient.

Iowa Schools Using It In 24-25

Multiple Iowa schools are going to use the 4-day school week structure in the new year. That includes:

• Cardinal Community Schools
• Mormon Trail Community School District
• Martensdale-St. Mary's Schools
• East Union schools in Afton (that new decision was made in April)
• Saydel Community School District (also the first year of the new calendar for them)
• North Iowa
• Highland Community School District
• Waco Community School District
• Moulton-Udell
• Murray

For several of these districts, this will be the first school year under the 4-day school week calendar.