Fairfax County start time vs. drop off time

[Anonymous]

Hi. I have another year before my oldest starts kindergarten, but I'm planning to change my work schedule when that happens, and am trying to figure out whether we will need morning SACC or not. So, if school starts at 9:00, presumably the kids can (must?) be dropped off before that, right? I can't find this information anywhere. What time (how long before) school starts can you/should you drop them off? No bus involved for us. TIA.

[Anonymous]

I can't really speak for elementary, but I teach at a high school in Fairfax County and most students who arrive by bus get there about 20 minutes before school starts. They arrive at 7 and school starts at 7:20 (ugh).

[Anonymous]

I believe elementary school starts a lot later than high school. Not sure of the time though.

[Anonymous]

At our elementary school, for non SACC kids they are to be dropped off at 8:45 for a 9:00am start

[Anonymous]

School starts at 7:20? That's ridiculous. I had no idea. Why??

Do private schools start this early?

This is going to be a whole new factor in my decision-making process about schools. No adolescent I know can function at 7:20 AM -- I have my nephews and nieces in mind here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School starts at 7:20? That's ridiculous. I had no idea. Why??

Do private schools start this early?

This is going to be a whole new factor in my decision-making process about schools. No adolescent I know can function at 7:20 AM -- I have my nephews and nieces in mind here.

This is getting off track from the original post... but I went to a private high school and we started at 7:50. You just get used to it... Plus, earlier start time meant earlier dismissal, which was a lot easier for getting sports, clubs, etc. done and over with before dinner time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School starts at 7:20? That's ridiculous. I had no idea. Why??

Do private schools start this early?

This is going to be a whole new factor in my decision-making process about schools. No adolescent I know can function at 7:20 AM -- I have my nephews and nieces in mind here.

Fairfax County high school teacher here. It is all because of the buses. Basically they use the same buses for all elementary, middle and high schools, so in order to have enough they have to stagger the start times. It would make the most sense that elementary would start earliest since they are usually to bed earlier and up earlier than high schoolers, but because they don't want elementary aged kids waiting for the bus in the dark as it often is at 6:30 in the morning, the high schoolers go first. I think it probably also has something to do with the number of after school activities many high schools have - in order to have practices, rehearsals, etc at a decent hour, the students have to get out relatively early (we get out at 2:10). It is definitely not ideal, but you get used to it. That first block of classes is both a blessing and a curse - students are usually calm because they are tired, but they are also sleepy and disinterested in doing much at that time! I know in Arlington where I live, the schools start later in high school - I think around 8:20? So it depends where you are...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School starts at 7:20? That's ridiculous. I had no idea. Why??

Do private schools start this early?

This is going to be a whole new factor in my decision-making process about schools. No adolescent I know can function at 7:20 AM -- I have my nephews and nieces in mind here.

Fairfax County high school teacher here. It is all because of the buses. Basically they use the same buses for all elementary, middle and high schools, so in order to have enough they have to stagger the start times. It would make the most sense that elementary would start earliest since they are usually to bed earlier and up earlier than high schoolers, but because they don't want elementary aged kids waiting for the bus in the dark as it often is at 6:30 in the morning, the high schoolers go first. I think it probably also has something to do with the number of after school activities many high schools have - in order to have practices, rehearsals, etc at a decent hour, the students have to get out relatively early (we get out at 2:10). It is definitely not ideal, but you get used to it. That first block of classes is both a blessing and a curse - students are usually calm because they are tired, but they are also sleepy and disinterested in doing much at that time! I know in Arlington where I live, the schools start later in high school - I think around 8:20? So it depends where you are...

To the teacher -- thanks for this good information. So, if high school starts at 7:20, what time do elementary and middle school students start? (When I was first researching schools, I'd try to find this information on the school websites and it was never posted. It's really an issue for me because I've seen my nephews -- who live elsewhere -- so exhausted and getting up at 6 AM in order to catch the 6:45 bus).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School starts at 7:20? That's ridiculous. I had no idea. Why??

Do private schools start this early?

This is going to be a whole new factor in my decision-making process about schools. No adolescent I know can function at 7:20 AM -- I have my nephews and nieces in mind here.

Fairfax County high school teacher here. It is all because of the buses. Basically they use the same buses for all elementary, middle and high schools, so in order to have enough they have to stagger the start times. It would make the most sense that elementary would start earliest since they are usually to bed earlier and up earlier than high schoolers, but because they don't want elementary aged kids waiting for the bus in the dark as it often is at 6:30 in the morning, the high schoolers go first. I think it probably also has something to do with the number of after school activities many high schools have - in order to have practices, rehearsals, etc at a decent hour, the students have to get out relatively early (we get out at 2:10). It is definitely not ideal, but you get used to it. That first block of classes is both a blessing and a curse - students are usually calm because they are tired, but they are also sleepy and disinterested in doing much at that time! I know in Arlington where I live, the schools start later in high school - I think around 8:20? So it depends where you are...

To the teacher -- thanks for this good information. So, if high school starts at 7:20, what time do elementary and middle school students start? (When I was first researching schools, I'd try to find this information on the school websites and it was never posted. It's really an issue for me because I've seen my nephews -- who live elsewhere -- so exhausted and getting up at 6 AM in order to catch the 6:45 bus).

I don't know exact start times, but here's something that might help:

http://www.fcps.edu/fts/tran/bell/index.htm

From that, it looks like middle school would start sometime in the 8 o'clock hour and the OP said elementary starts at 9.

[Anonymous]

OP here: Thanks for all the replies. To the PP, you REALLY have to dig to find out the start times. I looked at several of the local elementary school websites to see if I could answer the drop off time question I posed before posting it here. But it was really hard to even find school hours. I would think that would be on the Fairfax County school site, but it's not. You have to go to the individual school site, and dig around. Sometimes it's in the About Us type tab, or Location, or something similar. And yes-- in the schools I looked at, start times for elementary ranged from about 8:50 to 9:00.

[Anonymous]

Wow, surprisingly middle school starts early as well. I looked at Kilmer which is the feeder school to my high school and it starts at 7:35 - only 15 minutes later than high school. The elementary school (Lemon Road) starts at 9:05. Don't know how much variance there is on this within the county, but I was surprised by the middle school start time for Kilmer at least.

[Anonymous]

It is going to depend on where he will be going to school, as not all elementary schools follow same start time. (bus schedules and such)

Our school day begins at 9:15, but the kids can be dropped off as early as 8:30. They either go to breakfast, or go down to the gym and are supervised until school starts.

Call the school your child will be attending, they should be able to tell you

[Anonymous]

It varies widely from elem. school to elem. school. My son starts at 9:05 but friends in a neighboring community start at 8:05. Again, it comes down to the same buses being used for different schools.