What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.
My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.
I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.
And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.
You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.
Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.
Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.
It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:
1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE
And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .
Those are wants vs needs
There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.
Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”
Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.
DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.
I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.
My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.
You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!
You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.
Great! So we agree.
So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.
No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.
Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.
Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.
And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.
I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.
Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.
Summer swim quite literally changed my life. It’s how I fell in love with the sport and got a full ride to a very good university. The year round swim teams cannot replicate the magic of summer league. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it. I am sure that other experiences that kids have over a 8 or 9 week summer are equally formative… 6 week sleep away camps being just one example. It would be a real shame to dramatically modify or get rid of these things just so kids can sit in public school buildings most of the year. And no, you can’t recreate a lot of these opportunities during a 5 week summer or shorter breaks throughout the year.
It feels like people who don’t have the means to create a good summer for their children want to get rid of it for everyone else, so they don’t have to feel bad.
This is silly. You think I’m trying to selfishly take away your summer because I’m without means and jealous of the opportunities you can provide?
No. I simply value school more than swim team. My children participate in both summer and club swim, and I STILL value school more.
We all have different priorities, I guess. I just think more study time and AP prep time during the school year is more important than decreasing a summer swim time by .001 seconds.
The kids aren't spending all those 3 and 4 day weeks studying.
They are spending them sleeping and playing on their phones.
Not all kids. Mine take multiple APs and have used the time off effectively.
+1 Yes! The random days off have been a blessing to my high schooler.
Same here!
I’m embarrassed for all of us if Fairfax kids somehow need four-day weeks in order to study so they can achieve what northeast kids can do with a normal schedule.
I can’t speak for all Northeast schools, but the ones I’m familiar with have a similar start and end time as FCPS (not counting this year) and if they start after Labor Day they go until the last week of June. Where their calendar differs is a they get a full week off for President’s day whereas FCPS scatters their closures. Northeast schools also only have a handful of snow days, so there is less uncertainty with weather disruptions.
My hometown (suburban NY) goes back after labor day and finishes in the same week as FCPS. Two weeks more of summer as well as that Presidents’ day week. Their AP scores ate just fine….
My hometown city starts school the same week as FCPS and finishes the 3rd week of May for Seniors and Memorial Day weekend for everyone else. So did 4 of the other states we lived in.
What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.
My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.
I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.
And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.
You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.
Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.
Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.
It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:
1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE
And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .
Those are wants vs needs
There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.
Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”
Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.
DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.
I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.
My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.
You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!
You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.
Great! So we agree.
So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.
No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.
Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.
Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.
And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.
I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.
Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.
Summer swim quite literally changed my life. It’s how I fell in love with the sport and got a full ride to a very good university. The year round swim teams cannot replicate the magic of summer league. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it. I am sure that other experiences that kids have over a 8 or 9 week summer are equally formative… 6 week sleep away camps being just one example. It would be a real shame to dramatically modify or get rid of these things just so kids can sit in public school buildings most of the year. And no, you can’t recreate a lot of these opportunities during a 5 week summer or shorter breaks throughout the year.
It feels like people who don’t have the means to create a good summer for their children want to get rid of it for everyone else, so they don’t have to feel bad.
This is silly. You think I’m trying to selfishly take away your summer because I’m without means and jealous of the opportunities you can provide?
No. I simply value school more than swim team. My children participate in both summer and club swim, and I STILL value school more.
We all have different priorities, I guess. I just think more study time and AP prep time during the school year is more important than decreasing a summer swim time by .001 seconds.
The kids aren't spending all those 3 and 4 day weeks studying.
They are spending them sleeping and playing on their phones.
Not all kids. Mine take multiple APs and have used the time off effectively.
+1 Yes! The random days off have been a blessing to my high schooler.
Same here!
I’m embarrassed for all of us if Fairfax kids somehow need four-day weeks in order to study so they can achieve what northeast kids can do with a normal schedule.
I can’t speak for all Northeast schools, but the ones I’m familiar with have a similar start and end time as FCPS (not counting this year) and if they start after Labor Day they go until the last week of June. Where their calendar differs is a they get a full week off for President’s day whereas FCPS scatters their closures. Northeast schools also only have a handful of snow days, so there is less uncertainty with weather disruptions.
My hometown (suburban NY) goes back after labor day and finishes in the same week as FCPS. Two weeks more of summer as well as that Presidents’ day week. Their AP scores ate just fine….
My hometown city starts school the same week as FCPS and finishes the 3rd week of May for Seniors and Memorial Day weekend for everyone else. So did 4 of the other states we lived in.
How many days were scheduled though? That schedule sounds tough to hit 180 days. The City of Falls Church already has a pretty bare bones calendar and goes into June.
What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.
My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.
I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.
And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.
You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.
Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.
Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.
It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:
1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE
And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .
Those are wants vs needs
There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.
Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”
Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.
DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.
I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.
My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.
You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!
You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.
Great! So we agree.
So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.
No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.
Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.
Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.
And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.
I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.
Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.
Summer swim quite literally changed my life. It’s how I fell in love with the sport and got a full ride to a very good university. The year round swim teams cannot replicate the magic of summer league. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it. I am sure that other experiences that kids have over a 8 or 9 week summer are equally formative… 6 week sleep away camps being just one example. It would be a real shame to dramatically modify or get rid of these things just so kids can sit in public school buildings most of the year. And no, you can’t recreate a lot of these opportunities during a 5 week summer or shorter breaks throughout the year.
It feels like people who don’t have the means to create a good summer for their children want to get rid of it for everyone else, so they don’t have to feel bad.
This is silly. You think I’m trying to selfishly take away your summer because I’m without means and jealous of the opportunities you can provide?
No. I simply value school more than swim team. My children participate in both summer and club swim, and I STILL value school more.
We all have different priorities, I guess. I just think more study time and AP prep time during the school year is more important than decreasing a summer swim time by .001 seconds.
The kids aren't spending all those 3 and 4 day weeks studying.
They are spending them sleeping and playing on their phones.
If your kids are playing on your phones, that's on you. Parents absolutely have to monitor and set boundaries for this...get a good app like Qustodio that limits screen time minutes and what hours of the day they can be on it, and make them put devices in common area or your room at night. It takes some parenting discipline but can be done and is worth it - they are not developmentally old enough to limit themselves.
Anonymous wrote:It’s just amazing to me that people truly look at the Fairfax County Public School system, and think to themselves “this, this is the pinnacle of what the world has to offer my child (or any other)” and so conclude the best place for them for as much of the year as possible is a FCPS facility. Maybe it’s a lack of imagination? Parental fatigue? It’s just very sad.
People who think FCPS is the pinnacle of education often come from elsewhere in the country with public school systems that are a lot worse. FCPS is objectively better than what they had but it is not objectively good. A lot of this is "I've made it!" ego. Add in the political piece that the board is all Dems and therefore it must be great and there is no convincing these people that their kid getting a 3.6 on watered down material and with infinite retakes isn't actually learning that much.
It’s not even about being the pinnacle of education. It’s about the whole of childhood/adolescence. Yes, school is both legally required and extremely important, but many, many students find their true passion outside of school, and those summer opportunities make up for huge gaps in the arts and sciences, in athletics, in culture. Wanting to take those away from students for something as generic as FCPS seems abusive.
PP - comment was more about the current calendar than year-round schooling. I am in agreement that a longer summer (and less random breaks) would be better. I was being supportive of the commenter who said that it's nuts people think the schools are so good we should keep kids in them all the time.
Agree. And the people who want this year round/swiss cheese calendar are the first to scream if anyone suggests teachers do more to make FCPS a better-than-meh program. Teachers won’t grade on time or return emails so what we need is…more time with them in charge of our students?
What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.
My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.
I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.
And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.
You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.
Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.
Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.
It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:
1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE
And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .
Those are wants vs needs
There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.
Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”
Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.
DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.
I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.
My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.
You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!
You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.
Great! So we agree.
So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.
No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.
Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.
Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.
And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.
I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.
Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.
Summer swim quite literally changed my life. It’s how I fell in love with the sport and got a full ride to a very good university. The year round swim teams cannot replicate the magic of summer league. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it. I am sure that other experiences that kids have over a 8 or 9 week summer are equally formative… 6 week sleep away camps being just one example. It would be a real shame to dramatically modify or get rid of these things just so kids can sit in public school buildings most of the year. And no, you can’t recreate a lot of these opportunities during a 5 week summer or shorter breaks throughout the year.
It feels like people who don’t have the means to create a good summer for their children want to get rid of it for everyone else, so they don’t have to feel bad.
This is silly. You think I’m trying to selfishly take away your summer because I’m without means and jealous of the opportunities you can provide?
No. I simply value school more than swim team. My children participate in both summer and club swim, and I STILL value school more.
We all have different priorities, I guess. I just think more study time and AP prep time during the school year is more important than decreasing a summer swim time by .001 seconds.
The kids aren't spending all those 3 and 4 day weeks studying.
They are spending them sleeping and playing on their phones.
Not all kids. Mine take multiple APs and have used the time off effectively.
+1 Yes! The random days off have been a blessing to my high schooler.
Same here!
I’m embarrassed for all of us if Fairfax kids somehow need four-day weeks in order to study so they can achieve what northeast kids can do with a normal schedule.
I can’t speak for all Northeast schools, but the ones I’m familiar with have a similar start and end time as FCPS (not counting this year) and if they start after Labor Day they go until the last week of June. Where their calendar differs is a they get a full week off for President’s day whereas FCPS scatters their closures. Northeast schools also only have a handful of snow days, so there is less uncertainty with weather disruptions.
Baloney.
Name the states that give a full week off for... presidents day
My sister’s district in the Seattle metro area. 2 weeks at Christmas, 1 week in February, 1 week in april, finish the end of June. There’s a week of half day conferences at each level too.
Anonymous wrote:It’s just amazing to me that people truly look at the Fairfax County Public School system, and think to themselves “this, this is the pinnacle of what the world has to offer my child (or any other)” and so conclude the best place for them for as much of the year as possible is a FCPS facility. Maybe it’s a lack of imagination? Parental fatigue? It’s just very sad.
People who think FCPS is the pinnacle of education often come from elsewhere in the country with public school systems that are a lot worse. FCPS is objectively better than what they had but it is not objectively good. A lot of this is "I've made it!" ego. Add in the political piece that the board is all Dems and therefore it must be great and there is no convincing these people that their kid getting a 3.6 on watered down material and with infinite retakes isn't actually learning that much.
We came from California, so of course FCPS feels like the pinnacle. California schools are terrible.
If we had come from Texas, where we were before California, FCPS as it is now would have been a lateral move or slight downgrade. Texas has great schools.
Where in Texas?
My kids briefly were in schools just outside Dallas. The schools they attended were awful.
My nephews are in school near San Antonio. We are not impressed at all with the education they are receiving at school.
What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.
My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.
I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.
And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.
You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.
Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.
Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.
It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:
1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE
And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .
Those are wants vs needs
There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.
Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”
Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.
DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.
I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.
My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.
You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!
You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.
Great! So we agree.
So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.
No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.
Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.
Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.
And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.
I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.
Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.
Summer swim quite literally changed my life. It’s how I fell in love with the sport and got a full ride to a very good university. The year round swim teams cannot replicate the magic of summer league. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it. I am sure that other experiences that kids have over a 8 or 9 week summer are equally formative… 6 week sleep away camps being just one example. It would be a real shame to dramatically modify or get rid of these things just so kids can sit in public school buildings most of the year. And no, you can’t recreate a lot of these opportunities during a 5 week summer or shorter breaks throughout the year.
It feels like people who don’t have the means to create a good summer for their children want to get rid of it for everyone else, so they don’t have to feel bad.
This is silly. You think I’m trying to selfishly take away your summer because I’m without means and jealous of the opportunities you can provide?
No. I simply value school more than swim team. My children participate in both summer and club swim, and I STILL value school more.
We all have different priorities, I guess. I just think more study time and AP prep time during the school year is more important than decreasing a summer swim time by .001 seconds.
The kids aren't spending all those 3 and 4 day weeks studying.
They are spending them sleeping and playing on their phones.
Not all kids. Mine take multiple APs and have used the time off effectively.
+1 Yes! The random days off have been a blessing to my high schooler.
Same here!
I’m embarrassed for all of us if Fairfax kids somehow need four-day weeks in order to study so they can achieve what northeast kids can do with a normal schedule.
I can’t speak for all Northeast schools, but the ones I’m familiar with have a similar start and end time as FCPS (not counting this year) and if they start after Labor Day they go until the last week of June. Where their calendar differs is a they get a full week off for President’s day whereas FCPS scatters their closures. Northeast schools also only have a handful of snow days, so there is less uncertainty with weather disruptions.
Baloney.
Name the states that give a full week off for... presidents day
My sister’s district in the Seattle metro area. 2 weeks at Christmas, 1 week in February, 1 week in april, finish the end of June. There’s a week of half day conferences at each level too.
What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.
My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.
I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.
And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.
You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.
Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.
Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.
It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:
1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE
And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .
Those are wants vs needs
There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.
Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”
Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.
DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.
I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.
My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.
You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!
You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.
Great! So we agree.
So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.
No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.
Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.
Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.
And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.
I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.
Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.
Summer swim quite literally changed my life. It’s how I fell in love with the sport and got a full ride to a very good university. The year round swim teams cannot replicate the magic of summer league. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it. I am sure that other experiences that kids have over a 8 or 9 week summer are equally formative… 6 week sleep away camps being just one example. It would be a real shame to dramatically modify or get rid of these things just so kids can sit in public school buildings most of the year. And no, you can’t recreate a lot of these opportunities during a 5 week summer or shorter breaks throughout the year.
It feels like people who don’t have the means to create a good summer for their children want to get rid of it for everyone else, so they don’t have to feel bad.
This is silly. You think I’m trying to selfishly take away your summer because I’m without means and jealous of the opportunities you can provide?
No. I simply value school more than swim team. My children participate in both summer and club swim, and I STILL value school more.
We all have different priorities, I guess. I just think more study time and AP prep time during the school year is more important than decreasing a summer swim time by .001 seconds.
The kids aren't spending all those 3 and 4 day weeks studying.
They are spending them sleeping and playing on their phones.
Not all kids. Mine take multiple APs and have used the time off effectively.
+1 Yes! The random days off have been a blessing to my high schooler.
Same here!
I’m embarrassed for all of us if Fairfax kids somehow need four-day weeks in order to study so they can achieve what northeast kids can do with a normal schedule.
I can’t speak for all Northeast schools, but the ones I’m familiar with have a similar start and end time as FCPS (not counting this year) and if they start after Labor Day they go until the last week of June. Where their calendar differs is a they get a full week off for President’s day whereas FCPS scatters their closures. Northeast schools also only have a handful of snow days, so there is less uncertainty with weather disruptions.
Baloney.
Name the states that give a full week off for... presidents day
My sister’s district in the Seattle metro area. 2 weeks at Christmas, 1 week in February, 1 week in april, finish the end of June. There’s a week of half day conferences at each level too.
Anonymous wrote:It’s just amazing to me that people truly look at the Fairfax County Public School system, and think to themselves “this, this is the pinnacle of what the world has to offer my child (or any other)” and so conclude the best place for them for as much of the year as possible is a FCPS facility. Maybe it’s a lack of imagination? Parental fatigue? It’s just very sad.
People who think FCPS is the pinnacle of education often come from elsewhere in the country with public school systems that are a lot worse. FCPS is objectively better than what they had but it is not objectively good. A lot of this is "I've made it!" ego. Add in the political piece that the board is all Dems and therefore it must be great and there is no convincing these people that their kid getting a 3.6 on watered down material and with infinite retakes isn't actually learning that much.
It’s not even about being the pinnacle of education. It’s about the whole of childhood/adolescence. Yes, school is both legally required and extremely important, but many, many students find their true passion outside of school, and those summer opportunities make up for huge gaps in the arts and sciences, in athletics, in culture. Wanting to take those away from students for something as generic as FCPS seems abusive.
PP - comment was more about the current calendar than year-round schooling. I am in agreement that a longer summer (and less random breaks) would be better. I was being supportive of the commenter who said that it's nuts people think the schools are so good we should keep kids in them all the time.
Agree. And the people who want this year round/swiss cheese calendar are the first to scream if anyone suggests teachers do more to make FCPS a better-than-meh program. Teachers won’t grade on time or return emails so what we need is…more time with them in charge of our students?
I'm a teacher and I don't really understand your statement. Are you claiming there's no need for students to go to school because teachers are irresponsible?
Personally, I've taken great advantage of this "swiss cheese" calendar. I've been more up-to-date on my grades than ever. I've had time to leave more thorough comments and I've had time to rework/revise lessons so they're better for my students. It's amazing what a gift work day can do! It's 8-10 hours of uninterrupted time to catch up without having to feel guilty for taking a Saturday away from my family.
Anonymous wrote:It’s just amazing to me that people truly look at the Fairfax County Public School system, and think to themselves “this, this is the pinnacle of what the world has to offer my child (or any other)” and so conclude the best place for them for as much of the year as possible is a FCPS facility. Maybe it’s a lack of imagination? Parental fatigue? It’s just very sad.
People who think FCPS is the pinnacle of education often come from elsewhere in the country with public school systems that are a lot worse. FCPS is objectively better than what they had but it is not objectively good. A lot of this is "I've made it!" ego. Add in the political piece that the board is all Dems and therefore it must be great and there is no convincing these people that their kid getting a 3.6 on watered down material and with infinite retakes isn't actually learning that much.
We came from California, so of course FCPS feels like the pinnacle. California schools are terrible.
If we had come from Texas, where we were before California, FCPS as it is now would have been a lateral move or slight downgrade. Texas has great schools.
Where in Texas?
My kids briefly were in schools just outside Dallas. The schools they attended were awful.
My nephews are in school near San Antonio. We are not impressed at all with the education they are receiving at school.
Anonymous wrote:It’s just amazing to me that people truly look at the Fairfax County Public School system, and think to themselves “this, this is the pinnacle of what the world has to offer my child (or any other)” and so conclude the best place for them for as much of the year as possible is a FCPS facility. Maybe it’s a lack of imagination? Parental fatigue? It’s just very sad.
People who think FCPS is the pinnacle of education often come from elsewhere in the country with public school systems that are a lot worse. FCPS is objectively better than what they had but it is not objectively good. A lot of this is "I've made it!" ego. Add in the political piece that the board is all Dems and therefore it must be great and there is no convincing these people that their kid getting a 3.6 on watered down material and with infinite retakes isn't actually learning that much.
It’s not even about being the pinnacle of education. It’s about the whole of childhood/adolescence. Yes, school is both legally required and extremely important, but many, many students find their true passion outside of school, and those summer opportunities make up for huge gaps in the arts and sciences, in athletics, in culture. Wanting to take those away from students for something as generic as FCPS seems abusive.
PP - comment was more about the current calendar than year-round schooling. I am in agreement that a longer summer (and less random breaks) would be better. I was being supportive of the commenter who said that it's nuts people think the schools are so good we should keep kids in them all the time.
Agree. And the people who want this year round/swiss cheese calendar are the first to scream if anyone suggests teachers do more to make FCPS a better-than-meh program. Teachers won’t grade on time or return emails so what we need is…more time with them in charge of our students?
I'm a teacher and I don't really understand your statement. Are you claiming there's no need for students to go to school because teachers are irresponsible?
Personally, I've taken great advantage of this "swiss cheese" calendar. I've been more up-to-date on my grades than ever. I've had time to leave more thorough comments and I've had time to rework/revise lessons so they're better for my students. It's amazing what a gift work day can do! It's 8-10 hours of uninterrupted time to catch up without having to feel guilty for taking a Saturday away from my family.
+1 we love this calendar too. Plenty of time for summer break plus random one day off here and there during the school year to refresh.
Anonymous wrote:It’s just amazing to me that people truly look at the Fairfax County Public School system, and think to themselves “this, this is the pinnacle of what the world has to offer my child (or any other)” and so conclude the best place for them for as much of the year as possible is a FCPS facility. Maybe it’s a lack of imagination? Parental fatigue? It’s just very sad.
People who think FCPS is the pinnacle of education often come from elsewhere in the country with public school systems that are a lot worse. FCPS is objectively better than what they had but it is not objectively good. A lot of this is "I've made it!" ego. Add in the political piece that the board is all Dems and therefore it must be great and there is no convincing these people that their kid getting a 3.6 on watered down material and with infinite retakes isn't actually learning that much.
It’s not even about being the pinnacle of education. It’s about the whole of childhood/adolescence. Yes, school is both legally required and extremely important, but many, many students find their true passion outside of school, and those summer opportunities make up for huge gaps in the arts and sciences, in athletics, in culture. Wanting to take those away from students for something as generic as FCPS seems abusive.
PP - comment was more about the current calendar than year-round schooling. I am in agreement that a longer summer (and less random breaks) would be better. I was being supportive of the commenter who said that it's nuts people think the schools are so good we should keep kids in them all the time.
Agree. And the people who want this year round/swiss cheese calendar are the first to scream if anyone suggests teachers do more to make FCPS a better-than-meh program. Teachers won’t grade on time or return emails so what we need is…more time with them in charge of our students?
I'm a teacher and I don't really understand your statement. Are you claiming there's no need for students to go to school because teachers are irresponsible?
Personally, I've taken great advantage of this "swiss cheese" calendar. I've been more up-to-date on my grades than ever. I've had time to leave more thorough comments and I've had time to rework/revise lessons so they're better for my students. It's amazing what a gift work day can do! It's 8-10 hours of uninterrupted time to catch up without having to feel guilty for taking a Saturday away from my family.
I’m saying school isn’t so amazing in FCPS that it justifies removing more opportunities from students. Even with the swiss cheese schedule look how many threads there are thus year about unresponsive teachers and late grades. For that we should keep our kids out of camps? For that, kids should miss summer programs other students get? No thanks.
What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.
My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.
I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.
And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.
You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.
Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.
Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.
It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:
1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE
And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .
Those are wants vs needs
There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.
Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”
Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.
DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.
I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.
My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.
You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!
You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.
Great! So we agree.
So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.
No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.
Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.
Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.
And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.
I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.
Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.
Summer swim quite literally changed my life. It’s how I fell in love with the sport and got a full ride to a very good university. The year round swim teams cannot replicate the magic of summer league. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it. I am sure that other experiences that kids have over a 8 or 9 week summer are equally formative… 6 week sleep away camps being just one example. It would be a real shame to dramatically modify or get rid of these things just so kids can sit in public school buildings most of the year. And no, you can’t recreate a lot of these opportunities during a 5 week summer or shorter breaks throughout the year.
It feels like people who don’t have the means to create a good summer for their children want to get rid of it for everyone else, so they don’t have to feel bad.
This is silly. You think I’m trying to selfishly take away your summer because I’m without means and jealous of the opportunities you can provide?
No. I simply value school more than swim team. My children participate in both summer and club swim, and I STILL value school more.
We all have different priorities, I guess. I just think more study time and AP prep time during the school year is more important than decreasing a summer swim time by .001 seconds.
The kids aren't spending all those 3 and 4 day weeks studying.
They are spending them sleeping and playing on their phones.
If your kids are playing on your phones, that's on you. Parents absolutely have to monitor and set boundaries for this...get a good app like Qustodio that limits screen time minutes and what hours of the day they can be on it, and make them put devices in common area or your room at night. It takes some parenting discipline but can be done and is worth it - they are not developmentally old enough to limit themselves.
Agreed, so sick of people blaming poor academic outcomes on phones as if it's only happening at school. Give me a break!
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