They are fundraisers. Not a lot of kids at our school take the spring pictures. Only the kids who bring in the orders get their photos taken, and the times are planned so there’s very little instructional time missed by any student.

I have a 19 and 14 year old and only ever bought photos in 5th, 8th and 12th grade. Same for yearbooks (they take up so much space). I don't need one or two sets of school photos every year when I have a camera in my pocket! Two photo sessions a year is ridiculous.

Ours does both, and the class photo is taken on the same day as spring photos.

The class photo is totally worth getting. I’m not sure why you would think no one would order one.

They’re fundraisers. My now 11th grader had spring portraits every year she was in elementary school. When she was in kindergarten, I expressed surprise, that they were doing portraits a second time in the same school year, and my 6 year old said to me, “Mrs. Jones says they’re so that you can see how much we’ve grown and changed, like if we’ve lost teeth.” Guess who was missing both front teeth at the time?

Ours always did both. When you’re looking for wasting time things to complain about this is t a big time suck and not worth your energy.

We were at two different ES. One did one portrait a year, the other did two.

Ours does both and did last year as well.

We do a spring photo for kids who missed or want to makeup.

We always did fall and spring photos when I was growing up. I find there is more than enough instructional time in elementary school so this doesn’t bother me at all.

We have a new principal this year. I don't ever remember doing a second portrait in a school year. Now there's "a spring portrait" and this is a few weeks after class photos (who buys those?). What does your school do? I'm irritated--it's a stupid use of instruction time.