Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are your elementary school's hours in Fairfax County? The one my daughter will be starting at is 9:00am - 4:00pm which means that we'll have to pay for both before care and after care because if I drop my kid off at 9:00am, I won't get to work until 10:00. Why on earth do they start little kids so late?? I see other elementaries that I drive by that start at 8:00, that would make so much more sense (and cost me so much less money).

Can either you or your spouse go to work early and be out by the time school ends? Many parents at the later ES, stagger their work hours that way.

This is what we do. DS's school doesn't open til 9, and the bell schedule is 9:20-4:05. I take him to before care around 8 and then go work my normal day. DH leaves for work at 6 am and is home to meet the bus at 4:18. (disclaimer: we do send DS to a tae kwon do aftercare program two days a week to give DH more flexibility and because we think it's good for DS. It's a bit of a luxury and if $$ was tight, it would probably be something we dropped quickly. On those days, the TKD van picks him up and we get him at 6. I didn't want to do that every day because it would be a LONG day for DS but he gets mad when we pick him up before 6 now, LOL.)

Anonymous wrote:Our Es is 9:15 to 4. It's a center school and is on the second bus run. It's really late, and the transition to MS is going to be really hard.

The bus schedule IMO, is a huge cost savings and not worth it. I wish Fairfax would hike taxes to pay for 2 or 3 times as many buses, so that the bus schedules would be more flexible.

they can't even get enough drivers for the busses they already have.

Anonymous wrote:Our Es is 9:15 to 4. It's a center school and is on the second bus run. It's really late, and the transition to MS is going to be really hard.

The bus schedule IMO, is a huge cost savings and not worth it. I wish Fairfax would hike taxes to pay for 2 or 3 times as many buses, so that the bus schedules would be more flexible.

I would rather they use the money for smaller classroom. We do not need more buses on the roads.

Our Es is 9:15 to 4. It's a center school and is on the second bus run. It's really late, and the transition to MS is going to be really hard.

The bus schedule IMO, is a huge cost savings and not worth it. I wish Fairfax would hike taxes to pay for 2 or 3 times as many buses, so that the bus schedules would be more flexible.

Anonymous wrote:What are your elementary school's hours in Fairfax County? The one my daughter will be starting at is 9:00am - 4:00pm which means that we'll have to pay for both before care and after care because if I drop my kid off at 9:00am, I won't get to work until 10:00. Why on earth do they start little kids so late?? I see other elementaries that I drive by that start at 8:00, that would make so much more sense (and cost me so much less money).

Can either you or your spouse go to work early and be out by the time school ends? Many parents at the later ES, stagger their work hours that way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are your elementary school's hours in Fairfax County? The one my daughter will be starting at is 9:00am - 4:00pm which means that we'll have to pay for both before care and after care because if I drop my kid off at 9:00am, I won't get to work until 10:00. Why on earth do they start little kids so late?? I see other elementaries that I drive by that start at 8:00, that would make so much more sense (and cost me so much less money).

8:00am??? No, you're not seeing any elementary schools FCPS that begin at 8am.

Our school doors open at 8:10.

Anonymous wrote:It's such a large system that they stagger hours so that they can save money on the number of buses they own.

+1 Buses make two ES runs, so one is earlier and one is later. Most buses run 3-4 runs in the am (2ES, MS & HS) and 3-4 in the evening. So, start times are staggered.

Before and after care is still cheaper than full time care.

Anonymous wrote:I think there are a couple that start at least by 8:15.

Thanks for sharing what you "think." It would actually be helpful to share what you KNOW. And if you don't know of any schools that start at 8:15am, then why comment?

^^ off

At our schools kids can be dropped of starting 25 mins before school starts

Some start around 8:40 and others start as late as 9:20. The hours are terrible and the day is way too long.

I think there are a couple that start at least by 8:15.

Anonymous wrote:What are your elementary school's hours in Fairfax County? The one my daughter will be starting at is 9:00am - 4:00pm which means that we'll have to pay for both before care and after care because if I drop my kid off at 9:00am, I won't get to work until 10:00. Why on earth do they start little kids so late?? I see other elementaries that I drive by that start at 8:00, that would make so much more sense (and cost me so much less money).

8:00am??? No, you're not seeing any elementary schools FCPS that begin at 8am.

It's such a large system that they stagger hours so that they can save money on the number of buses they own.

What are your elementary school's hours in Fairfax County? The one my daughter will be starting at is 9:00am - 4:00pm which means that we'll have to pay for both before care and after care because if I drop my kid off at 9:00am, I won't get to work until 10:00. Why on earth do they start little kids so late?? I see other elementaries that I drive by that start at 8:00, that would make so much more sense (and cost me so much less money).