Dear Judy,

I know that kids are required to go to school a certain amount of hours and days. Can you tell me how many hours of school are required and if they are different at different grades?

Mary

Dear Mary,

Your question opens a complex set of issues – bound up in state law and regulations, allocation of state aid and New York City's own variations, developed with the United Federation of Teachers and codified in their contract.

Students in New York state are required to attend school from age six. (In NYC the age is five, except that parents can choose to opt out of kindergarten and start their six year olds in 1st grade instead.)

When figuring out the length of the school day and hours of instruction, keep in mind that state laws define minimum hours.  Increased number of days and hours are allowed, provided that the union agrees. Charter schools are not bound by these rules, indeed most charters have extended instruction time, and many non-charter public schools do as well.

According to state law, recently clarified in an attendance memo, minimum days of instruction are 180. This is important because the formula for allocating state aid to school districts measures attendance during the required 180 days. The memo goes into detail on how these days are counted.

Here are the minimum required hours of instruction:

  • Kindergarten to 6th grade, 5 hours plus lunch
  • Grades 7-12, 5.5 hours plus lunch.

As for pre-kindergarten, the city offers "half day" - 2 hours and 30 minutes, or "whole day" - 6 hours and 20 minutes -- programs.

In an effort to offer more instruction to struggling students, the city just announcedan addition of 2 1/2 hours of school time to some middle schools yet to be selected. Robin Hood Foundation and the city will fund the program.

Then there are the 37 1/2 minutes. Since 2006, schools must extend the school day for 37.5 minutes Monday-Thursday to provide small group instruction and tutoring to students who need it. 

Of course there are other extended day programs provided by numerous agencies and parents associations.

I'm curious what parents think. Is the school day too long? Too short? Does an extended day make a difference at your school?

Judy