Extended Summer for Texas Students

For many years, the start of the school year would creep sooner and sooner into the beginning of August. When I first moved to Richardson back in 1984, I thought it was weird that school started in August right before Labor Day, but it was ok because we would go to school for a couple of days, because school never started on a Monday or Tuesday, and then we would have a long weekend to adjust to our new teacher and new classmates, and then we would come back in September.

Those days have long past. As I got into Junior High and High School, school would start towards the end of August and not that last week. Then it would go into mid-August. As school was starting earlier and earlier, we still never had a "Fall Break" in October that the kids have today, though we did have one Monday in October for Fair Day. The only good thing that came out of starting earlier was that semester exams were before the Winter Holiday. Before that, we would get a couple of weeks off for Winter Break and then we would have to come back to school for review in all our classes and then exams were the next week. Then, the next semester started the next week and we got out of school after Memorial Day.

However, and that's a HUGE However, Texas passed a new law that takes effect this year and NO school can start classes before the fourth Monday in August. For many districts in my area, that means 3 extra weeks of Summer!! 3 entire weeks added to the Summer Break. Isn't that wonderful?

From a Real Estate view, I see that as having more time for buyers to find the house they really want if changing school districts. Instead of sales hitting a high in July, I think sales will hit a high in August.

For the students, what this means is no more Fall Break in October for most of the districts, and they'll probably go back to just a Monday Fair Day. Also, each district is going to be different as to when they do their exams. I can't wait to see how Richardson and Plano set their schedules. Classes will also start going into the beginning of June because they'll need the extra time that they were getting at the beginning of the year.

What does everyone think of this new school schedule? Is this going to work better for your Summer vacations? Is it messing with plans you had? Is it going to cost you more because you'll have to spend more money to keep your kids in Summer programs longer?

Since BabyHarris will still have 5 more years before starting school, I'm curious on how this will effect others so I can start planning, as I'm a control freak!