Katelyn Mahoney
Hello,
I am concerned about the proposed schedule for elementary school. I think it’s too early for young kids to be getting up. I will have to wake my kids up a whole hour before their natural wake up time. 6-12 year olds need 9-12 hours of sleep per night, 13-18 year olds need 8-10 according to the CDC. The elementary kids should not have the earliest school schedule, it is hard to put them to bed early enough to get enough hours of sleep if they have to wake up around 6:00am.
The earlier release every day will most likely cost working parents money as it will force a lot of parents to sign up for after school care when they didn’t need it previously. For example, some parents can be done with work by 4:00 to meet the bus, but to be done by 3:00 is much less feasible. Also, the kids already in after school care will spend an additional hour in aftercare which is not ideal.
Older kids can take care of themselves after school, but elementary schoolers cannot. It doesn’t make sense to have the youngest kids get out earliest, this will adversely affect the parents of elementary schoolers. Some parents depend on their older kids to take care of the youngest after school, in this case the older kids cannot help their parents.
I have spoken to a lot of parents of elementary schoolers who are affected by the proposed schedule and so far no other parent has liked it either. I, of course, wish that the state hadn't forced the schools to make these changes in the first place and I understand the difficulties this is causing LAPS.
Thank you,
Katelyn Mahoney