What about the parents? The best thing to do is have a schedule that is consistent throughout the year - same hours/same days every week with absolute minimum deviation. Every time kids are let out early, an unnecessary hardship on parents and kids is created, resulting in latch-key situations where children are left at home unsupervised because of the difficult choice the school board is foisting on the family - stay at home or go to work to put food on the table. Despite the rationalizations in the article, I suspect this is much more about what's convenient for school staff with little to no consideration for the working parent(s). Just one more example of how public schools are out of touch and failing their constituents. Just one more reason why families continue to seek out other education options and abandon the public school system altogether. It's an artificial situation that's being created by educators themselves and is a social engineering policy that needs to be rethought.