Poll: Are your public school K's full time or part?

[Celia]

Just curious.

 

We're going through some medical issues with my eldest at the moment, and I've been increasingly tempted to put my dd in ps this year because I'm sure we'll be running around a lot doing therapies and whatnot. Except they just switched to having the K students full time, instead of just in the morning, which I really don't like.

 

Also, if anyone has any stories about their experiences with putting a young child in ps for a time then pulling them out after a year or two, I'd love to hear them. I don't know if it would cause more problems in the long than it would solve for me right now.

[Dmmetler]

In my state, K is required to be X number of hours, and X is just enough that it's over 1/2 time-so it's not possible for a school to do two 1/2 day sessions. K is also the one mandatory grade. So except for a few private K programs, they're all full-day.

 

My DD went to K last year, and I pulled her out for 1st grade. It hasn't caused problems. If anything, I think her having been in school has made it easier than some of my friends who's DC have never been in a school setting, because my DD knows that school last year involved a good bit of sitting, reading, writing, and so on, so that's what she expects in homeschooling, and the fact that we're done within a couple of hours is, for her, a bonus. In comparison, some of the people with kids her age who have never been in school have had a really tough transition when they tried doing K or 1 with a child who just plain saw no reason to do "school" when they'd never done school before and, to them, nothing had changed.

Edited April 25, 2011 by dmmetler

[Crissy]

Our public schools offer half-day Kindergarten to every child, and full-day on a lottery system. Full-day requires a fee.

[lisamarie]

Both. At this point parents can choose the full or half day class.

[Impish]

I don't know. It seems to be completely up to each school here.

[Paintedlady]

DS was in the public school kindergarten for half days and it wasn't a big deal for him to transition home but DD was in kinder (half day) and first grade (full day) in ps and it was a bit harder for her to adjust. We're at the end of our 4th year now though, and it's been going just fine.

[K&Rs Mom]

Ours has the option for either one right now, but is moving toward only offering full-day. The people I know who have done it have said it's a huge adjustment the first few months, kids come home exhausted at 3pm. But the people who do half-day K say the same thing about the first grade adjustment.

[regentrude]

My kids went to public school all through elementary. I pulled them out in 5th (DS) and 6th (DD- wish I had done it in 5th though).

My kids enjoyed school, at least in the beginning years, before they got too bored. We had no problems transitioning to homeschooling.

[Jenstet]

We are in a town that up until 2 years ago did not have public K. The state has mandated it so we now have 1/2 day.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I said "other" because our school district has the half day kids go a full-day every other day. There is also a paid full day option that is every day all day.

[Jennifer in MI]

Just switched to full day this year. But, I voted other because there is still an option for 1/2 day at a couple of the schools in the district.

[3andme]

We have full day and half day but the full day is more popular. They usually have 2 full day and 1 half day K class. We have to pay about $3,200 a year for full day because the state only covers 1/2 day classes.

[Veritaserum]

Half day (in our district at least).

[myfunnybunch]

I voted for both full and half. Most schools in our district offer half-day K, but there are a few that offer full day.

 

Cat

[MamaT]

K is full-time here.

[Night Elf]

Ours is full-day, and so is the pre-K program for 4-year olds.

[gingersmom]

Our kindergarten is full time.

 

My son went for kindergarten and first and then I pulled him out. He needed several months to decompress from public school but it has been smooth sailing ever since.

[Paige]

Ours is full day only. My oldest went from K-2 and my youngers from K-part of 1. I think it was beneficial for us.

[mom2denj]

They are full day here in Florida. I was very surprised because I am from NH and K is only half day.

[Ann@thebeach]

Ours are full day but you have the option of just bringing your child half day if you want. Some schools are very good about this and others only grudgingly agree.

Unless something is really lacking, the half day kids can still move to 1st grade with the class.

[chiguirre]

Other. The K here is 1:30 hours less than 1-5. They even have an extra bus run for the Kers.

[Parrothead]

I haven't the faintest idea.

[JennyD]

Full-day here. Some public schools also offer preK, which is generally very competitive to get (the schools don't have to take all zoned kids for preK and so they run a lottery), and that's frequently full-day as well.

 

And the only private school with half-day K that I've heard of here is one of the Waldorf schools. There may be others, but the overwhelming majority are full-day.

[kalanamak]

I voted other, because in my county some are and some aren't and this can even be at the same school. There is a lottery for the all day, and people are HOT for it.

[Pretty in Pink]

I answered 'half day', but I believe our district offers the option of 'full-day' for a fee.

[eternalknot]

My district, and two of the three surrounding districts all offer full-day only. The third nearby district offers a half-day, but I hear that it'll be phased out in the next few years.

[Bee]

Which is one of the reasons we started hsing in the first place.

 

No experience yet with taking a child out of school although younger dd who is currently in ps will probably be hsed again next year. From what I have seen of families who did take children out of school it really only worked well when the child(ren) wanted to hs. All of them who had children who didn't want to be hsed ended up putting those children back in some sort of school.

[sweetfeet]

Our district is half day for most children. Kids with IEPs and such who need additional therapies can go for a full without paying an additional fee. Typical kids can extend the day for a fee.

 

My niece in another major city goes to K on M,W,TH one week and just M and W the next. It's so confusing for her and not very consistent.

[Moniksca]

Our schools now have full day every other day and then every other friday in the month. M,W, every other F or TTH every other F, I think it's stupid. It doesn't give the child any consistency. When my ds was in ps they had half days which I prefer.

[courtney.byrum]

The small town we're in has gone full day for K. The neighboring towns are all half-day except for the charter school in one of them.

 

Last year my son was in 1/2 day K. My daughter started the year in full day K but decided she really liked what her brother was doing much more at home so we ended up taking her out in Nov. I didn't see any benefit to K being full day BUT she was already reading and doing math before starting so I think she got a lot less out of it than some of the other kids.

[AngelBee]

Full :(

[twoforjoy]

We could only find full-day kindergartens here, in both the public and the charter schools. The private schools all seemed to be full day, too.

 

That was a big reason why we pulled DS from his charter school and started homeschooling. We just felt like a full school day (plus homework) at 5 was way too much.

[Murmer]

Full day here....and I HATE it...I am scared to death that my ADHD/SPD sensory seeker is going to have it rough in all day Kinder...which is why I want to homeschool...but because we have an IEP in a high regulated state I am worried that we won't be approved :(

[elise1mds]

My state is full-day by law. They can't even offer half-day K any more. It irritated a lot of parents and teachers when that law went into effect, but now many new parents don't even know that it used to be any different.

[TKDmom]

Our schools are full-day. They will allow the child to attend K for only half-day (4 hours), but it's strongly discouraged. They do all the fun stuff in the afternoon. I had a friend who tried to have her ds attend K for half-day. After about a month, she gave up and let him stay for the full 6 hours.