Coming to a district near you? Pennsylvania law now permits a 4-day school week.

Students in Pennsylvania public school districts could go to school just four days a week.

Legislation signed into law in December amended the Pennsylvania School Code to eliminate the requirement for a minimum 180 school days providing 900 or more instruction hours each academic year. Districts now can choose between 180 school days and hourly instruction requirements: 900 for elementary students and 990 for secondary students.

Four-day school weeks with extended hours Monday through Thursday or Tuesday through Friday would meet the hourly instructional requirements. But Erie area school districts aren't raising their hands to sign on.

"We've not had those conversations here," said Brad Whitman, executive director of Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit 5. IU5, based in Edinboro, provides educational services to 17 public school districts in Erie, Crawford and Warren counties.

"It comes with challenges that I don't think we're ready for," said Erie School District assistant Superintendent Teresa Szumigala.

Not a new concept

School districts in other parts of the country, mainly in the Midwest and West, already operate on four-day weeks. And their number is growing.

Nearly 900 school districts in 26 states have abbreviated schedules, up from 662 in 2019, Paul Thompson, of Oregon State University, told the Associated Press. Thompson has studied the trend.

Two-thirds of Colorado's 178 school districts have a four-day week. In Oregon and Missouri, the percentage is roughly one-third.

Pennsylvania school officials will need time to carefully consider potential benefits and drawbacks of an abbreviated week, which wasn't the primary intent of the new legislation, Whitman said.

The idea was to give school officials more flexibility to cope with things like boiler failure, water line breaks and fire — including the May fire that closed Girard's Elk Valley Elementary School for the remainder of the academic year.

"The change allows districts more flexibility and allows them to change instructional modalities as they see fit so long as they still meet hourly instructional requirements," Whitman said. "The solar eclipse was a prime example of districts having the flexibility to change their mode of instruction or even take a day off without being penalized."

School officials may also see fit to lop a day off the school week.

Potential benefits and challenges

Four-day school weeks can be attractive to staff and thereby help school districts fill vacancies. Teachers can use the day off classes to prepare lessons, grade papers, catch up with other work or simply as an extra day off, depending on contract agreements.

Manhattan School District #3 in New York switched to a four-day school week this academic year at the request of its teachers' union, according to the district website. The union requested the shorter school week to help the district attract and retain teachers.

It worked in the Independence School District in Missouri, where the superintendent told CBS News in August that teacher applications increased four-fold after the district switched to a Tuesday-Friday schedule.

And in a December Education Week Research Center survey of teachers, principals and school district leaders, two-thirds said that they would be either "slightly" or "much more" willing to accept a job in a school district with a four-day week.

The shorter week also could help districts attract bus drivers that are in short supply nationwide. It also could save districts money on transportation and food service costs.

"I've heard of some discussions in the eastern part of the state about four-day school weeks, mainly because of transportation issues," Whitman said.

Opponents point out that the advantage of four-day districts in attracting teachers, drivers and other staff will disappear if more districts abbreviate the school week.

And a 2011 analysis by the Economic Commission of the States found that savings in transportation, food service and other costs were minimal, from 0.4% to 2.5% of school districts' annual budgets.

In part, that may be because districts offer meals, at least at some schools, on Mondays or Fridays when classes aren't in session, primarily to serve children who depend on government-subsidized school meals.

Other services might have to be abbreviated if school weeks are abbreviated.

"There are so many services that we provide for students through the week, not only meals but after-school programming, mental health and counseling services, and other services and supports to students and families through our community school model," Erie School District's Szumigala said. "To provide those services, we need students to be in front of us as much as possible."

And parents would need to make arrangements for child care, particularly for elementary-aged children, on Mondays or Fridays. And that can come at a cost.

Maybe surprisingly, 89% of parents of elementary-aged students recently surveyed by Rand Corporation researchers said that they were "mostly" or "very" satisfied with four-day school weeks.

How do students fare?

Research on the effect of four-day school weeks on student learning is contradictory.

A Rand Corporation study found that declines in student achievement in four-day districts aren't apparent in the short term but became apparent over years.

However, in Missouri, where some schools have had four-day weeks since 2011, the change has had "no statistically significant effect" overall on either student achievement or growth, according to an analysis commissioned by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The study, released in early March, was based on student test scores and academic growth from 2008 through 2022.

Students could benefit from flexible time off school by taking job training or college courses, participating in enrichment programs, and working, state Rep. Jesse Topper, of Bedford County, R-78th Dist., said in a December statement. Topper was the primary sponsor of the legislation allowing Pennsylvania school districts more flexibility in scheduling instruction.

And teacher development programs can be scheduled periodically on Mondays or Fridays when classes aren't in session rather than on traditional in-service days during the school year, freeing those days for instruction.

"This legislation... will lead to more participation in internships and extended career and technology hours, allowing for increased individualized educational opportunities, student support and more focused workforce development," Topper said.

Closer to home: Schools pioneering shorter weeks

Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown switched to a Monday-Thursday school week this school year, extending each school day by 50 minutes to meet the state's requirement of 990 instructional hours. Parochial schools had not been required to have 180 class days.

Students are able to get extra help or participate in enrichment programs on Friday, school Principal and Chief Academic Officer Tom Smith said in a video detailing the four-day schedule.

"We are opening them up to a new world of college visits to do tours of colleges. We are going to have career fair opportunities, academic fair opportunities. They're going to have more access to tutoring and job shadowing," Smith said.

Manhattan School District #3 is pioneering the four-day school week in New York state.

The first so-called four-day school week in Ohio is in suburban Cincinnati's North College Hill School District, which actually launched a hybrid learning schedule this school year. Students and teachers work at home on Monday and are in school Tuesday through Friday.

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Time will tell

Increased costs, decreased revenues and increased competition for staff could prompt local school districts to weigh if they could shift to a four-day school week without impeding student achievement or severely curtailing student and family services.

"Right now, on the surface, it doesn't look to be too beneficial for us," said Szumigala, of the Erie School District.

"But it's not necessarily something we wouldn't look at in the future."

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Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: 4-day school week is now legal in PA. It's already a thing out West.