Knox County Schools says support is strong for early release days, despite childcare and transportation challenges

Knox County students pose for a picture (Photo by Knox County Schools)

Early release days are popular with parents, despite the challenges they create according to the results of a survey conducted by Knox County Schools (KCS).

KCS began implementing early release days during the 2022/2023 school year, to give staff and administrators opportunities for professional development, collaboration, and planning. During the current school year, the district moved from having six early release days where students are dismissed two hours early, to four half days. To see how that change has impacted families and staff, the district sent out a survey to parents, teachers, and principals.

On Monday, district officials presented the results of that survey to Knox County School Board members. More than 11,000 parents responded, along with about 250 staff and principals. Overall, more than 75 percent of families said they support the continuation of early release or half days. However, about 53 percent of parents said the shorter days pose some challenge to their families, the primary issues being disruption to routine and lack of childcare and transportation. When asked about what changes they’d like to see, 43 percent of families said they’d like to see the district shift to two full days of in-service, while 12 percent preferred to stick with the current model of four half days. Ultimately, the district recommended keeping the four half day model for the 2025/2026 school year.

KCS Assistant Superintendent of Academics Dr. Keith Wilson told board members more frequent opportunities allow the focus of these sessions to be timelier and more responsive to both student and staff needs.

“The goal has been along the way to provide our school leaders with a series of opportunities over the year to be able to engage with folks in their school,” said Dr. Wilson. “The goal in all that is really around student outcome improvement and attending to what’s in their school improvement plan.”

Dr. Wilson said since the start of the program in 2022, schools are required to submit a plan outlining improvement goals and strategies that would be worked toward during in-service hours. He pointed out that the proposed half days of September 17 and November 19, 2025, and January 28 and March 26, 2026, all fall when quarterly benchmark exam results would be available, giving staff and administrators the opportunity to review them to tailor instruction and discuss any needed interventions.

Board members had several questions about the challenges half days present to both families and the school district.

“Is there any evidence there’s an impact from the early release days on attendance?” asked District 1 Representative John Butler.

“I don’t have the exact numbers, I will say over the course of the first semester, we did see some correlation. We can look into that,” responded Kori Lautner, KCS Assistant Superintendent of Strategy.

“15-percent of them (families) are expressing concerns about childcare,” said District 2 Representative Anne Templeton. “That’s about 1,600 families of the respondents who are really going to struggle with childcare. I was curious if we know where those struggles are.”

“Our aftercare providers who are already serving students have been able to accommodate the four half day model this year and we would anticipate the same next year,” said Lautner.

Dr. Wilson went on to add aftercare providers in the area depend largely on college students, and moving next January’s half day back helped to address any staffing issues since most colleges and universities would be back from winter break.

Board members will vote on approval of the revised calendar for the 2025-26 school year during their meeting this Thursday.