School-Aged Children
aries21
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Question from parent with an infant... school times/babysitting
aries21
member
Hi All,
I was wondering for the future how the schools are right now. When kids are in elementary school, does everyone have the option of a school bus to pick them up/drop off? What time does school usually start and end?
For parents who work, do you have babysitters that walk/drive your children to school and then pick them up? Are there after school activities avail on school premises?
I am just wondering how it will be in the future when both parents work full time jobs and kids will go to school. Thanks!
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Re: Question from parent with an infant... school times/babysitting
A lot of your questions are district specific. So I will answer as for my district.
I think 98% of the students in our district have the option of being bussed (we are in a rural district). School starts at 9ish and end after 3pm, however other district start and end earlier.
I work full time and get DS on the bus in the morning and then he takes a bus to the sitters where H picks him up. There are occasionally after school activities.
This is very specific to where you live, but I can at least tell you about our school.
There is no before-care, but I think some districts (or even some school within the districts?) provide that. We live too close to be bussed, but many kids are. I do work, but my hours are flexible and I'm part-time, so I drop him off around 8:30 and either DH or I pick him up at 3pm. There is an aftercare program it's like 10 dollars a day or something.
There are several daycares that operate shuttles to and from school. So, you'd have your kid in a before and aftercare program that includes the bus to and from school. The Y in our area definitely does this.
Or, you could put your child in an in-home daycare in your school district and have them get the bus (or be walked/driven) to and from there. The lady that watches my little one has some kids that do that.
I will answer for where I live....the public school districts all have busing and they all have a "latch key" program which is the before/after care program that you pay to be a part of. My children attend private(religious) school so there is no buses. I drive my kids to and from school. Our school does have a before and after care program and is very reasonably priced for working parents.
The busing varies from school district to school district. I live in Maryland. In my county, kids walk to school if they live within a mile of the school and have sidewalks to walk on the entire way from driveway to school door. We live about .3 mile from the school, but we have no sidewalk, so my kids ride a bus.
Elementary schools around here start at about 9 am and dismiss at around 3. Actual start times of schools in our area are staggered so that all the buses are not out there at the same time, but it's 9 and 3 give or take 30 minutes for every school.
Most elementary schools in my county have some sort of private daycare company that works with the school to provide before and after care for kids who attend the school. It's expensive and there's usually a wait list for spaces. Many daycare centers also offer before/after programs and have a private bus that picks kids up from local elementary schools.
When I worked p/t up until this year, grandparents took turns helping out. Now I teach part time at a private high school and my daycare needs are more than what the grandparents can handle. My next door neighbor watches my kids before and after. I can usually either put my kids on the bus or get them off the bus each day, but never both. I pay her $20/day to watch my 2 kids for about 90 minutes before or after school. If I did the school's daycare, I'd be paying $900/month for my 2 kids.
A lot does depend upon your district, but in ours it's like this:
bus is available; if you live what they consider too close (2 miles, in our case) you can use the bus but you pay. DD gets on the bus around 8:20am, and is home by noon (Kindergarten is 1/2 day where I am). Once 1st grade starts and she's there all day, she'll get home around 3:30/4:00. Her school starts at 9am, and goes until 3:15pm.
I am a SAHM. If I were working, for kindergarten I'd probably have her in a local daycare that has pickup/dropoff service that has a kindergarten program for those in the public school system. Once she's in 1st grade, her school participates in a before/after school program run by the YMCA which is great because she won't even have to leave her school.