Multiple districts — A top of mind question for many at the start of the 2024-25 school year: If the state mandates schools to start after Labor Day, why are so many starting before then, and so early?
It is true that in 2005, the Michigan Legislature passed a law that mandated schools to start after Labor Day. Signed by then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the law, which went into effect in 2006, was to support tourism in the state.
But within the statute there are exceptions. Many school districts and intermediate districts seek a waiver to start early if they have a middle college program, such as Kent ISD’s Launch U, said Sue Gardner, Kent ISD’s assistant superintendent of career and talent development.
“We have an exceptional middle college program that continues to grow and add a lot of benefit to our districts,” Gardner said.
Several school districts also have middle college programs, including Cedar Springs, Kentwood, Grand Rapids, Kenowa Hills and Wyoming. There were 684 students enrolled in those programs in the 2022-23 school year. Dual enrollment programs at local districts also fall under the exception.
Because of Launch U, Kent ISD sought a three-year post-Labor Day start waiver in 2022 for its entire service area that would cover all public and private schools. The waiver was approved by the Michigan Department of Education and expires at the end of the 2025-26 school year.
With the waiver, Kent ISD is able to align the program with the start date of Grand Rapids Community College, which partners with Kent ISD for Launch U. This school year, GRCC started Aug. 22 with opening day meetings and school meetings. The first full day of classes was Aug. 26.
Since Launch U starts in 10th grade, schools need to assure there is transportation available for those attending, and that the students have a chance to go through orientation, which wouldn’t happen if schools started after Labor Day, according to Kent ISD officials.
Kent ISD also has to show that it provides a summer school program, which is offered by MySchool@Kent, where students have the opportunity for credit recovery and program acceleration.
Many Reasons for Early Start
A middle college program or dual enrollment is not the only reason a district may seek to start school pre-Labor Day.
Cedar Springs started on Aug. 21, and Superintendent Scott Smith said the consensus within the district is that it makes sense to start sooner rather than later.
Many factors contribute to the decision, he said, noting that by late August activities such as fall sports and marching band are already well underway.
“For all of those students, they’re already back and engaged, so to have them sit around and wait for school to start seems a little illogical,” Smith said.
Since schools are required to have 1,098 hours of school learning time, there are also plenty of academic reasons for an early start.
“Starting pre-Labor Day gives us more time in June to do an extended learning window for students at the high school who need to get credit recovery done,” Smith said, and it affords time for younger grades’ summer school programs to wrap up and still leave the full month of July for family vacations.
An earlier start to the school year also lets students and teachers have the maximum amount of instructional time prior to the start of standardized tests and assessments.
“It just makes more sense from an academic and student engagement perspective,” Smith said.
Not All Schools Start Early
Some schools do not take advantage of the allowed early start. Several have started later over the past couple of years, mostly due to construction.
Such was the case for Kenowa Hills Public Schools, the only area public school starting after Labor Day this school year.
Kenowa Hills Superintendent Jerry Hopkins said extensive ongoing construction projects at Kenowa Hills Middle School led to the district’s decision to push their 2024-25 start date to after Labor Day.
Hopkins said contractors needed more time to complete the new kitchen and cafeteria serving areas without anyone in the building, and since those areas impact everyone in the middle school, the decision was made to start after Labor Day. He said the delayed start allowed all of the district’s buildings to remain on the same school year calendar.
A review of the MDE’s list of approved waivers shows only six of Michigan’s 83 counties do not have any school with a post-Labor Day waiver. Of the state’s 57 intermediate school districts, 44 have the waiver.
So if so many school districts seek the waiver, why does the state still have the law mandating school to start after Labor Day?
There have been efforts to change the law, most recently in 2023, by Rep. Matt Klesazar, D-Plymouth. While introduced in the House Education Committee, it was never voted on by the House of Representatives. There has not been much discussion on the issue since then.
Since Kent ISD is only on year two of its three-year waiver, discussion on whether Kent ISD will seek another waiver has not yet come up, according to Kent ISD officials, although they do expect Kent County superintendents will support doing so again.
Reporters Alexis Stark and Riley Kelley contributed to this story.
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