Nearly 900 school districts in the United States currently use a four-day weekly academic schedule, according to CBS News and this number has spiked in the past few years.

A few reasons why schools have shortened their school weeks is to allow them to recruit new teachers, as well as lower costs.

Though the shortened week sounds better because students, faculty and staff have more time on their hands, the school day is lengthened by an hour or so to make up for that extra day off.

Assistant Principal Joshua Nall says that he thinks that four day school weeks would affect students by changing their schedules and might throw them off, or they may procrastinate and not do their work on time.

“Some downsides to [the four day weeks] would be not everyone using their time wisely to take care of responsibilities,” Nall said.

Both students and school staff alike like to be on a schedule and routine. Without that fifth school day each week, some may have to adjust. Also, students sometimes don’t use their time wisely and struggle with their time management and get behind in their school work.

“If I had a choice [for four or five days a week] I would say five because personally I like to be on a schedule and have structure,” Nall said.

According to NCSL, student attendance is improving with the schools that have changed to four day school weeks due to the longer weekends. By having more time for extracurricular and more free time to relax and rest, students are able to achieve better attendance as well as academics.

Some students, however, say they would benefit from the extra day off. Junior Asher Chaudry says that it would give him a day to get caught up on his school work.

“Switching to a four day schedule would give me more time to do the [school] work and understand materials,” Chaudry, who plays tennis for the Bulldogs, said.

Students involved in athletics and/or the arts might struggle when it comes to having a shortened week, but some students think it will give them more time to work on school assignments. Schools that have changed to the shorter school week have lengthened the school day to keep the learning time the same.

Junior Isaiah Earley-Ochwada said that he spends a lot of outside time on school-related things, such as theatre, and has to spend time outside of school building sets for the upcoming plays.

“Sometimes for after school tech theatre, I have to help build sets [typically on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursday] and I’ll help fix up things in the set,” Earley-Ochwada said. “If we were to switch to a shorter school week, my daily schedule because I would be getting home later than normal and I would have a harder time getting a ride.”

Chaudry said that school work would be easier to work on during that extra free day off if we were to switch to a shortened school schedule.

“A reason why I feel like [4 day school weeks] could be a bad idea is people not using their time wisely and some not having home-internet access to do their schoolwork at home.” Earley-Ochwada said.

However, Nall believes there could be some benefits to the shortened week such as mental health improvements. It also could lead to more free time towards extracurricular activities for the students to interact with outside of school.

“I think there could potentially be some mental health benefits to it as far as opening up [their schedule],” Nall said. “Certain individuals, teachers, students, would have more time to potentially work on outside activities.”

Schools also know that students have a very high percentage, 97% in 2021, of internet access according to NCES. Also students are more likely to have devices available to them at home, which could lead to a better ability to work on school work that extra day off in the week.

“[If we were to have a shortened week] I would definitely be working on last minute school work or finishing up a project that I didn’t get done during the week.” Earley-Ochwada said.

Aside from having time off for more relaxing and taking breaks, students may be loaded with more homework. Apart from homework, some parents agree that finding babysitters for their younger kids has become a struggle, as well as trying to keep them off their electronics.

According to AP News, a mother of three named Brandi Pruente, says that she is struggling to keep her kids off of electronics and occupied on their day off while she works her five-day schedule. The NCES, the National Center of Education Statistics, says that 98% of kids from ages 3-18 are on constantly or have availability to electronics at home.

Nall said that even though there are some benefits to the four-day school week, he believes that it is just better to have a full five day school week to give students the best chance with their education as well as their personal lives and having five days gives them a balance and routine.