Reimagining School: Rethink the School Day and Year to Better Serve Students and Families. What's Next: Policy Recommendations from the Bush Institute

Despite warnings that the school schedule that has been around for more than 100 years is not optimal for serving students' needs, little has changed. The needs of kids and families look very different today than they did 50 years ago. One-size-fits-all prescriptions do not meet the needs of a diverse student population. Rethinking the school schedule could address these issues. This can be accomplished by proactively surveying parents to understand who schools are serving and what their specific needs are, examining state laws and regulations that sometimes make more flexible scheduling impossible, reimagining how time is used within the hours that kids are in school, and using existing funding streams, such as Title I, to support innovative school schedules. Policy recommendations put forth in this report include: (1) The education community needs to gain a better understanding of the needs of families; (2) States should make more flexible scheduling possible; (3) Schools should rethink their roles in communities; and (4) Funding streams can be used to support innovative school schedules.