How do delayed starts work?

[konapoppy]

I realized I don’t understand the mechanics of this. How do kid’s suddenly get to school 2 hours later? Do busses pick everyone up? Do parents drop what they are doing? Like, how???

[ssmjlm]

For us, before care opens 2 hours later, so instead of 6am, it's 8am.

Buses run all the same routes, just on the delay. So they would show up at 10:30am instead of 8:30am.

For those that drive, yes, everything is delayed accordingly.

[wanderingback]

At least everywhere I’ve lived, yes, the buses come 2 hours later. So yes if you’re a working parent then you would have to miss some work if your kid isn’t old enough to stay home alone or you typically take them to school.

[devonpow]

I can’t remember ever having a delayed start here - and DS1 is a junior in high school now (we are in Boston so definitely have bad weather lol). We have had after school/after care cancelled though. We don’t have buses (neighborhood/walking schools) except for a few groups of kids, so any changes it’s just up to the parent to walk their kid in later/pick up early etc. Snow days, delays, whatever ate never helpful to working parents in any way.

[lindyanne]

For us everything is the same just two hours later. Periods are shortened. Some schools do change period around to accommodate a normal lunch time.

[konapoppy]

Thank you! What a pain. Feel free to use this thread to complain lol

[countthestars]

Ugh, they are the worst. But yes, everything runs just two hours later than normal. For example, my kids on a typical day would get picked up on the bus at 8:21 or dropped off at school at 8:40. On a 2 hour delay, it would be bus at 10:21 or drop off at 10:40.

[osulori]

For us it means no care before school program and no AM preschool or kindergarten. Everything else runs two hours later. Thankfully from a parental logistics standpoint our district never does 2 hour delays because for us it'd be a hot mess.

[Susie]

2 hour delay is always a cluster, but basically the buses come 2(ish) hours later than they usually would.  Parents who drive their kids do it 2 hours later.  There's no morning before-school care for kids who do that.

Early dismissals are also a mess.  When that happens, kids who usually stay for aftercare have no default dismissal plan so parents have to contact the school individually to advise whether to send home on a bus (if the kids have a morning bus route that they can hop onto) or if the parents will come.  

[InBetweenDays]

Ditto what others have said, but in our district the buses also have snow routes. So for some students their stop may be different during a 2-hour delay or if there was snow.

[konapoppy]

Jan 17, 2024 10:12:35 GMT -5 InBetweenDays said:

Ditto what others have said, but in our district the buses also have snow routes. So for some students their stop may be different during a 2-hour delay or if there was snow.

OMG

[heygrey]

The district I grew up in and where my mom still works, uses 2 or 3 hour delays frequently. If they canceled completely it would result in too many snow days, but rural roads and high passes are incredibly difficult for busses to navigate. 90% of the students are bussed.

I don’t know how parents navigate the childcare. My cousin works for a neighbouring district that rarely ever delays or closes so she leaves her 3 boys with my mom. When I was a child most families had a SAHM. I’m sure that isn't the norm anymore.

[jinkies]

This year my son started tech school-- he goes to the tech school in the morning, and then his regular high school for the afternoon. Every time there is a two hour delay, they cancel the am session at tech school. And the high school schedule is modified. The upshot is that he ends up only having 2 hours of school on delayed days-- he eats lunch at home and I drop him for a 12:30 class. School is over at 2:30.

When my kids were younger and I worked outside the home, two hour delays were a nightmare. I started leaving my son home alone pretty young on delay days-- at the time we still had a house phone, and he would call me when he was leaving for the bus. If I waited to leave until he was picked up, and then still had to drop my younger one at daycare, I would miss half the day of work.

[rhian]

Everything just runs 2 hours later where we are. Our daycare follows the school district's delay/closing decisions, so we had a snow day yesterday and 2 hour delay today. Daycare opened at 9:30 instead of 7:30. Luckily we usually drop off at 9 anyway, so the effect on us was minimal!

For us, a two hour delay is annoying, but not as hard to deal with as a full snow day! We are fortunate in that we can work from home and our time is fairly flexible so we're able to manage an unexpected day without childcare okay(ish), whether due to weather or sickness. But it definitely must be so challenging for many families who don't have the same level of flexibility! We really need a better childcare system (including elementary school where school also serves the purpose of childcare for many) in this country.

[noodleoo]

I'd rather a 2 hour delay than a snow day, but our town rarely does them. Usually it is for ice so they have extra time to prepare for it or if the roads are a hot mess and the town needs extra time to plow/salt. For me they are better than snow days, but we WFH so it isn't a hardship. They did an early dismissal a few weeks ago and that was total chaos!

[janegold]

We have hardly any buses in my town (literally, I think there are two for the entire school district), so for the vast majority of us, it means that we have to stay home with the kids for an extra two hours in the morning. Luckily I have a pretty flexible job but it must be stressful for caregivers who don't.

[waverly]

We typically close for the whole day instead of dealing with delayed start chaos. But if there were a delayed start everything would be the same except the busses run 2 hours later. We no longer have half day K, and I don't know how before/ aftercare would handle it.

We used to have half day K, and in that case they rotated who went on half days. Aftercare didn't start until the half day was over with, so around 12pm, so there was no childcare on those days until 12pm.

[meowmaps]

I’m not dealing with it. My kindergartner is sick for the millionth time and didn’t need to be outside walking to school in barely double-digit temps. I’m a SAHM anyway so it doesn’t change much for me but I don’t know how parents working outside the home coordinate this stuff. I’m sure it’s incredibly inconvenient.

[penguingrrl]

We’re a district with very little busing. There’s 1/2 a bus worth of kids who live far enough from the elementary school to qualify for busing, none for the middle school (and the HS is a different district, our town has very few who get a bus there as well). A delayed opening is only called if roads are expected to be really treacherous in the morning, but the public works department thinks they can ensure they’re safe for a 10 am start instead of the usual 8 am (icy conditions or flooding that’s expected to recede so the roads can reopen; we are only 4ish miles inland). It’s a massive hassle when it happens. We don’t have before care, but morning band practices are suspended those days and I’m sure before care would be as well if we had it to begin with. H and I are fortunate that we have employers who have worked with us until now. Now Hs company is clamping down on requiring people to work in the office and situations like this, that they always accommodated, are being scrutinized and people are being penalized for them, which is bullshit.

[InBetweenDays]

Jan 17, 2024 10:16:52 GMT -5 konapoppy said:

Jan 17, 2024 10:12:35 GMT -5 InBetweenDays said:

Ditto what others have said, but in our district the buses also have snow routes. So for some students their stop may be different during a 2-hour delay or if there was snow.

OMG

To be fair we live in a hilly city with few snow plows so when roads are iffy they want the school buses to stick to the main/arterial roads. Our city buses (our school district doesn't use yellow buses for high schools so students use Metro/city buses) also have snow routes for when the roads are bad.

[InBetweenDays]

Jan 17, 2024 11:30:07 GMT -5 waverly said:

We typically close for the whole day instead of dealing with delayed start chaos.

Delays aren't common here but they also aren't unheard of. I think in the past the district would try for a delay rather than a snow day because the snow day would have to be made up at some point during the year.

Now for snow days we switch to remote learning rather than having the day "off". So i wonder if that will mean the district will be more likely to default to a snow day and not deal with all the logistics of a delayed start.

[meanie]

It's a scramble for most. We are lucky enough to wfh and we drive our kids in, but busses shift later and I assume parents show up to work late. We do have before care, but that shifts as well - it's still 1 hour before school starts.

[sent]

Our buses are supposed to just come later, but I always would drop DD off on a delayed opening day because the bus company sometimes has its own layer of chaos happening. This year she can walk to school so delayed or not delayed, I don't have to care! It's also a cluster at work where nearly all of my employees have school aged kids that are mostly too young to figure things out for themselves, so everyone is scrambling on a delayed opening day or a snow day. Thankfully most of our patients are not too high maintenance so they understand if they get to the office and we look like everyone is barely holding on by a thread.

[beerlover]

We have a lot of 2 hour delays. Sometimes 3 hour ones- today was one. Luckily I send DS to a in-home daycare where he gets the bus to/from school and she rarely ever closes, so today he just hung there until the bus picked them up at like 11:30 lol. Seems like such a short, pointless day but I'd rather them get it in!

[thebreakfastclub]

When my son had daycare it still opened at the usual time so it was no big deal. If there was a snow/driving condition delay, I'd go in late or WFH anyway. But cold weather delays did not change our schedule.

[macmars45]

For my family it works out fine. I work at the elementary school my DS attends. So his late start or snow day are the same as mine. We get to school 20(ish) minutes before busses and drop off happen. So instead of 8:15/8:20 it's 10:15/10:20.

I SAH/worked very PT last year and the year before (DS' 1st grade & kinder years) so it was even easier. I didn't work late start or snow days.

My H WFH which is helpful. There are monthly late starts for staff trainings. I go at normal time because I'm staff and H brings DS at the 2 hour delay time. DS doesn't mind the extra tv/video game time.

[fancynewbeesly]

Jan 17, 2024 10:38:31 GMT -5 heygrey said:

The district I grew up in and where my mom still works, uses 2 or 3 hour delays frequently. If they canceled completely it would result in too many snow days, but rural roads and high passes are incredibly difficult for busses to navigate. 90% of the students are bussed.

I don’t know how parents navigate the childcare. My cousin works for a neighbouring district that rarely ever delays or closes so she leaves her 3 boys with my mom. When I was a child most families had a SAHM. I’m sure that isn't the norm anymore.

This our district. They LOVE delays. Many times they call a delay and then will change it to closing. We bus a lot of students and high schools start super early, so they would rather a delay then have kids outside and busses running in icy conditions. But delayed we don't have to make up-snow days we do. We had two delays this week so far--I am expecting another one on Friday. 

The hardest part is childcare. My daughter is in a different district than I teach in--they do a 2 hour delay. My district does a 90 minute delay, so the timing just doesn't work. I would rather deal with being closed than a delay because it is just a cluster. 

[heygrey]

Jan 17, 2024 22:29:33 GMT -5 fancynewbeesly said:

Jan 17, 2024 10:38:31 GMT -5 heygrey said:

The district I grew up in and where my mom still works, uses 2 or 3 hour delays frequently. If they canceled completely it would result in too many snow days, but rural roads and high passes are incredibly difficult for busses to navigate. 90% of the students are bussed.

I don’t know how parents navigate the childcare. My cousin works for a neighbouring district that rarely ever delays or closes so she leaves her 3 boys with my mom. When I was a child most families had a SAHM. I’m sure that isn't the norm anymore.

This our district. They LOVE delays. Many times they call a delay and then will change it to closing. We bus a lot of students and high schools start super early, so they would rather a delay then have kids outside and busses running in icy conditions. But delayed we don't have to make up-snow days we do. We had two delays this week so far--I am expecting another one on Friday. 

The hardest part is childcare. My daughter is in a different district than I teach in--they do a 2 hour delay. My district does a 90 minute delay, so the timing just doesn't work. I would rather deal with being closed than a delay because it is just a cluster. 

This is SOP for my mom's district. I get that they want to be conservative and get a school day counted if they can, but it must be hell for parents to anticipate a delayed start and have it changed to a full day closure. For yesterday (Tuesday) they called a 3 hour delay on Monday night. Then changed it to a closure at ~7:30am Tuesday morning. Last night (Tuesday) they called a 2 hour delay for Wednesday.  They did go today. 


Meanwhile in Canada it snowed 12 inches today and we went to school as usual. I was plowing snow with my Elantra to get up the hill to my son's school and nearly slid down a hill to get to my own school, but we both showed up for 6 hours. There has been one snow day in the last 28+ years. 

[shauni27]

I won't lie, I kind of love a 2 hour delay. We can sleep in a little, play in the snow, just take it easy before starting the day, lol.

[scm1011]

Delays are rare in my district - its generally all or nothing. What weirds me out is seeing people here talk about converting to virtual days. What a bummer! Snow days as a kid (and for my kids now) were magical!