Attendance is up slightly, but ASD families are still struggling with new start times

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – New data released Friday by the Anchorage School District shows similar attendance rates for August and September 2023 as this year.

Corey Young, a spokesman for the district, noted that the attendance rate so far this year is 91.5%.

“Compared to last year, which was 91.3%, it’s slightly higher,” Young said. “For the first two months it was pretty much the same thing.”

The increase in attendance comes as the district made several new changes this school year, including new school start and end times.

On Mondays, elementary school students start at 9 a.m., high school students at 9:45 a.m. and middle school students no later than 10:30 a.m

Tuesday through Friday, schedules for all three levels begin one hour earlier – elementary school at 8:00 a.m., high school at 8:45 a.m. and middle school at 9:30 a.m

The district noted on its website that the changes “are consistent with students’ natural sleep patterns.”

“We believe this alignment will improve their well-being and academic success,” the district wrote.

“I think I’m more awake in the morning,” said Calista Sellers, a 10th-grader in the Anchorage School District. “People seem to be more alert in my first class than they were last year. But to be honest, they could also be the people in my class.”

Sellers told Alaska’s News Source that she initially didn’t like the idea of ​​a later start time, but now likes it more.

Her stepmother Kaila Pfister also added that she noticed different behavior from Sellers that morning.

“I think one of the big changes we’ve seen is that she eats breakfast now. “She has time in the morning,” Pfister said. “A bit like she starts the day slowly instead of a mad dash to get out of the house like she used to.”

Because of the proximity to the school, Pfister said Sellers could walk to school.

However, some families in the district said it was difficult to get all their children to school.

“As a parent, it’s incredibly difficult to determine start times, especially one at each school,” said Erin Smulick, an Anchorage school district parent. “My last one isn’t in school until 9:30 a.m. and then my last one gets out at 2:30 p.m., so it’s difficult either way.”

Smulick told Alaska’s News Source that she is constantly on the move while maintaining her job.

“Luckily, I have a job where I have flexibility and can kind of work remotely, which is difficult when you can only do maybe four hours of work on Monday and then the other days of the week,” Smulick said.

Smulick adds that her family now faces additional issues when it comes to extracurricular activities. All of her children, she said, play competitive sports.

“My youngest is coming out, and then he’s going to have hockey practice, so I have to drop him off at the rink, pick up my daughter from high school, and then after that I picked up my middle schooler, and then go back to the rink,” Smulick said. “So it’s very chaotic.”

The impact start times will have on extracurricular activities also concerns Sellers. She said if she decides to get a job, she will have a harder time finding a job because of school schedules and having time to work in addition to extracurricular activities.

“When I was in the theater last year, I already felt like it was kind of starting late, and now it was going to start even later,” Sellers said. “It’s kind of pushing me to stop participating in extracurricular activities because it’s so late now.”

The district previously told families that the new start times could impact after-school schedules, including childcare, jobs, parent/guardian work schedules and sports.

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