DEARBORN, Mich. – After receiving pushback from parents, the Dearborn Public Schools district has decided to delay the start of a new schedule that includes early releases every Tuesday.
Last week, the district published a tentative calendar showing the new plans for weekly early dismissals. On each Tuesday of each week, students would finish with school an hour and a half earlier than usual.
The goal of the early dismissals is to provide extra time for teachers to develop strategies to improve student achievement. But many parents and family members were frustrated with the sudden change, saying it affects their children and their child care arrangements.
To help families plan for the schedule change, the district has decided to wait until October to begin its weekly early releases.
But for one mother in particular, whose daughter was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, the sudden schedule change is still expected to cause some problems.
“Routine is very big with her, and trying to change up a routine, you really can’t do it suddenly,” parent Jeannette Warren said of her daughter.
“It is a big life alteration within the home of the student ... I don’t know how much they took into consideration what that would look like for families.”
After reaching out to district officials, Warren said she was told her daughter’s classroom time would be reduced only by 45 minutes. But by doing that, the start of her school day will be moved up on Tuesdays.
Warren said she would have preferred a four-day special education program each week over the early dismissal days.
“I would rather her have four full days of a good routine and that educational experience, and three days at home from where we can just add a day onto our routine,” Warren said.
A Dearborn schools spokesperson told Local 4 that early childhood special education programs are only required to run four days a week, and that many districts follow that requirement. The district believes they’re better benefiting the students by continuing its five-day program.
Warren said that when she enrolled her daughter in the district’s ECSE program last year, it made a big difference.
“This is a huge thing for her,” Warren said. “The teachers there are amazing, the paraprofessionals, the speech therapy, everybody in the program. I have no complaints.”
School schedules are typically announced months in advance to help families plan around them. But, this time around, Dearborn Public Schools said the 2023-2024 calendar was delayed due to bargaining with the teachers union.
The union approved a contract this week, which includes the finalized calendar. The board will vote on the contract next Monday.
Watch Will Jones’ entire report in the video player up above.