Changes to four-day school week prompt childcare, hunger concerns

(This story, the second of two parts, was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program. The first story is available here.)

When the public schools in Havre moved to a four-day school week this year, the local Boys and Girls Club tried to find creative ways to meet the needs of what they expected to be an influx of students whose families were looking for childcare after school and on Fridays.

Tim Brurud, the program’s executive director, shifted hours to accommodate the longer school days Monday through Thursday and was able to pull together enough staff to open the club from noon to 6 p.m. on Fridays.

But staff at the Boys and Girls Club in Sidney, whose school district moved to a four-day school week a few years ago, advised Brurud to prepare for fewer students than he expected on Fridays — and they were right.

This year, the club is serving an average of 111 students on Fridays, down from 159 last year. Such a steep decline concerns Brurud, he said.

“All of those kids who are here Monday through Thursday would like to be here and probably need to be here on Friday, but for whatever reason, they’re not,” Brurud said. “We’re currently working through solutions to that, trying to find ways to get more of those kids here, but it’s tough.” 

Brurud said that transportation can be a barrier for many families, but the school district runs buses throughout town to the club on Fridays. In a perfect world, the club would be open all day on Fridays, but it’s been difficult to find staffing to make that a reality.

“It’s tougher to staff, and that’s been our big issue,” Brurud said. “Most of our employees are college kids and they still have school on Friday, so we really couldn’t open all day. The best we could do is try to piece something together.” 

What after-school programs in Havre and Sidney have experienced is not uncommon, according to Dr. Jon Turner, a researcher and professor at Missouri State University. While speaking at a conference about four-day school weeks at Oregon State University this fall, he said that concerns around childcare are somewhat of an “urban legend.” 

In Missouri, Turner said, districts “do everything they can to provide childcare, either with the partnering agency or in many cases they provide it themselves, but by Thanksgiving in that first year, people stopped showing up.”

At the end of the 2022-2023 school year there were 222 schools — more than one-quarter of schools in Montana — operating four days a week, an increase of 47 schools from the previous year. 

But as more schools in Montana make the jump to four-day school weeks, childcare advocates are concerned about the condensed schedule’s impact on families in a state that already has its fair share of struggles in terms of childcare access and affordability. 

When it comes to access, 60% of Montana communities cannot meet the need for childcare, according to Zero to Five Montana, a Helena nonprofit organization focused on increasing access to early childhood care and education. 

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But expanding childcare capacity is not as simple as hiring more workers. On average, childcare employees in Montana earn $11.19 an hour and there is high turnover in the industry, according to Zero to Five Montana. But raising pay is a bit of a catch-22 as childcare providers attempt to find a balance between competitive employee salaries and offering an affordable program for families. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines affordable childcare as less than 10% of a household’s income. But last year, the First Five Years Fund, a nonprofit organization that works to create accessible childcare options for families, found that 51% of parents spend more than 20% of their household income on childcare. In Montana, the current cost of childcare ranges from $800 to $1,300 a month, according to Zero to Five. 

As a result of four-day school weeks, Rhonda Schwenke, program director at Zero to Five, said she’s seen more schools across the state establish their own state-accredited childcare centers based on their campuses. 

“It’s adding one full day for children of all ages that something has to be figured out for them in a community where there’s already a lack of childcare,” Schwenke said. 

Since moving to a four-day week three years ago, Stanford Public Schools launched a state-accredited after-school program that now runs Monday through Thursday and serves anywhere from six to 12 students on average. 

Braeden Temple, a second-grade teacher at the school, helped start the program last year after he noticed some of his students were going home after school and were unsupervised. 

The program is led by one teacher who is assisted by a high school student. There are four teachers who are paid for their time and take turns leading the program each day, helping fend off staff burnout, Temple said. 

Craig Crawford, the school’s superintendent, is exploring ways to expand the program with all-day childcare services for students on Fridays. Temple said that he believes families would utilize and benefit from the program. 

“You can look at it as a negative or you can look at it as an opportunity that if those kids are disconnected somehow, then what do you put together on that fifth day for those kids to come be a part of that,” Crawford said. 

But Crawford is also concerned about his students’ nutritional needs and is interested in launching a backpack meal program to provide food to those who might be experiencing food insecurity. 

“There’s a lot of kids whose last meal here on Thursday afternoon is their last meal until their breakfast here on Monday,” Crawford said. “By going to a four-day week, we really just made them go hungry another day. The extra day is great for kids and staff to get the rest they need, but we also need to make sure that they’re not just rested when they come back, but they’re fed as well.” 

FOOD INSECURITY IN MONTANA

Last school year, 43% of students in Montana were eligible for free and reduced meal service at school, according to the Montana Office of Public Instruction. Though the 2023 Montana Hunger Report by the Montana Food Bank Network found that food insecurity declined in 2020, those numbers are beginning to creep back up again due to rising food prices, a challenging childcare landscape and increased housing costs. 

Backpack meal programs throughout the state work to fill the gaps in nutritious meals that students might face over the weekend. In Red Lodge, the Boys and Girls Club of Carbon County organizes the “It’s in the Bag” program that serves students at schools in town and at Roberts Public School, which operates four days a week. 

Staff at the club helps assemble bags of food with recipes and all the necessary ingredients to make multiple meals over the weekend. The contents of the bag change each week but often include cereal, oatmeal, canned soup, chicken, mac and cheese, pancakes, spaghetti, fruits and vegetables. 

In order to best serve both districts and their conflicting schedules, the program delivers bags to Roberts on Thursdays and to Red Lodge on Fridays. Though the district in Red Lodge enrolls more students than Roberts, more students at Roberts are registered to receive weekend food bags, according to Jim Fletcher, the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Carbon County. 

“I think as far as how we support the four-day school week, it’s just providing food security for these kids when they don’t have an option at home or without a regular school meal on Fridays,” Fletch said. 

Since the beginning of his career in education, Dr. Tim Tharp, a county superintendent for Richland County in eastern Montana, has noticed a shift in the number of expectations schools are responsible for — especially when it comes to childcare and food services.

“We are responsible for those things and that is a sign of the changing times,” Tharp said. “Schools are responsible for more than just a lunch to get them through the afternoon. We’re responsible for breakfast and lunch and many schools also do snacks. They do summer programs, they’re sending home backpack meals on the weekends and creating daycares.” 

Tharp said that the changing role schools play in communities can add more pressure on district administrators and staff when it comes to making changes as significant as moving to a four-day school week. 

“The school is the hub of the community, especially in rural Montana,” he said. “Schools have taken those responsibilities and, whether we like it or not or whether we think it’s a good sign of the times or a bad sign of the times, it’s reality and schools are stepping up to fill that role.”