"Isn't the whole "latchkey kids" a thing anyway? Grade school ends at 3:30 or earlier. Parents don't get home until 5:30, if they're lucky. What's an extra hour matter? And in any case, I don't see this as an insurmountable problem, even with staggered schedules. 1. You can shift everyone by an hour or more. Have grade school start at 9:30 and finish at 4:30. That's closer to aligning with parents schedules anyway. 2. You can keep grade school right where it is at 8:30 to 3:30 and simply have high school start and end *after* those times rather than before. Have high school start as late as possible - 10:30-5:30 is a reasonable schedule for a teenager. Move after school stuff to be before school if you have to." - Eric P