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Why are school orientations happening during business hours?

A student races to the school bus after dismissal, Thursday, May 9, 2024, at Tri-Point Elementary and Junior High School in Piper City, Ill. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel) (Joshua A. Bickel, Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

With the final few weeks of summer break underway, parents across the Houston area are preparing their children for the new school year.

Parents with school-aged kids have likely grown accustomed to the August traditions of shopping for clothes, planning lunches, and gathering school supplies at the very last minute, but Houston-are parents who work are dealing with a different issue: mandatory orientations that are scheduled during business hours.

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For households where both parents have full-time jobs with regular hours, having an obligation in the middle of the day during the work week is a serious inconvenience.

Across the KPRC 2 newsroom, several employees reported having to work around mandatory student orientations and computer pick-up times happening this week.

One employee reported that his student was told he would fall behind if he wasn’t able to pick up his school computer during the scheduled time. Another reported that her child’s teacher personally offered to work around parents’ schedules, volunteering her own time to accommodate the bizarre schedules.


About the Author

Michael is a Kingwood native who loves visiting local restaurants and overreacting to Houston sports. He joined the KPRC 2 family in the spring of 2024. He earned his B.A. from Texas A&M University in 2022 and his M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2023.

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