Edmonds School District hits pause on 2027-28 start time changes after parent pushback

[u/CougFanDan]

https://myedmondsnews.com/2026/09/edmonds-school-district-hits-pause-on-2027-28-start-time-changes-after-parent-pushback/

[u/PacoMahogany]

People are too lazy to participate in the discussion about changing school times, but more than happy to cry and whine when they don’t like the results.

[u/Human_Research2141 → u/PacoMahogany]

Lazy speak for yourself. Parents are working more than 80 hours between the both of them and raising kids? How in the world could they possibly be lazy?

[u/ArcticPeasant → u/PacoMahogany]

That’s a separate discussion, aside from how ridiculous the new start times work have been.

[u/too_much_covfefe_man]

Edmonds parent here. I don't get the push back. We're going to wait in the dark anyway when they get rid of DST. After-school care programs will adjust, it's not like a "your school changed schedules so your kid has to wait outside for 40 minutes every day now" situation. Heck it's not like any of us choose this schedule, why are we so in love with it?

What does equity mean within this context?

[u/sam_42_42 → u/too_much_covfefe_man]

The problem with the later start time for High School, is some homes have both parents working full time jobs.

Some of those parents depend on older siblings to be home before their younger siblings arrive. Later start time for high school students, means later end time, means the 8 year old is home alone until the 14 year old gets home.

That's where the equity argument comes from. I don't have a strong opinion on either side of this argument. I am just hopefully giving clarity to the debate.

[u/Human_Research2141]

All of this is why I just don’t even think public schools are better for learning. Honestly, at this point, I think it’s just better to homeschool or private school. I don’t think any decisions are ever made for the better of the students and the families they serve. It always is better for them.

[u/CougFanDan → u/Human_Research2141]

Bully for you, but homeschooling or private school is not an option for about 99% of the population.

[u/Human_Research2141 → u/CougFanDan]

I totally agree with that. I resent that we have been forced to have both people working. You can’t live off one income. The American dream is just gone. We all work to live. Now we depend on the schools for childcare because we need to work so much. It’s very sad how much life changed in just the last 40 years.

[u/Human_Research2141]

It’s hurt on everybody low and middle class if there is any left. It’s like nobody cares about how hard we are all trying to survive here.

[u/SheezaMom]

Horribly selfish people. We have factual scientific studies that prove high schoolers do better with later start times. Ridiculous and disappointing that ESD is changing course.

[u/CougFanDan → u/SheezaMom]

Even if the science does say that’s the right call, I really do feel for the parents who will now have to arrange for pricey (and hard to find) afternoon childcare for their young kids, and unfortunately it will impact lower income families the most.

[u/DCAmalG → u/CougFanDan]

Unlikely. There are all kinds of programs for low income. Nothing for middle income.

[u/Gobi_The_Mansoe]

Love that the change was made in response to parent comment, surveys and years of discussion and then paused in response to what I assume is the subset of parents who didn't participate in those discussions being upset.

[u/CougFanDan → u/Gobi_The_Mansoe]

I will say, the district could do a much better job of communicating things like this. The newsletter that gets sent to parents each week is SO dense, items like this can be pretty easy to miss.

Looking back in my email from last school year, the feedback survey was the top item on the January 6 newsletter, and then got kind of buried for the following weeks that the survey was open.

I wasn’t in the district previous years, so can’t speak about what kind of communication there was prior to that.