Obama, How many hours/days is a elementary child required to actually be in school learning?
topaz gave a very good answer, and it started me wondering whether the federal govt (either thru Congress or the Dept of Education) had *encouraged* states/districts to have minimum days or years (by promising to send funds, or to withhold funds from those that refused). No Child Left Behind came to mind. I learned that NCLB did require some schools not making the grade to provide supplementary programs, but that is outside of the regular school day. So, I could find no such *encouragements*. But, as you continue your research on the effectiveness of longer school days and/or longer school years, you might want to check out this good summary of the debate (http://www.heartland.org/publications/school%20reform/article/22698/Extended_School_Day_and_Year_Are_Under_Review_Across_the_Country.html), or a more in-depth “independent” report on their site (http://www.heartland.org/custom/semod_policybot/pdf/22601.pdf) Personally, I think that my kids’ school day is about the right length (just
