Help for the Summer

The demand for summer employees and the concerns of families have helped fuel a successful backlash in some states against school starting dates that have been getting earlier.

Allentown, Pa.

Throngs of people cover the concrete walkways of Dorney Park, an amusement park about an hour north of Philadelphia. Everyone is drenched, either from the rides in Wildwater Kingdom or by sweat. Temperatures will climb beyond 100 degrees on this scorching July day.

And in nearly every corner of the park, teenage employees are the cogs that keep the enterprise running. They collect the $36.95 admission fee. They operate the Thunderhawk and Hydra roller coasters. They ring up key chains and shot glasses in the gift shops. They hand out stuffed Sonic the Hedgehog dolls at the game booths, and they dispense cups of frozen Dippin’ Dots to hungry park-goers.

Employees under the age of 18 make up about 40 percent of the park’s summer workforce, and, park officials say, are even more crucial to its operations later in the season, when college-student employees go back to school and international workers return home. So it’s a good thing for Dorney Park that these Pennsylvania high school students usually don’t return to school until the last week in August or the...