As interest in four-day school weeks grows, more states are enacting laws or considering other measures that limit when schools can shift to the abbreviated schedule.
Most recently, an Indiana law that took effect July 1 requires schools to meet new criteria before they can apply and be approved for a four-day week waiver. Among those conditions: Schools must maintain an A rating with the state education department, provide enrichment and remediation opportunities for students when classes aren’t in session, and meet the state’s minimum teacher salary of $45,000 per year. Schools that use four-day schedules must prove they meet these requirements each year to continue using the shortened week.
The idea is that requiring schools to prove strong academic performance offsets the potential risks of lowering the number of days students are in class, according to state education officials.
The Indiana Department of Education said in a statement that it will prioritize applications that “clearly center on student needs and include thoughtful engagement with families and school staff about the potential impacts.”
Research has shown that the more time kids spend in class the better, but that how they spend that time matters more.
Still, more districts in recent years have turned to four-day weeks as they battle shrinking budgets. Four-day weeks are also often touted as a teacher-recruitment and -retention tool.
Yet additional research suggests that four-day weeks often don’t actually save districts much money (the costs of new initiatives established to fill kids’ off days or provide staff development largely offset any potential savings), and some studies have found limited, if any, benefit to teacher recruitment and retention. Academically, researchers have often found no significant differences in achievement between districts on five- vs. four-day schedules, particularly when districts with shorter weeks maintain instructional hours.
Nationally, more than 2,100 schools in 26 states used four-day schedules as of the 2024-25 school year, according to researchers at Oregon State University. That’s up from about 1,600 schools in 24 states six years before that. Despite the growth, the schools using a four-day week still represent a small share of the nation’s nearly 100,000 public schools and 13,000 school districts.
And as more districts—usually in smaller, rural areas—use four-day weeks, policymakers have begun instituting or proposing new requirements to ensure schools can prove the change isn’t harming students academically.
With Indiana’s new law, it joins a growing number of states to establish guidelines districts must follow to participate in the four-day week trend.
In Indiana, just one school uses the abbreviated schedule now, though the superintendent has said she’s concerned the school won’t qualify to continue using it under the new law, according to local media. That’s despite data showing staff absences have declined and students’ test scores have increased.
Elsewhere, North Dakota’s state education department in April proposed more stringent requirements for schools to operate on shortened schedules, shifting the focus away from whether the change will save schools money to analyzing how it may encourage innovation in teaching or improve students’ academic outcomes and opportunities. Previously, schools could be approved for a four-day schedule if they could prove it would lead to significant cost savings or provided students and allowed families access to school facilities in the off hours for enrichment or other activities.
Some states have made moves to make five-day weeks more enticing.
In Missouri—where more than 150 districts use four-day weeks—schools must hold a local election and receive a majority vote in favor of the four-day week before implementation. The state in recent years has also offered to give districts with five-day weeks more state funding.
In Louisiana, Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell proposed legislation that would require five-day weeks for public schools not already using a four-day week and for schools that don’t receive an A rating from the state education department. The legislation is still pending.
Some school and district leaders in states where lawmakers are introducing the new requirements have pushed back. In some places, they note, schools with high concentrations of students in poverty or immigrant families opt for four-day weeks to meet their communities’ needs. Those schools, they say, would have a harder time meeting strict academic requirements regardless of the schedule in place.
In other places, leaders say four-day schedules have helped them recruit and retain teachers in rural schools that otherwise might struggle to fill staff vacancies.
At Vinton Elementary School in Lafayette, Ind., the lone school in the state that uses a four-day week, Principal Cindy Preston said she has “not seen any negatives” to the abbreviated schedule.
“What is changing are our practices and how we’re utilizing our time with those kids to improve,” Preston told local TV station FOX59. “We have more time in our day, in those four days, than we did in five …. We’re going deeper into instruction, deeper into interventions that allow the kids to grasp things at a deeper level than they did before.”
