It’s back to school this week for most Triangle students. What families need to know.
Summer break ends Monday for hundreds of thousands of North Carolina public school students.
Monday will mark the first day of classes for most of the state’s 115 school districts and 210 charter schools. In Wake County, traditional-calendar schools will open a day later on Tuesday in Wake County.
Here are some things to know for the start of the 2024-25 school year.
Some schools are already in session
North Carolina’s school calendar law says schools can’t begin before the Monday closest to Aug. 26.
But some students have been in class for weeks already because their schools are exempt from the calendar law. This includes charter schools, year-round schools and modified-calendar schools.
Other schools started early without having permission from the state. Around a quarter of the state’s school districts are defying the calendar law.
There’s no enforcement mechanism for the law.
But Carteret County, along the North Carolina coast, backed down from defying the law after losing in court.
Fewer teacher and bus driver vacancies
Wake County will start classes with fewer teacher and bus driver vacancies than a year ago.
Wake has 235 vacant teaching positions, which is 59 fewer than last August. Wake has 98% of its 11,703 teaching positions filled.
Wake has 578 school bus drivers, which is 18 more than the start of last school year. All bus riders are assigned to a route that has a permanent bus driver.
“Driving buses is a challenging job, and with new drivers and new routes, because we have made some routing changes this year, we just ask for some patience at the beginning of the school year,” said Mark Strickland, Wake’s chief of facilities and operations. “But I also want to plant the seed of optimism in that ... we’re better positioned than we were last year.”
But Wake still has a driver vacancy rate or more than 30%. Strickland said he’d ideally like to have more than 800 bus drivers.
Strickland said more drivers would reduce the number of “double back” routes, where drivers make multiple runs for the same school. Some students are dropped off at school earlier than normal in the morning and others have to stay later in the afternoon before a bus takes them home.
New bus delay notification system
Wake County is rolling out a new notification system that will provide close to real-time updates on bus delays and send automated alerts to families.
The new system, which Wake piloted in some schools last semester, addresses parent complaints that they don’t get timely information on bus delays. Alerts will be sent to parents via email and text.
Parents need to make sure their contact info with their child’s school is up-to-date.
The new notification system will work in tandem with the Here Comes The Bus app that uses GPS systems to send alerts to parents when their child’s bus is near the bus stop.
Problems with a new bus scanner system
It’s unclear when Wake County will begin requiring students to scan ID cards on barcode readers as they board and leave school buses.
Wake will spend $700,000 to issue ID cards that bus riders will need to carry on them daily to scan on newly installed barcode readers on buses. But Strickland said the district has had some equipment problems with the vendor.
Strickland said the plan is to pilot the program at some schools later this school year. He said the schools haven’t been picked yet.
Once the pilot is done, Strickland said it will be up to the school board whether to launch the program districtwide.
Rising school meal prices
Wake County school meal prices are going up 25 cents for students who don’t qualify for a free-or-reduced price meal.
Prices will rise to $1.75 for breakfast and $3.50 for lunch in elementary schools. Prices in middle schools and high schools would rise to $2 for breakfast and $3.75 for lunch.
Forty-one Wake schools have qualified for a federal program that will allow them to offer every student free breakfasts and lunches.
Students at other schools face getting a lunch of only fruits and vegetables if they run out of money.
Wake has started a countywide “Angel Fund” to accept financial donations that would pay for students who don’t have any money left in their meal account. People can donate by calling Child Nutrition at 919-856-2918.
New anonymous school safety tip line
Wake has begun using the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System to try to make schools safer.
Say Something teaches students, teachers and administrators how to recognize the signs and signals of at-risk behaviors. The system allows students and staff to anonymously report safety concerns to a crisis center that is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Each tip is immediately sent to leaders at a school and, when necessary, to 911 dispatchers.
The program is used in more than 5,000 schools nationwide. It’s offered by Sandy Hook Promise.
Wake began rolling out the program in July at year-round and modified calendar middle and high schools. Traditional calendar middle and high schools will begin using it in September.
Wake hasn’t announced yet when it will begin using the system this school year at elementary schools.
This story was originally published August 23, 2024 at 2:40 PM with the headline "It’s back to school this week for most Triangle students. What families need to know.."
