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 about 7 hours), but that the school year should probably be a couple of weeks longer. More importantly, though, is keeping on top of teachers and administrators and *encouraging* them to make better use of the time that they do have the students in the classroom.
Source(s):
as stated in answer


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