Why are school orientations happening during business hours?

With the final few weeks of summer break underway, parents across the Houston area are preparing their children for the new school year.

Parents with school-aged kids have likely grown accustomed to the August traditions of shopping for clothes, planning lunches, and gathering school supplies at the very last minute, but Houston-are parents who work are dealing with a different issue: mandatory orientations that are scheduled during business hours.

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For households where both parents have full-time jobs with regular hours, having an obligation in the middle of the day during the work week is a serious inconvenience.

Across the KPRC 2 newsroom, several employees reported having to work around mandatory student orientations and computer pick-up times happening this week.

One employee reported that his student was told he would fall behind if he wasn’t able to pick up his school computer during the scheduled time. Another reported that her child’s teacher personally offered to work around parents’ schedules, volunteering her own time to accommodate the bizarre schedules.

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