What time is the school day over in South Orange County? (Laguna Niguel: credit, home)

[hconstan]

What time does the school day typically end in Southern O.C.? i see a lot of kids - middle and high school age - walking on the sidewalks around 1:30pm-ish sometimes - are they going to lunch off-campus, or are they going home? I notice there are a LOT of after school programs here - we moved here from Indiana - a lot more than i think were in Indy - and that taking care of kids after school seems to be a booming business.

We have 2 kids who will be in school in the next few years, and, while i was expecting my DD to be in school only AM/PM in Kindergarten, i expected the school day to get longer and longer as she got older. in Indiana, once you get to middle/high school, you're usually in class til 3pm.

I do see kids heading home with backpacks around 2:30-3pm around here too (and that's when i see a lot of school buses, too) so i'm confused. what is going on?

thanks,

H.

[bhcompy]

it really varies by district. my sons district in west oc has different schedules for each school level: 8-2:15 for elementary, 8:30-3 for jr high, 7:50-2:30 for hs. some of the other districts have totally different schedules. south oc has a half dozen districts and a bunch of private schools to boot

[Wurzig]

High school seniors can get out at lunch time if they have accumulated enough credits during the 3 previous years..(and plenty of them do when they start out with 0 period and also do sports)...many of them have afternoon jobs...(and many of them come home and crash because they have had 0 period for 4 years.....LOL)

If I recall correctly, I think the local middle schools in Laguna Niguel and San Juan release the kids somewhere near 3:30.

Younger kids get out earlier.....seems like the little neighbor (grammar age), kids come home around 2:00'ish - 2:30'ish..

I am not sure about kinder kids just going for half day in the public school system....my daughter went to a private school during preschool and kinder and it was all day long...