is there somewhere to compare which districts have best lunches, most recess, latest start times, most PE/music etc? (Fort Worth: for sale)

[MobiusStrip]

I have to admit, these things probably matter almost as much as academics to me for elementary school.

[TurtleCreek80]

You're kidding, right?

You can get the start times off the school websites, but I'm not aware of any website who has taste-tested every elementary school's food and rated it...

If these things are super important to you, private schools are going to be a much better fit than public.

[DitsyD]

My daughter is now in middle school, but I can tell you some about Plano schools.

Lunch: OK. Have not eaten any other district's food to compare it to though.
Recess: Every day after lunch (outdoor, weather permitting).
Start/End Time: Start 7:45am ~ End 2:45pm.
Specials: What they call PE/Music/Art ~ PE 3 times per week, Music 1 time per week, Art 1 time per week.

[MobiusStrip]

I am not kidding. You can also drive around a neighborhood and just look at the for sale signs but most of us appreciate having the information consolidated. Same with start times etc. I think many would appreciate knowing that first graders only get 20 minutes of recess and no art in one district vs 30 minutes and twice weekly art in another. These things matter. Private school is not really an option for us.

[JTC Mom]

I don't know of anyplace that consolidates this information, but I agree it is important. In HPISD we have ok lunches with a truly fantastic array of a la carte servings of a wide variety of fresh fruit. They typically have 5-10 choices of different types of berries, melons, grapes, oranges, and others, as well as whole apples and bananas. The major downside of that is cost but I am happy my kids are eating lots of fresh fruit.

We have PE four times anweek and art and music once. Elementary school start time is 8am. Recess is once daily for 20 minutes. Depending on the class, it might be immediately before or after lunch, or in my daughter's case, late in the afternoon.

I read a news story recently about a few schools in Irving and Fort Worth that increased recess to four times per day (i believe three of the sessions were just 10 min each) and experienced significant improvements in standardized test scores. I hope more schools experiment with this - Inthink it is great.

[4Movingeast]

We are in GCISD. The food is not good although our cafeteria staff is super sweet. Our students have PE 2-3 days week and "specials"- music once/week and either art or Spanish once/week. Recess is 20 minutes. I wish recess were longer and that they had PE every day, but I'm glad they are still making art, music, and foreign language a priority.