If AI Shrinks the School Day, Who Fills the Gap? (Guest Post)

My friend Maya Deshpande is a product leader on the sustainability team at Mattel and a passionate about the future of public education in California. A proud product of California’s education system, Maya’s experiences continue to shape her belief in equitable access, joyful learning, and systems that serve the whole child. She writes at deshdog.substack.com.

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What emerging tech means for the future of holistic learning and childhood experience.

Could smarter technology lead to shorter school days? The question is loaded, and far more than hypothetical.

ESOL teacher at Parkview Middle School in Ankeny, IA, Alexa Long, uses AI tools to bridge language gaps between admin, students, and their families. Reading interventionalist, Jennifer Janes, uses them to create more tailored reading passages for specific skills in her curriculum. Neither are using AI programs as stand-alone teaching solutions.

Across the country, AI is reshaping classrooms. New technology is optimizing the tedious work of school administrators and educators, freeing up time for more impactful activities. Teachers are using tools like Gradescope, Canva Magic Write, and Attendly to recover hours spent on administrative tasks like grading, parent outreach, attendance tracking, and after school programming. Recent studies have revealed that AI tools are saving educators over seven hours per week on administrative tasks and paperwork, equating to three hundred hours annually. That efficiency alone enables our educators to take back nearly half of the unpaid overtime they typically work each year.

For students, the impacts of AI in the classroom may be even more transformative. Adaptive platforms like Khanmigo and Squirrel AI personalize instruction to meet each learner’s pace, offering advanced material to those who are ready while providing extra support for those who need it. In pilot programs, some students are advancing through core academic content faster than traditional models of education allow. As these trends progress, we may find ourselves rethinking the design of the school day itself.

We cannot ignore this new, provocative question: If core academic content can be delivered more efficiently, how should we structure the time students spend at school?

For advocates of holistic learning, this question is just as intimidating as it is exciting. AI tools open the door to more flexible, student-centered learning, but they also raise pressing questions about what the true purpose of the traditional school day is. Could efficiency come at the expense of equity, safety, or developmental well-being? What happens to students who rely on school for safety, stability, or place of belonging? Will “optimized” learning leave behind the messy, vital work of building relationships and growing up? As our conversation about the changing role of technology in learning unfolds, a big, pink elephant enters the room with a quiet reminder: 

School is far more than a delivery system for academic content. If AI makes learning faster, we must ask: faster toward what end? We cannot sacrifice the heart and soul of education for time efficiency.

The COVID-19 pandemic served as a major experiment in rethinking the structure of the school day. During lockdowns, millions of students experienced self-guided, tech-driven learning. We learned that the absence of daily social interactions and sense of community came at a real cost to our students, who reported feelings of isolation and disengagement. It’s more clear now than ever that no technology can replace students’ deep, human need for relationships or educators’ slow, thoughtful work of building character in our youth over time. However, we also learned that technology can make learning more efficient, offering students flexibility, autonomy, and targeted support in ways traditional classrooms sometimes struggle to provide. Indeed, learning must not be reduced to a transaction of knowledge. Education is a collaborative, transformational human experience and should remain that way. Where is the middle ground?

We know that school is a space for self-discovery and relationship building. Students develop critical social skills, build lifelong friendships, and interact with mentors who influence their perspectives on the world. These interactions sit outside of the core curriculum, but are essential to a person’s early development. It’s understandable that many educators worry: If academic learning becomes more efficient, we risk neglecting the social, emotional, and character-building aspects of education. This is true– unless we deliberately protect them. The challenge, then, is not in deciding whether to embrace technology, but in ensuring that technological advances are accompanied by an equally strong commitment to the full development of young people.

An immediate opportunity to meet this challenge lies in expanding and strengthening after-school programs. These programs already offer flexible environments where students can build relationships, pursue interests outside traditional academics, and connect with caring adults. As academic learning becomes more efficient and perhaps condensed, after-school spaces could become even more critical, offering time and space for the kinds of growth that technology can’t accelerate. They represent a ready-made infrastructure we can invest in to ensure that a shorter school day doesn’t lead to a narrowed childhood experience. Teachers freed from administrative burdens would have more time for 1:1 check-ins and relationship-building with students. Students could use extra afternoon hours for project-based learning, physical activity, or artistic exploration. High schoolers might get structured time for internships, college prep, or civic engagement. After school could evolve into an intentional extension of the learning day. This path has already been paved by entrepreneurial educators and administrators who recognize after school as an integral piece of students' school day. Districts getting started now don't need to wait for new funding cycles to act. The foundational infrastructure for these programs is already in place; what's needed is a strategic reinvestment of resources. 

The National Summer Learning Project (2011) revealed that consistent participation in high-quality after-school enrichment programs can add about four months of student learning to the academic year.

After-school programs are our answer to the ‘what comes next?’ question. As AI tools accelerate academic instruction and free up time in the school day, after-school programs become even more essential to a balanced learning experience. If we want to preserve the full promise of childhood development in an AI-powered education system, these programs deserve our boldest imagination and deepest investment.

​Attendly streamlines after school operations by automating administrative tasks, freeing educators to focus on meaningful student engagement. Our commitment to enhancing after-school programming stems from a belief that every child deserves enriching experiences beyond the classroom.