Pass or fail? Midwest families and districts are learning from the 4

Before his Iowa school district switched to a four-day week, Jayce Moody often wandered away from his kindergarten and first-grade classrooms. Sometimes, he threw things. He was overwhelmed and overstimulated, his mother said.

"It was a huge struggle for him. I mean, we were getting phone calls at 1 o'clock in the afternoon every day saying, 'Hey, he's just not ... We can't do this.' I was like, 'OK, we'll come pick him up. No problem,'" said Madison Wolfe, who lives in Des Moines.

After the schedule switch to one fewer day a week, Jayce, now age 8, did a "180" in terms of his behavior, his mother said. He rarely fled his second-grade classroom last year.

Madison Wolfe / Provided / Provided

"I noticed a huge, huge change in him as he was able to get that longer break that he needed