Wake County students marked the first early release Wednesday with dismissal from school an hour early. The shortened day is meant to allow for more planning time for teachers, but getting used to the weekly change may present challenges for parents.

In addition to getting out an hour early most Wednesdays, the school system has added six early release days to the school calendar. On those days, students will go home 2.5 hours early.

"Teachers need the time to plan together and to look at data, to look at how our students are learning," said Superintendent Del Burns. "We're giving teachers time during the school day to do that." Hear more from Del Burns by clicking on the video link above.

At Rand Road Elementary School, teachers spent more than their extra hour working in small groups to talk about how they teach and get ideas from each other on how to help students succeed.

"Where we would typically work during the teacher's planning period, and they would have to give up that planning period to collaborate with one another, or they might work well into the evening, now they're doing that at an earlier time in the day," said Rhonda Jones, Rand Road principal.

The new schedule doesn't come without a cost to parents. Colleen Wilkerson, a parent of twins at Rand Road, said she'll be hurrying home after her job as a preschool teacher to greet her children on those early dismissal and early release days.

"I will have to come home early to meet them at the bus stop to make sure they get home safely," she said.

Wake PTA President Sarah Martin was one of the parents waiting in the carpool line at East Cary Middle School.

"I know it's not convenient for parents," she said. "But at the same time, I'm really excited about what I think it's going to mean for education."

After school programs are being adjusted to meet parents needs. The YMCA is offering "Y Wednesdays" at schools that have YMCA-run after school programs in which parents can register for Wednesday-only after school care. Wake schools that offer in-house after school programs are offering a similar program for parents. Parents must register and pay for the entire school year to participate.

Most after-school providers are offering the extra care to full-time enrollees at no additional charge.

Click here for a complete list of early release dates and times.