Can Montessori School Work When Both Parents Work Full Time?

It can, as long as the school’s care hours cover both commutes and you have a plan for the days it closes. Among US schools in our directory with listed hours, 62% open by 7:30 a.m. and 42% stay open until 6 p.m. or later (Google data from January 2025), and a day that long can combine a shorter Montessori class with before and after care that you book and pay for separately. Check the class day, the care hours, early dismissals and summer before you count on a school.

How Many Montessori Schools Stay Open Long Enough?

In 2025, both parents had jobs in 66.3% of US married-couple families with children under 18 (BLS, April 2026), so a class that ends at 3 p.m. leaves a gap in a lot of households.

Our listings give a rough picture of what schools offer. Of the 5,645 US schools in our directory, 3,841 show regular weekday hours on Google. Just over a third of those open by 7:30 a.m. and stay open until 6 p.m., and 12% close by 3:30 p.m. Outside the US the pattern changes a lot.

Country	Schools with listed hours	Open by 7:30 a.m.	Open until 6 p.m. or later	Both
United States	3,841	62%	42%	36%
Canada	555	55%	23%	21%
England	633	19%	53%	18%
Ireland	459	17%	40%	16%
Germany	373	69%	5%	3%
Australia	246	70%	68%	62%
India	1,109	9%	26%	2%

These are Montessori School Finder listings with regular weekday hours on Google, using data from January 2025, computed in November 2026. Most German listings open early and very few stay open until 6, while in England more than half stay open until 6 and fewer than one in five open by 7:30. Hours on a listing describe the building, so they can include paid care, and they can be out of date.

What Do Extended Day, Before Care and After Care Mean?

Neither AMI nor AMS publishes a definition of before care or after care, so each school uses the words its own way.

• The school day, or class hours, is the Montessori class itself. “Full day” has no fixed length, so ask for the start and end times.
• Extended day can mean longer class hours in the same classroom. At some schools it means an afternoon program for the oldest children in the 3 to 6 class.
• Before care and after care are supervised time outside class hours. They may be in another room with other adults, and schools often bill them separately, by the month or by the day.

For the schools it recognizes, AMI/USA describes an all-day class as one that “offers extended hours, both in the morning and late afternoon,” with children in their own classroom under two overlapping AMI-trained teachers. It also recommends that 3- and 4-year-olds who stay through the afternoon join the afternoon work period when they aren’t napping (AMI/USA). Ask whether the late afternoon at your school looks like that or like a separate care room, and who will be with your child at 4:30.

What Could a Full-Time Week Look Like?

This family and school are made up for illustration. They show how to test a schedule, and they are not typical or average.

The school runs class from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., with before care from 7:30, after care until 6, and a noon dismissal on the first Friday of each month. One parent works 8:30 to 5 with a 40-minute drive, so she has to leave the school by 7:50 and can be back at about 5:40. The other parent is a nurse who works 12-hour shifts, 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

• On Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays the nurse leaves home at 6:30. The office parent drops off at 7:30 and picks up around 5:40, so the child needs before care and after care, with 20 minutes of slack before the 6 p.m. close.
• On Tuesdays and Fridays the nurse does both runs and the child goes home at 3.
• The first Friday of the month works while the nurse is off. If her rota ever moves a shift to that Friday, nobody can collect the child at noon.

So the family needs three mornings and three afternoons of care a week, or a full-week plan if the school doesn’t sell single days. They also need a backup person for early dismissals and for the evening a crash on the highway turns 40 minutes into 70. Price both versions with our cost guide.

Run the same test with your own week. Write down each parent’s start time, end time and commute, then mark who does drop-off and pickup on each day, including the early dismissals and conference days on the school calendar.

What Should I Ask About Pickup, Closures and Summer?

• What time does the Montessori class finish, and what time does paid care close?
• Is care booked by the month, by the day or both, and can we change days midyear?
• Who looks after children in after care, and in which room?
• What is the latest pickup, and what happens if we’re 15 minutes late?
• How many early dismissals, conference days and staff training days are on this year’s calendar, and is care open on those days?
• Is there a summer program, and does it need a separate sign-up?
• Are there volunteer hours or parent events during the workday?

Put the answer into your schedule test as well. A rule that asks for pickup within an hour lands on whichever parent works closer, every time.

What If the Hours Still Don’t Fit?

Look for a school near one parent’s workplace rather than near home, which can turn a tight pickup into an easy one. Some families cover two late afternoons with a sitter, shift one parent’s hours, or choose a school that runs all year. Our guide on whether Montessori schools are open year-round shows how to count the weeks a school calendar leaves open.

To compare hours near you, start from our locations page, pick your city and look at the Opening Hours card on each school page. Those hours come from Google and may be stale, so treat a long day as a reason to call and ask what it includes.