School is back. Here’s what the earlier start means for Carowinds summer jobs
As Carowinds begins scaling back its operating hours, the cost of earlier school start dates in S.C. has become more apparent. It’ll cost families time at the park and it’ll cost teen employees time on the clock. All during the critical summer season for Carowinds.
That’s because South Carolina schools across York County returned to class Monday. It’s the earliest students have gone back in unison, after some districts bumped their start dates earlier into August the past couple of years.
The return to school date for area districts is a critical piece of the Carowinds business model. Carowinds hires about 2,500 seasonal employees each year. This year, high school students account for 26% of the Carowinds workforce.
“We usually build our schedule around that, taking into consideration both North Carolina and South Carolina,” said Chris Foshee, public relations regional manager for parent company Six Flags Entertainment Corp.
Carowinds on the SC, NC line
Carowinds has many quirks, with its placement on the South Carolina and North Carolina state line.
It pays taxes on ticket sales in South Carolina, since the box office is on that side. North Carolina inspects its largest roller coaster, Fury 325, despite it operating in both states. Riders get on Fury in North Carolina.
Traditionally, schools across York County started one week ahead of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. This year, York County’s four districts started three weeks before the Aug. 25 date in Charlotte.
Park attendance typically drops once school starts, Foshee said, but Carowinds doesn’t have a dollar figure for how much it will cost the park for York County schools to start earlier. The park doesn’t actively lobby for any school start date, either.
“We’re just kind of at the mercy of it,” Foshee said. “Being in the middle of two states, that’s a lot to control.”
Carowinds wouldn’t open the park unless it had an adequate number of employees to run it, he said, but the number of available employees can cause the park’s hours to change.
Last month, Carowinds opened at 10 a.m. daily with its water park opening an hour later. The water park stayed open until 6 p.m. and the park until 9 p.m. most nights.
On some weekends, the park stayed open until 10 p.m. Toward the end of July, both the main park and water park began closing an hour earlier.
Carowinds will close at 8 p.m. through Thursday this week, then until 9 p.m. Friday and 10 p.m. Saturday.
Next week, the park will close at 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Friday and Saturday hours will stay the same. By the following week, the park will only be open on weekends. Those hours will vary through the fall and winter.
Carowinds impact on York County economy
At 400 acres, Carowinds is the largest amusement park in the Carolinas. It’s the only park in either state on the Tripadvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards Best of the Best list for water and amusement parks nationwide.
It’s been a top tourism draw in York County since it opened more than 50 years ago.
When Carowinds didn’t open for a season during the pandemic, hotels and restaurants along the busy Carowinds Boulevard suffered. At that time, about 45% of tourists to York County came for Carowinds, according to Visit York County.
Money from ticket sales even goes into an account the county and state use for road improvements near the park.
In the busy summer season, the economic impact is highest.
“We employ teachers as well,” Foshee said. “A good many teachers use Carowinds as a summer job.”
This season, Carowinds added a new family launch roller coaster and a boat ride in its children’s area. The park also added a swim up bar for adults in its water park.
As part of $1 billion plans across all Six Flags parks, Carowinds is set to add a “record-breaking water ride” next year, the company announced late last year.
Six Flags doesn’t announce financial details by park. The company operated at a loss in the first quarter, it announced in May, due to most of its parks being closed or only open on weekends. First quarter attendance and revenue figures make up 7% of what the company expects for the year, according to a news release.
Second quarter revenue details are expected this Wednesday.
Teen workers at Carowinds
Many of the teens working at the amusement park are students who either stop working when school resumes, or cut back their hours.
“When it’s time for school to start, it can definitely hinder their ability to work,” Foshee said.
Losing workers to school doesn’t impact safety or the park experience, he said. Overall park hours can shrink or certain attractions could close earlier due to employee availability.
Summer jobs and tourism have long been central to the question of when South Carolina students start school in the fall. The answer, at least locally, appears clear — districts want to start early.
SC school start date changes
For many years, South Carolina law mandated that school not start before the third Monday in August. Some Rock Hill region districts bemoaned that stance, saying they’d like to start earlier but legislators in tourism-heavy areas along the coast wouldn’t allow it.
Shorter summers would mean shorter tourism seasons and workforce issues as students returned to school.
Starting earlier, local districts said, would allow a more even semester split where high school classes end and start on either side of winter break.
When schools reopened from the COVID pandemic in 2020, they started a week earlier in an attempt to make up for learning loss from the shutdown. Then, districts statewide took a closer look at the state-mandated start date.
Using a provision related to year-round school, districts began introducing modified calendars that started school earlier and introduced weeks off in October and February. The past two school years, area districts have opened across a several-week span in August.
This year, five of the six public districts in the Rock Hill region started school Aug. 4. Lancaster County follows close behind them, starting Aug. 12. That’s the same date Lancaster County resumed school last year.
Teen workers across SC
Carowinds isn’t the only business likely to feel the strain of new school start dates.
Last year, 41.3% of South Carolina teens age 16 to 19 worked, according to the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce. That’s higher than the 36.1% nationally who were employed in that same age group.
Teen workers are the only age group where South Carolina had a higher employment rate than the country, according to the state workforce department.
Teen employment jumped 4% last year in South Carolina and hit its highest annual rate since at least before the COVID pandemic.
Many of those teen workers are drawn to similar jobs, according to the workforce department. South Carolina has a dozen occupations with at least 2,000 workers where teens make up at least 10% of the workforce.
Amusement or recreation attendants is one of them. So is recreational protective service work, like lifeguards. General recreation workers is another.
All but two of the remaining occupations are tied directly to food service, and one of the remaining two (cashiers) could be. Coaching or scouting is the only occupation on the list that doesn’t have jobs at Carowinds.
Clarification: This story and headline were updated to more clearly detail the park’s schedule and the impact of local S.C. schools starting earlier.
This story was originally published August 5, 2025 at 11:23 AM.
