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You have a couple of questions in your post. It's not
atypical for schools to run credit recovery or after
school tutorial sessions. I've heard of schools
requiring every student to participate, but I haven't
heard of it happening in many schools for all
students, but every school I've been in has has some
after school tutoring program.
I have not seen nighttime detentions running that late,
at the most 6:00pm is the latest I've seen that wasn't
athletics or some other club activity.

Texas state law doesn't have a regulation mandating
the maximum length of the school day, or instructional
day. There is a minimum school length of a school day
and minimum number of days of instruction that
equate to a minimum hours of instruction. Districts
have a lot of flexibility beyond those minimums.
Districts have experimented with 4 day school and
work weeks, with longer school years (remember
summer school). As long as the principal has the
support of the super and the board they can probably
do what they want.

In terms of duty period, Texas has had some
commissioners rules and findings that have
established a few standards. If a school publishes a
bell or duty schedule than they have set a teacher's
duty period, as a result districts can and do explicitly
set a teacher's duty time in their contract or by
reference in a staff handbook, otherwise the teacher
is likely to prevail that the period of bell to bell is their
duty schedule. It would depend what was in the
contract, the district policies and what the standards
have been set in practice.

In my experience if the dismissal bell is 3:40 but all
students remain present for tutoring for an additional
30 minutes, requiring teachers to remain by extending
their duty schedule is probably legal. If it was a grey
area, the district could extend the instructional day
until 4:10 and call the last 30 minutes "enrichment" or
"mentoring" period and that would very likely be legal.

Requiring a teacher to stay until 9:00pm for detention
or some other activity when other staff, teachers and
students have left would require a supplemental
contract and payment for that activity, much like a
supplemental coaching or club contract.

On 9/04/16, anon wrote:
> IS THIS NORMAL OR IS IT EXCESSIVE? We have one
high school in our town. For
> the past few years the principal has mandated after-
school tutorials for all
> students, regardless of their grades or academic
standings. These tutorials
> follow the normal school day (8:00-3:40) and in
actuality extend it until 4:10.
> My understanding is that most students work on
their laptops (all students have
> school-issued laptops 24/7) on computer programs
that practice for the STAAR
> or EOC exams. Remember, this is for EVERY
student, even if they have straight
> A's. My question is: How do they get by with what
amounts to making the
> school day for all Jr and Sr High students longer? Is
there not some sort of
> rule/law/policy that would limit the number of hours
the school can require
> students to be in attendance? Some students have
athletics beginning at 7:10
> a.m., which would mean that their school day is 9
hours long! Then, they may
> have other school-related activities such as clubs,
homework, etc. This school
> also has night detentions from 6-9pm (all on
computer programs, I think). I
> don't know if teachers are required to be there for
the after-school mandatory
> time (one would assume so). I think the principal
monitors the night-time
> detentions himself. Is this normal for all Jr/Sr high
schools in Texas, or is this
> excessive?

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