I home school and we do 4 day weeks. Wednesday is our off day, but we go to the 2 libraries in town. One is a city and the other is county. This has worked for us since I started home schooling the kids years ago. They use Wednesday to read and if they need help with something, then we can go over things to help them better understand it.
Now, I realize this is different than for public/mainstream schools. IT seems to me, that if the kids are given some expectation for that day off, they could use it wisely and still not fall behind in class. I also know, that for some families, childcare might be an issue, but then again, the article did say it was mostly in rural farming communities. There is always work to be done and maybe childcare is not an issue. Either way, the kids need to have some sort of expectations that need to be met each Friday that they do not have class.