Well, weekends, obviously. And then two weeks of Winter Break, one week for Spring Break, and three days for Thanksgiving.

But there’s more. Fairfax County students got a four-day weekend to celebrate Labor Day and will get another for Election Day in November. They’ll also get four-day weekends at the end of January and late April to rest after the end of academic quarters 2 and 3. Since it’s a big county with people of various faiths, all students are off for Yom Kippur in September, Eid al-Fitr in March and Eid al-Adha in May.

So, in addition to seven federal holidays where most businesses are also closed, I count 26 discretionary days off that students will have during the school year. That doesn’t count summer or factor in snow days, and it also doesn’t include three early-release days that affect all students, or the more that apply only to elementary students.  

As a Fairfax parent, I find all these days off a mixed blessing. It can be fun to hang out with my kids, especially when I can take advantage of long weekends. But it can also be hard to juggle work obligations with my kids at home so often. I can’t afford to take that many days off! I’m thankful that this year’s schedule is a bit better than , when we had 33 discretionary days off, not to mention and late starts.

Have school calendars always been this fragmented? I had Claude help me go back through old calendars for Fairfax and other large districts. For consistency, I counted any weekday between the first and last day of school when students were not scheduled to attend, excluding federal holidays. I called these discretionary days off, although some are teacher workdays, religious holidays or other days when districts have legitimate reasons to close.

A clear pattern emerged: School districts are increasingly stretching the same number of instructional days across a longer calendar, with more three- and four-day school weeks along the way.

In the Washington, D.C. area this year, the number of planned discretionary days off ranges from 21 in Montgomery County in Maryland to 28 in Virginia’s Loudoun County. But all the big local districts have seen increases over time. The graph below shows the trend line in Fairfax County, Virginia, in red, compared to D.C. Public Schools (in blue) and Montgomery County (in gray). Other than the COVID years, when these districts operated remotely and with compressed calendars, they all take more days off than they used to.

Other D.C.-area districts also show increases. Loudoun County went from 18 planned days off in the 2016-17 school year to 28 this year. Prince William County, Maryland, went from 18 to 27 over the same period.

Nationwide, among the 10 largest districts in the country, Clark County in Nevada had the fewest discretionary days off: 22. New York City has 25, Los Angeles Unified has 26 and Chicago has 27.

Compared with pre-pandemic schedules, many districts have essentially stretched the same school year out by a week or two. Students are getting the same 180-ish days spread across a longer span, with more long weekends along the way.

Does that matter?

There isn’t much research that directly tests whether a slightly more fragmented school calendar affects learning. Research on four-day school weeks offers one clue, although it’s an imperfect comparison. Students to learn somewhat less under four-day schedules, but much of that effect appears to come from reductions in total instructional time. It is notable, though, that many districts extended their calendar but chose not to add any extra time for students.

From a parent’s perspective, these changes might matter even if the total number of school days hasn’t budged. Summer is a long childcare challenge, but at least it is predictable, and an entire range of camps and programs exists to accommodate it. A growing collection of random Mondays and Friday offs, teacher workdays and four-day weekends can be harder to manage, especially for parents who can’t work from home or take 20-plus days off during the school year.

Another downside is the effect on attendance. As schools struggle to restore norms around the habit of showing up for class, a disjointed calendar with lots of random days off can make that a harder sell. In fact, there is some that students are less likely to attend school on Mondays and Fridays and before and after holidays. With more days off spread throughout the year, schools have essentially created more of those mini-holiday opportunities. 

District leaders spend a lot of time talking about improving attendance and maximizing instructional time. They should perhaps pay more attention to how the calendar itself is undercutting those messages. Even if students still receive the same number of school days, there is value in making those days regular and predictable. If students are to get back into the habit of going to school, it would help if schools were in the habit of being open.

New York City’s 2024-25 school calendar was set more than a year ago.

But the Education Department made a scheduling error for this week’s Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and didn’t communicate about it until Tuesday morning, frustrating some principals as the school year entered the June homestretch.

New York City schools faced a particularly strange week: All schools are closed on Thursday for Eid al-adha/Anniversary Day. On Friday, though 6-12 and high schools are open, elementary and middle schools are closed to students while their staffers were expected to show up for a “clerical” day.

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Schools typically use the day for grading and collaborating on planning for the year ahead. They often use the time to take tech inventory or address other classroom housekeeping issues. Some schools schedule kindergarten or sixth-grade student orientations and tours.

But in Tuesday’s weekly email from the Education Department to principals, amid a litany of other news, officials included a brief note that Friday would not be an in-person staff day as planned because of Eid. The holiday starts Thursday evening and goes into Friday. Several principals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, expressed annoyance at the last-minute change, questioning why it had not been communicated earlier or in a direct and transparent manner with officials owning up to their mistake.

One Manhattan elementary school principal wondered whether the Education Department failed to understand when the Muslim holiday began. The observance of the holiday is dependent on moon sightings, and it can shift year-to-year, officials said.

“The change was made to provide greater flexibility for educators to complete various end-of-year tasks,” Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said in a statement. “We are working closely with school leaders to support them in adjusting plans as needed.”

Students in grades 6-12 schools who need to be absent, late or depart early for observance of Eid may be excused, Education Department officials said.

“We had already planned a full day, including an in-person orientation for our incoming sixth graders,” said one Manhattan middle school principal, who scrambled on Tuesday to find teachers willing to volunteer to come in person to avoid canceling the orientation while also reworking the other staff activities for the day.

“Most of what we planned won’t translate to remote, or at least won’t translate without significant changes,” the principal said.

A Brooklyn middle school principal echoed similar concerns.

“We had a planned-out day dedicated to June-planning on teams and class list-making,” the principal said. “While that can technically happen remotely, it will greatly diminish productivity and actual preparedness for the close of the year and the start of next year. It’s a real shame.”

Some school leaders, however, were pleased with the change — even if they were critical of the way it was communicated.

“I think the impact is relieved happiness overall and for some staff members who are observing Eid, overall relief,” one Bronx assistant principal said. “I anticipated this was going to be a low staff attendance day anyway.”

This isn’t the first time New York City schools made a last-minute pivot to remote on this particular day. Two years ago, for staffers on clerical day as well as students in schools that run from grades 6-12.

“But that was an external and last-minute thing due to an emergency,” one Manhattan elementary school principal said, unlike this year’s switcheroo.

Another Manhattan elementary principal recalled having to cancel a kindergarten orientation that day of the wildfires — and having to do damage control the entire next year for the parents who were still upset over not being able to have an in-person tour. That principal no longer uses that day for orientations, but was still scrambling on Tuesday to come up with a Plan B for school staffers, including office staff, whose work is harder to do remotely.

“The last-minute scramble and the gaps in communication — it’s a frustrating pattern that has happened over multiple chancellors,” the principal said. “It’s a whole ripple effect.”

Many principals were pleased, however, that the Education Department has already addressed an issue with next year’s calendar, so there isn’t a .

“This isn’t the biggest thing, but it just doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence,” the Manhattan middle school principal said of this week’s last-minute change. “On the positive side, they did take away Jan. 2… but at least with that one there is plenty of advance warning so everyone can plan accordingly.”

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

Philadelphia students could head back to classes before Labor Day for the next two years, according to proposed academic calendars the district released Tuesday.

The pre-Labor Day start for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 calendars will allow for longer spring and winter recesses as well as additional cultural and religious holidays throughout the year, district officials said this week.

Superintendent Tony Watlington also confirmed Tuesday that district schools and offices will be closed on Friday for the Philadelphia Eagles celebratory Super Bowl parade.

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“We look forward to celebrating the Eagles’ victory as a community, and we hope that our students, staff and families will do so safely and responsibly,” Watlington said in a statement.

The question of whether to start before or after Labor Day has rankled families and district leaders , in part because many Philly schools do not have adequate air conditioning. That has forced some buildings to close or dismiss students early due to excessive heat .

This school year, the first day back landed before Labor Day, and 63 schools without air conditioning dismissed students early, during the first week of classes. However, school started , and heat closures still impacted students’ learning time that first week.

Watlington said at his this year that over the past three school years, the number of schools without air conditioning has shrunk from 118 to 57 thanks in part to a

Shakeera Warthen-Canty, assistant superintendent of school operations and management at the district, said their academic calendar recommendations this year are built off of a survey and several in-person feedback sessions.

The majority of parents and caregivers who responded preferred a post-Labor Day start, the survey found. But students, teachers, school staff, and community members reported they overwhelmingly preferred starting the school year before Labor Day.

Some 16,400 parents, students, school staff, principals, and community members responded to the survey the district sent out last September, Warthen-Canty said.

Respondents also said they wanted more frequent breaks for longer durations to accommodate family vacations, as well as time to rest, support mental health, and prevent staff burnout.

State law says districts must have a minimum of 180 student days, or a minimum of 900 instructional hours for elementary school students and 990 hours for middle and high school students. The district’s collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union also requires 188 teacher work days, as well as a minimum of 28 professional development hours.

The district officials’ calendar recommendations will for a vote before they are enacted.

If approved, winter recess would be seven days in 2025-26 and eight days in 2026-27, while spring break would be five days both years.

In addition to the five state and national holidays (Memorial Day, Independence Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s Day), Philadelphia school district school holidays in 2025-26 and 2026-27 would include:

• Labor Day
• Rosh Hashanah
• Yom Kippur
• Indigenous Peoples Day
• Veterans Day
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Presidents Day
• Lunar New Year
• Eid al-Fitr
• Good Friday
• Eid al-Adha
• Juneteenth

This school year, both Indigenous Peoples Day and Veterans Day were school days.

As for how the new calendar may interact with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s commitment to : Deputy Superintendent Jermaine Dawson said this week the district has ensured any expansion of that program will work “alongside our calendar of school days.”

This story was originally published at Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.