When Does School Start?
In general, schools start their year after summer. Depending on your location in the United States they can start as early as July or as late as after Labor Day.
East Coast
East coast schools have some of the latest start dates! In general you can expect in and around Labor Day. New York for example starts school after Labor Day while some schools in New England and the mid Atlantic start the last week of August. Private schools are generally the wild card. Most private schools try to match their surrounding school districts while others may choose to start way earlier. As always it’s best to check with your specific school district or area with the exact start dates.
Southern Schools
Southern schools have some of the earliest start dates. Most of the schools located in the south will have their first week by the end of August. Many will actually start the first week of August! Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee are known as some of the earliest starting dates while Louisiana and Texas will start towards the end of the month.
Midwest Schools
Midwest schools have a start date that is very similar to the southern state schools. Midwest schools opt to start in mid to late August. In general, it’s considered more rare for a Midwest school to start in September. This also means that the Midwest schools will get an early 3-day weekend for Labor Day to help ease students into the new year!
Southwest Schools
Many schools in the southwest will start in early August. New Mexico and Arizona are known to have some of the earliest starts towards the beginning of August. Once again, look into your specific district for the most up-to-date start dates/times.
West Coast Schools
West coast schools generally model themselves similarly to the starts of the East coast schools. You can expect a late August start to a post-Labor Day start.
How Many Weeks Are in a School Year?
Standard Schools
In general, a school year consists of at least 180 days or 26 weeks of instructional time. This is spread out between July through June and features many breaks within that time. Most schools give a week off for Thanksgiving, two weeks off for Christmas and the New Year, and a week off for a Spring Break.
Year-Round Schools
While this accounts for a normal school year, year-round schools feature more frequent breaks but do not have an extensive summer break. Year round schools generally split instructional time into 6 – 10 week increments – followed by a 2 – 3 week break. Moreover, a school year features 26 weeks of days off for students. This is 2 more weeks than a standard school year.
Private Schools
Private schools function a little bit differently. Since they are not mandated by the state or national curriculum, they can choose to have more or less days of instruction. They also have the freedom give students off for holidays that many state curriculums do not. Our private school – The Tenney School has multiple 3 day weekends spread out that are designated as student rest days. This is because of program is entirely taught one-to-one. Religious-focused schools are another type of private school that will give more days off depending on the holidays celebrated.
When Do Schools End?
This once again depends on the school. Our private school: The Tenney school ends in early May. This is considered early for many Texas schools but we also start a little earlier to compensate.
East Coast
Because east coast schools start so early, they have some of the latest end dates. Students starting on the east coast can expect to end anywhere from late May to late June! This is also heavily dependent on how many bad weather days happen during the year. Generally they compensate for it, but some years are worse then others so it’s important to keep that in mind!
Southern Schools
Southern schools are very similar to East coast schools in that the end date can vary due to environmental factors. Things like hurricanes and tornados can drastically affect when school ends depending on how many days school has to be cancelled. For the most part, you can expect school ending anywhere from early May to early June.
Midwest Schools
Midwest schools can suffer from the same fate if there’s a large amount of bad weather days. They have some of the latest end date too! You can expect most Midwest schools to end anywhere from early to late June.
Southwest Schools
Southwest schools don’t have too many bad weather days to worry about so in general, most schools will end in mid to late May.
West Coast Schools
West coast schools also have an avoidance to bad weather days (for the most part). You can expect most of these schools ending around mid to late June.
When Does Your School End?
We’re always looking to update our article with what’s current with our readers. When does your school year end? We’d love to hear from you. Thanks so much for reading, if you’re looking for a head start on your school work this year, we recommend checking out our tutoring services! Our tutors are all private school teachers who work with students remotely on a variety of different subjects. You can schedule tutoring here.