How long can one school year last? In Fairfax County, Virginia, this year, it will take 297 days between the start and end of the year to deliver 180 days of instruction. How is that possible?
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 four more that apply only to elementary students.
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