2018 - 2019 School Dates

[wfjny]

I have seen a lot of people asking recently about which dates are good, and what to avoid. Originally from New York, now living in the Carolina's, with family in several parts of the country, I have had to try and get everyone’s calendars together for planning an extended family trip.

From my research, here are several dates that you may want to be aware of….

Many schools in the south start returning to school the weeks of 8/13, 8/20 and 8/27. Some may start as early as August 1. Many schools in the north tend to start back on 9/4 & 9/5, with a few waiting until 9/10 or even the 12th.

Other than the obvious Labor Day Holiday on 9/3, there are a lot of possible long weekends. These include:

Monday, September 10 & 11 – Rosh Hashanah (Jewish Holiday where many northern Schools are closed)
Wednesday, September 19 – Yom Kippur (Jewish Holiday where many northern Schools are closed, could be turned into a five day weekend on either end by some)
Monday, October 8 – Columbus Day (Some schools close)
Monday, November 5 – Jersey Week (Many Schools in New Jersey are closed the entire week. To see why, look at the next few lines)
Tuesday, November 6 – Election Day (Some Schools Close, Some people make it into a 4 day weekend)
Wednesday, November 7 – Some schools have this as a holiday, but I do not know why.
November 12 – Veterans Day (Some schools close)
November 22 – Thanksgiving Day (Obviously, at least a long weekend, and possibly for many the entire week)
December – Christmas break runs as early as starting Thursday, December 20th for some, to possibly as long as December 7th for others.
NY – 24 - 1st
NC – 24 – 7th
January 21 – MLK Holiday (Some schools end their first semester the week before, and may make this a 4 or 5 day weekend)
February 18 – Presidents Day (Some schools are closed, some, mostly up north, close the entire week).
April 18 – 26 - Easter Break
May 27 - Memorial Day (Some Schools start Closing)

With the various start times, obviously there are various end times. Last Day of School for some districts:
GA: May 24 (Atlanta Area)
SC: May 31 (Charlotte Area)
PA: June 4 (Philadelphia Area)
NC: June 6 (Charlotte Area)
NY: June 24-26 (Long Island/NYC)

These are all just observations based on the Schools my family have children or work in. Some schools have additional dates that make things interesting. NY has school districts mostly run by local towns. NC has mostly county wide school districts. Even within a state or an area, calendars can vary widely. Personally we have several Half Day Thursdays in our county, which could turn into a three and a half day weekend If I pull my kids out for Friday. I also know many parents that pull their kids out of school for the half days altogether.

I would also share, especially when it comes to my schools in NC versus where we were NY, we only start a week earlier, but we finish almost three weeks earlier. A big part of that is the holidays. Our school in NC is not even closed on President’s Day, never mind the entire week. We also do not close for the various religious holidays in September. We also do not plan for snow days in our area, although there are counties in the mountains that I think need to plan for a month of snow days.

Please note, I am not advocating that people take their children out of school, nor am I condemning people that do. Personal choice and should be measured in part by how the child does in school, what they would be missing, and a list of other factors. Just sharing my personal research as I tried to find a time when multiple families from multiple states would be free.

Hopefully you find it helpful.

 

[hiroMYhero]

Here’s a Spring Break “Poll” thread:
Spring Break Poll for 2019

 

[OSK613]

Our Colorado elementary school has a 2 week break in October, so taking advantage of that time and coming out to Disney World!

 

[Amanda999]

Massachusetts (and Maine IIRC) public schools always have the week off that starts with the 3rd Monday in April. (For Patriots Day; used to be April 19th but was changed years ago.) It coincides with Easter in 2019 but that's not often. HTH.
It's April 14-21 in 2019.

 

[mjkacmom]

Election Day week is also Jersey week, schools here are closed that Thursday and Friday.

 

[OneinThree]

Disney is now such an international destination, you will never avoid the effect of school breaks.

 

[gap2368]

in my area school start, August 13 and private schools have a different start date

 

[mindy lou]

Massachusetts (and Maine IIRC) public schools always have the week off that starts with the 3rd Monday in April. (For Patriots Day; used to be April 19th but was changed years ago.) It coincides with Easter in 2019 but that's not often. HTH.
It's April 14-21 in 2019.

And most of New Hampshire (and at least some of Vermont too) always have the following week of, the 4th week of April. We also have a week of in Feburary, usually the week AFTER President's Day

 

[Woody412]

We once tried to avoid Columbus Day by going the following weekend. We found out about Fall Break in the U.K. the hard way...

 

[Woody412]

Disney is now such an international destination, you will never avoid the effect of school breaks.

This quote was supposed to be above

 

[AngiTN]

Here's an idea, list each week of the year and put School Break by it.
Because I bet, somewhere in the world, there's a school having a break that week.
Seriously, gotten impossible to predict/plan school schedules.
Even within some areas you have some schools that have adopted year round school calendars that throw it all out the window by going 6 or 8 weeks in a row, then 2 weeks off, all year long.

 

[starsweeper]

School started today for my kids in central KY. We have fall break the first week of October that many parents use for a trip to Disney. Spring break is always the first week of April and our last day is May 24th.

 

[Narnia_girl]

OP, it's interesting to look and compare the similarities/differences of schools around the country. Thanks for compiling it!

 

[seelyt2]

Similar to this, is there a calendar out there that lists the events at Disney? For instance, a calendar that lists when Food and Wine is, when all the marathons are, Pop Warner, etc.?

 

[wfjny]

OP, it's interesting to look and compare the similarities/differences of schools around the country. Thanks for compiling it!

Thanks. That is why I wanted to share.

Here's an idea, list each week of the year and put School Break by it.

I do realize that there are separate schools that have their own schedules, and even within our own district, we have a year round school that takes different breaks, and an Early College High School that basically follows the collage schedule instead of the public school schedule.

Let's face it, there are no slow times at Disney anymore. Didn't McDonald's for a while get rid of the Small, Medium and Large to go with Medium, Large and Super-size. That is WDW, there are no more small crowd days.

I think the majority of visitors to WDW are still from the US, and I would even say probably the eastern two thirds of the US. You are correct, every week there is some school that is off somewhere in the world.

In the end, I still believe that a majority of us who have children are confined to take vacations when the kids are out of school. This creates demand, and companies capitalize on that demand. The Cheapest one way fare on Jet Blue from NY to Orlando is $95 on Friday Feb 1, 2019. Wait until Presidents Day weekend, and the cheapest flight on Friday Feb 15, 2019 is $418.

 

[AngiTN]

Thanks. That is why I wanted to share.

I do realize that there are separate schools that have their own schedules, and even within our own district, we have a year round school that takes different breaks, and an Early College High School that basically follows the collage schedule instead of the public school schedule.

Let's face it, there are no slow times at Disney anymore. Didn't McDonald's for a while get rid of the Small, Medium and Large to go with Medium, Large and Super-size. That is WDW, there are no more small crowd days.

I think the majority of visitors to WDW are still from the US, and I would even say probably the eastern two thirds of the US. You are correct, every week there is some school that is off somewhere in the world.

In the end, I still believe that a majority of us who have children are confined to take vacations when the kids are out of school. This creates demand, and companies capitalize on that demand. The Cheapest one way fare on Jet Blue from NY to Orlando is $95 on Friday Feb 1, 2019. Wait until Presidents Day weekend, and the cheapest flight on Friday Feb 15, 2019 is $418.

My only point is, even with all those dates and times you put you still didn't grab all the start dates for the Southeast, here in my area in TN we started today. Or end dates. It's like trying to nail jello to a wall, that's all. The variety is so great it's just about impossible to list them all. It can be interesting but I'm not sure anyone can learn much from it simply because of the fact that someone, somewhere it out on just about any given day. Even if you just count the US.

 

[Prose]

My only point is, even with all those dates and times you put you still didn't grab all the start dates for the Southeast, here in my area in TN we started today. Or end dates. It's like trying to nail jello to a wall, that's all. The variety is so great it's just about impossible to list them all. It can be interesting but I'm not sure anyone can learn much from it simply because of the fact that someone, somewhere it out on just about any given day. Even if you just count the US.

Yup, here we start end of July, are out before Memorial Day, and get two weeks off each in Oct, Dec and for Spring Break. LOTS of folks from here head to WDW in October.

 

[LNMom]

Mardi Gras break week will be the first week of March. Many schools and universities are off the entire week in New Orleans. Lots of New Orleanians visit DW that week. I've heard it's a noticeable presence.

There is a DC that week, so many may opt for it instead of the parks. We are! Laissez le bon temps roulez!

PS I think this is a worthwhile question.

 

[DaniMoon]

It is always interesting to me how other areas of the country run their schools. Raising my kids in the same schools that I went to (NE PA), we have never had a fall or spring break. We get the week between Christmas and New Years and two days at Thanksgiving. We usually lose our longer holiday weekends in Feb/Mar/April to make up for snow days.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Fyi, my County and 2 surrounding ones went back yesterday, never mind Monday the 13th lol yeah, crazy that we went back on a Friday