President's Week - Do a lot of schools around the country get it off?

[Prose]

No Midwestern schools that I know of get President's week off - we get just the Monday off, and even then it can be cancelled and used as a snow make-up day if needed.

(Just FYI - I have the 2016 and 2017 school calendars posted in my office, and they show that our Spring Break is the last two weeks of March both years.)

 

[JenQ]

I am also confused about President's day vs Week. Presidents Day is in February and next year my child does have it off, as well as an in-service day right after. Valentine's Day is also that weekend and the crowd calendars I have looked at put it as very busy. I have never heard of a presidents week in April. I am in PA. We don't have spring break either -- it's just two days off around Easter.

I don't know if this is true but I am going Jersey week so I did a little reading about it and some say that NJ is Disney's biggest market so that is why the dates they have off of school tend to affect the crowds more.

 

[ariane37]

Are you in New York City or elsewhere in the state? I grew up in the city and my parents have both been teachers there for the past 20+ years, and as far as I am aware the last year that the city did not get the week of Passover off was in 1986. It's true I assumed it was the same for the whole state. Usually it is not noticeable that the week is Passover and not Easter as the two coincide almost always.

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/24/nyregion/judge-orders-schools-to-open-on-passover.html

I'm about 90 minutes north of the city, Dutchess County. My oldest is 26 and he always had the week after Easter off and that has continued to remain the same for my 2 DS's still in school. As for Passover, as you said it usually coincides with Easter so we end up being off the first day of Passover. Sometimes we lose a day or more of our Spring Break to make up snow days; if that happens, we cannot use the first day of Passover as a make-up day. Which is sometimes weird: there have been years we've had to make up 3 days and Passover is Wed., so kids go Mon, Tues, off Wed. go Thurs. off Fri. We also can't use Good Friday for a snow make up day.
Our current calendar for the 2015-2016 does not have us off at all for Passover, but in our district whether or not we have off for Jewish holidays is dependent upon how many teachers & students in the district observe those holidays. That's all I know about that. We do always have the Jewish holidays in Sept. off and we do again this year; not sure if something will change for Passover but when I saw it, I assumed there would be some unhappy people. As I said in my previous post, I didn't think all of NY had the same Spring Break

 

[tink9702]

Rhode Island here. We get the entire week in February that contains President's Day. Our April vacation is typically the third or possibly the 4th weekend of April. We have no Fall break, start school the last week of August, somewhere between one and two weeks at Christmas and end mid to late June. The weather is also yucky around here in February so most families probably pick to go to Disney in February vs. April to get away from the snow/ice whereas April is often when our weather warms up.

I've been during the February vacation week and it was quite crowded.

 

[stormer]

On Long Island we always get the whole week off in February for Predidents week. We visit Disney most years that week. It is very crowded, but better than being the cold NY! We do notice an increase in the crowd level when it coincides with Mardi Gras.

In 2016 almost all schools near us have the last week in April off like the OP mentioned. With Easter and Passover being so far apart we are getting a long weekend for Easter and the whole week for Passover. As soon as I got our calendar for next year, I wondered the same thing as the OP. I posted the same question and got many responses of people saying they never heard of having Spring Break so late and they thought it was just me. I am worried about it being crowded too because it seems like so many schools are gotting that week and everybody is saying it will be a great week to go to Disney.

 

[merina888]

I live in Western NY and I am a teacher. We have Presidents' Week off in February as do many parts of NYS. Not all school districts do. I have a friend who works for a district south of Buffalo who gets 2 weeks for Spring Break rather than February Break. As an FYI, Spring Break varies across NYS this year. Most of the districts in my area (Rochester) do not have the end of April off. Our Spring Break is March 25th through April 1st which is around Easter. Most of the schools in Western NY do not give off for Jewish holidays.

 

[mcd2745]

Here's the NYC public schools' calendar for the upcoming school year:

• First day of school: September 9, 2015

• Thanksgiving Recess begins: November 26, 2015

• Winter Recess: December 24, 2015 - January 1, 2016 (Christmas break)

• Mid-winter Recess: February 15 - February 19, 2016 (President's Week)

• Spring Recess: April 25 - April 29, 2016

• Last day of school: June 28, 2016

I'm in NYC, however, my kids go to a Catholic school and will have basically the same schedule except for April. We will (always) be off the week following Easter (Mar 28 - Apr 1 in 2016). It's kind of unusual for Passover & Easter to be so far apart, but 2016 is one of those years. Normally, the public schools are off the week leading into Easter.


.

 

[Hopefully]

I will follow up to JimmyV's comments too. I am confused about what you are asking about.
In Eastern MA Presidents Day is in February and it is still our February school vacation week. In April we have a Spring Break week which is the week of Patriots Day. It is not tied to Easter. And Jersey week is in Mid Nov.
I know that February School vacation week (Presidents Day week) is a huge travel time out of Logan airport in Boston. Parking lots fill, there are public service announcements on the radio advising off site parking etc. WDW is a major destination. NH Winter break is the week after MA. Airfares skyrocket that week. Spring break is also a busy travel time, but I don't think as busy as February.

 

[mchelle77]

I grew up in MA and now live in NH - NH is usually the week after MA for both February and April vacations. MA is usually the third week, NH the fourth week of both of those months.

 

[Togadadof2]

Upstate NY here (Saratoga Springs). We get President's Week off (to clarify, it's in Feb for President's Day, but we get the whole week so everyone just calls it President's Week now) and a spring break which is usually with Easter. For 2016, our spring break is the last week of April (25-29). When we realized the kids wouldn't have school and it wasn't around Easter, we booked Beach Club as soon as we could.

As for the original question, our kids are in elementary school (2nd and K) and President's Week is huge for Disney, at least around here. We knew a lot of families that went then. They said it was crowded, but manageable.

 

[RustManFan]

I thought that school calendars applied to the school district.... not necessarily the whole state. Our district has a mid winter recess of 2 days that is generally Presidents' Day and the day after.

Presidents' Week? Never heard of it!

 

[IrishNYC]

My part of Missouri, most schools are only off that Monday. My guess about April not showing any special crowd spike is that, like a PP stated, it's still part of Spring Break. However, I usually put spring break more around late March thru mud April, so late April should maybe still be responsive to the entire state of New York being off. (Why is that?)

As others have said, some schools (mostly the NYC area) will be observing Passover as Spring Break.

Are you in New York City or elsewhere in the state? I grew up in the city and my parents have both been teachers there for the past 20+ years, and as far as I am aware the last year that the city did not get the week of Passover off was in 1986. It's true I assumed it was the same for the whole state. Usually it is not noticeable that the week is Passover and not Easter as the two coincide almost always.

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/24/nyregion/judge-orders-schools-to-open-on-passover.html

The NYC Public School Calendar favors Passover, and we now have the addition of 2 Muslim holidays. We have hardly any school this coming September because of all the religious observance days.

Here's the NYC public schools' calendar for the upcoming school year:

• First day of school: September 9, 2015

• Thanksgiving Recess begins: November 26, 2015

• Winter Recess: December 24, 2015 - January 1, 2016 (Christmas break)

• Mid-winter Recess: February 15 - February 19, 2016 (President's Week)

• Spring Recess: April 25 - April 29, 2016

• Last day of school: June 28, 2016

I'm in NYC, however, my kids go to a Catholic school and will have basically the same schedule except for April. We will (always) be off the week following Easter (Mar 28 - Apr 1 in 2016). It's kind of unusual for Passover & Easter to be so far apart, but 2016 is one of those years. Normally, the public schools are off the week leading into Easter.

The public and Catholic schools have occasionally differed but not as much as they will in the 2015-16 school year. My mother was not thrilled when I was in Catholic high school and my sister was in a NYC Public and I had the week before Easter off (Catholic schools will always have Holy Week off), and my sister had the week after off in favor of Passover.

 

[mcd2745]

As others have said, some schools (mostly the NYC area) will be observing Passover as Spring Break.



The NYC Public School Calendar favors Passover, and we now have the addition of 2 Muslim holidays. We have hardly any school this coming September because of all the religious observance days.



The public and Catholic schools have occasionally differed but not as much as they will in the 2015-16 school year. My mother was not thrilled when I was in Catholic high school and my sister was in a NYC Public and I had the week before Easter off (Catholic schools will always have Holy Week off), and my sister had the week after off in favor of Passover.

Not true. My kids are in Catholic school now (as was I ### years ago). It's always been off on Holy Thursday & Good Friday and then the entire week following Easter. That's the Brooklyn Diocese (Brooklyn & Queens), although I doubt (though possible, I guess) the Archdiocese of NY (Manhattan, Staten Island & Bronx) is different

 

[Polyonmymind]

If President's Day coincides with the same week as Mardi Gras (which seems to happen about every other year), then New Orleans, Mobile, and most of south LA has off that week too.

Mardi Gras Day is February 9th. Schools will be out 2/8 - 2/12.
President's Day is 2/15 or the Monday week following Mardi Gras.

 

[IrishNYC]

Not true. My kids are in Catholic school now (as was I ### years ago). It's always been off on Holy Thursday & Good Friday and then the entire week following Easter. That's the Brooklyn Diocese (Brooklyn & Queens), although I doubt (though possible, I guess) the Archdiocese of NY (Manhattan, Staten Island & Bronx) is different

It was definitely many years ago - in the 80s, Brooklyn archdiocese. We had Holy Week off for sure, because I stayed with a school friend that week and her uber Catholic mom dragged us to church every day.

 

[AquaDame]

Wow never knew this was a thing anywhere. A whole week off sounds amazing! Here in Oregon you get that Monday off, thats it. No Easter break, no extra weeks at all ever, just Winter Break (week of xmas and NY Day) and one week for Spring Break. We also get Thanksgiving & Black Friday off, and have a few federal holiday days and teacher service days here and there too but never in a row.

 

[IrishNYC]

Wow never knew this was a thing anywhere. A whole week off sounds amazing! Here in Oregon you get that Monday off, thats it. No Easter break, no extra weeks at all ever, just Winter Break (week of xmas and NY Day) and one week for Spring Break. We also get Thanksgiving & Black Friday off, and have a few federal holiday days and teacher service days here and there too but never in a row.

And your kids are probably long done with school! I still have one more miserable week of making lunch.

 

[EpcotNerd]

Can you clear something up here. Are you talking about February or April? President's Day is in February, and historically, much of the Northeast got the whole week off, calling it President's Week. The reasoning was that this was statistically the week with the highest fuel costs, the highest teacher and student absentee rate, (due to cold and flu season), and a week that was very likely to suffer from school closings anyway due to winter storms. So the school systems decided to simply "punt" and close for the whole week. Save some money. Let people get healthy without infecting others in a closed environment, etc. However, the recent trend has been to want to end the school year earlier so the vacation week has either been cut back to the single Monday Federal Holiday, or, in some cases, a Friday or Tuesday is tacked on to make it a 4 day weekend. This has also been caused by a rash of large Winter storms closing schools in the northeast at times other than February, resulting in the school year dragging out until the third or fourth week of June in some circumstances. So, whereas 5 years ago one might have a pretty solid idea about "Red Sox and Yankees" nations all being in Florida during President's Week, this has become less predictable.

Now...if you are talking about a President's Week in April, I have to confess that I have no idea what that is.

Sorry if I was confusing. In NY, they usually get President's week off in February (the week that includes President's Day), and the crowd calendars show high crowds that week, so I wasn't sure if "President's week" was purely a NY thing (and one can make the conclusion that NY schools getting a week off was enough to bump crowds up to a 8-9 level).

I have no interest in going that week but using it as a guide because I'm looking at the 2nd/3rd/4th weeks of April to book my trip and want to go with the lowest crowds.....

NY schools (the sample I looked at : some Long Island schools, NY schools, Albany schools) appear to be giving the last week of April off in 2016 rather than a week around Easter, as previously has been done. The crowd calendars show 4/5/6's for that week as of now, and rates I've looked at are lower than mid-April... so I'm wondering: 1. Are hotels and the crowd calendars out of the loop and haven't adjusted for this new, rare end-of-April week off in NY or 2. Is NY state not a big enough factor to make the crowds jump?

 

[Jennytoon]

And your kids are probably long done with school! I still have one more miserable week of making lunch.

In recent years I have observed that as a parent I have exactly the same reaction to the beginning and end of school as when I was a kid, i.e. terribly excited for both.

When school lets out for summer break, I'm thrilled and heave a big sigh of relief because the morning schedule is no longer quite so constrained as most camps etc. have much wider drop-off windows than school.

When school gets back in, I'm thrilled because by that point I'd give anything, anything, for the return of some routine ...

 

[AquaDame]

And your kids are probably long done with school! I still have one more miserable week of making lunch.

K-12 got out last Friday I think, Universities are having finals this week. We always went back the day after labor day.