How we verify school calendar dates

1. One named calendar per state

Each state page names the district whose dates it shows, usually one of the state's larger school systems, and says that the dates apply to that district only. Texas lists three districts. Washington, DC shows DC Public Schools, not charter schools. Hawaii is different: its Department of Education runs one statewide calendar, so the page says so and names the schools that differ.

2. Official sources only

We read the calendar on the district's own website, or a file the district links from it: a board-approved PDF, a published spreadsheet, an iCal feed or the calendar web page itself. We do not copy dates from news stories, other calendar sites or AI tools. For every calendar we record the source link, the page it was linked from, the file name and the version printed on it, such as a revision or approval date.

3. What we read and how we count days

• First and last student day. Staff-only days are not school days. When grades start on different days (17 calendars), the page shows the first main start and a note listing the other groups; Jefferson Parish Schools, for example, starts students in stages from Aug 7 to Aug 14.
• Breaks use the district's own label. If a calendar names winter break as December 21 – January 1, that is the range we show. A teacher workday or grading day next to the break is mentioned in the notes rather than silently added.
• Spring break is whatever the district calls its spring recess. In much of New England that is the April vacation week (Portland Public Schools (Maine): Apr 20, 2027 – Apr 23, 2027), with a separate February vacation. Some districts have no full week: Fargo Public Schools has a long weekend, Mar 26, 2027 – Mar 29, 2027, and the page says so.
• Calendar types are named. Year-round, track and early-start calendars are never mixed with traditional ones; Chandler Unified School District's spring dates are labeled as its intersession.
• We check each date against its weekday on the document's calendar grid, which catches most transcription errors.

4. What “Checked on” means

“Checked on” is the day we last compared the page with the district's official document. It is not the date the school board approved the calendar; when a document prints an approval or revision date, we list it separately. Districts do revise calendars during the year, especially after weather closures, so a recent check date matters most for late-spring dates.

5. Second review and automated checks

New records are reviewed a second time against the original document, not against our own notes. Automated tests run before every release and fail if a state page's dates differ from its district record, if a date written into page text no longer matches the data, or if a break falls outside its school year.

6. What we do not publish

• No statewide first day, last day or spring break where the state has no statewide calendar.
• No estimated dates presented as exact. Holiday tables show months as planning windows; federal holidays are marked because each district decides whether schools close.
• No unverified holidays. If a district's document does not confirm a closure, the row is left out.

7. Rechecks and corrections

We recheck calendars before the spring break season and whenever a district posts a revised version. If you find a date that differs from your district's official calendar, please send us the link. We change a date only when an official source supports it. The full list of calendars and their sources is on the official calendar sources page.