FCPS School Calendar Options Include 2 With Shorter Winter Break

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Four school calendar options for the 2023-2024 school year are under consideration by the Fairfax County School Board.

The calendar options differ on when the school year begins, how long winter break lasts, or how many instructional days are provided. Under Virginia law, a school year must have 180 instructional days or 990 instructional hours.

The blue calendar option would start the school year two weeks before Labor Day, provide a two-week winter break from Dec. 18 to New Year's and include 180 instructional days. The school year would begin on Aug. 21 and end on June 14.

The orange calendar option would start the school year two weeks before Labor Day, provide a shortened winter break from Dec. 21 through New Year's and include 180 instructional days. The school year would begin on Aug. 21 and end on June 11.

The green calendar option would start the school year one week before winter break, provide a shortened winter break from Dec. 21 through New Year's and include 180 instructional days. The school year would begin on Aug. 28 and end on June 20.

The purple calendar option would start the school year two weeks before Labor Day, provide a two-week winter break from Dec. 18 through New Year's and include 177 instructional days. The 990 instructional hours requirement would be met under this option. The school year would begin on Aug. 21 and end on June 13.

Holidays would not differ on the four calendars, except for the length of winter break. Yom Kippur, Diwali and Eid-al-Fitr would continue to be holidays after being added in the last calendar approval.

A work session on the school calendars was held by the School Board Tuesday. The calendars will be presented to the School Board on Jan. 26, and a vote on the 2023-2024 calendar is expected on Feb. 9.

See more information on the school calendar options here.

Survey feedback on school calendars

A school calendar survey provided insight into how the FCPS community feels about school calendar priorities. Out of 17,450 students who participated, most — 61 percent — said they were somewhat happy with the current calendar. There were another 24 percent who were extremely happy with the calendar, 11 percent were somewhat unhappy and 4 percent were extremely unhappy with the calendar.

Out of 17,884 FCPS employees, 51 percent were somewhat satisfied with the calendar, 18 percent were extremely satisfied, 22 percent were somewhat unsatisfied and 9 percent were extremely unsatisfied.

When asked about when to begin and end the school year, 53 percent of responding employees favored starting around Monday, Aug. 21 and ending around June 7 to 14. A total of 44 percent of students chose the same option.

On the other side, 32 percent of staff favored starting around Monday, Aug. 28 and ending around June 14 to 21. A total of 27 percent of responding students chose this option.

Among families, the option to start later was more popular. There had been 42 percent of responding families who chose the option starting around Aug. 28 and 37 percent who chose the option starting around Aug. 21.

A majority favored keeping long winter and spring breaks with a later end to the school year.