Back to school in August for city kids: Philly schools may have a pre-Labor Day start

City kids will return to school in August this year and in 2026 if calendars proposed by Philadelphia School District officials are approved by the school board later this month.

Students started classes the last week in August this year, but in prior years, the district has gone back and forth between pre- and post-Labor Day starts.

Officials said the choice to start Aug. 25 this year and Aug. 24, 2026, comes after a community engagement process where parents and staff said their top priorities in district calendars were long winter and spring breaks, regular breaks and days off, and holidays that represent myriad cultures and traditions.

» READ MORE: After a lifelong dream, she got her high school diploma at 55 — with her 64-year-old fiancé

The calendars will be considered on the school board’s Feb. 27 agenda but are widely expected to pass.

Here are some things to know about the 2025-26 and 2026-27 calendars:

In the 2025-26 school year, teachers would return to school on Aug. 18 and students on Aug 25. The last day of school for students would be June 11, and for teachers, June 12.

In 2026-27, teachers would go back on Aug. 17 and students on Aug. 24. Students would finish school on June 9 and teachers on June 10.

In both years’ calendars, the district is proposing giving students days off for Indigenous Peoples Day (which replaced Columbus Day) and Veterans Day. Those were not days off in Philadelphia this year.

In 2025-26, schools would be closed for Labor Day, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Indigenous Peoples Day, Veterans Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Lunar New Year, Eid a-Fitr, Good Friday, Eid al-Adha, and Juneteenth.

In 2026-27, those holidays will also all be celebrated, except for Rosh Hashanah and Lunar New Year, which fall on weekends.

Respondents generally said they wanted long winter and spring breaks, in part to accommodate possible travel.

In 2025-26, winter break will run from Christmas Eve, a Wednesday, to Jan. 5, though staff will return on Jan. 2 for a professional development day. It will include a full eight days off for students and seven for staff.

Spring break in 2025-26 would be five days long — March 30 to April 3.

For 2026-27, winter break is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 23, to Friday, Jan. 1, a full eight days for staff and students.

Spring break would be March 22 to 26, also five days long.

Instead of half-days scattered throughout the calendar, the district is proposing half-days on the second and third Fridays of every month “so families know when to expect them,” said Shakeera Warthen-Canty, assistant superintendent for operations.

The calendars were shaped by community feedback, officials said. More than 16,000 members of the public — staff, students, parents, and community members — weighed in via a survey and 20 feedback sessions with families, teachers, principals, other school staff, city officials, community and religious partners, and after-school and early-childhood education providers.

Respondents were asked which calendar they preferred — one with a pre-Labor Day start or one that had students starting in September. More than half of the respondents — 55% — said they preferred a pre-Labor Day start, and 45% said after Labor Day, though those percentages were flipped for parents.

There was some variance among parent responses. Nearly 60% of Asian parents said they preferred a pre-Labor Day start.

And the majority of Black parents and Latinx parents — 54% and 51%, respectively — said they wanted calendars that emphasized religious and cultural holidays, according to district data.

Any calendar must navigate some nonnegotiables — the Pennsylvania Department of Education requires a minimum of 180 instructional days for students, and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers contract mandates a minimum of 28 professional development hours.

And it’s “hard to do both” with a post-Labor Day start and a long spring break, said Emily Fulks, the district’s director of operations.

Ultimately, with a pre-Labor Day start with robust breaks and ample days off during the year, there’s time to “rest, support mental health, and prevent staff burnout,” district officials said.

Warthen-Canty said the district wanted to prioritize professional development, building five full days early in the year, especially with the district adding new math and English curricula last school year and this school year. It will introduce a new science curriculum before the 2025-26 school year.

“We want to make sure our staff are ready,” Warthen-Canty said.

Jermaine Dawson, the deputy superintendent for academic services, said there are multiple interests involved in building a calendar, but the most significant was “the feedback from the voices in our larger community, our stakeholder groups.”

In the past, the district had said it was committed to a post-Labor Day opening when possible because of inequities between air-conditioned and un-air-conditioned schools and concerns about attendance in hot weather; officials said they analyzed attendance data, and there wasn’t much difference between pre- and post-Labor Day starts.

But, officials said, when they analyzed the data, heat closures occurred the first week of school, whether that was before or after Labor Day. And student attendance was roughly the same whether there was an August or September start, too.

The district still has 57 schools that lack adequate air-conditioning and have to dismiss on extremely hot days — though that number is down from 118 schools in 2022-23. Students in the remaining 159 district buildings can remain in class when the weather is hot.