Primarily for northern VA counties: Fix spring break to a stationary week!

[Anonymous]

Stop having spring break the week before Easter every year!
Since Easter moves that means the break isn't the same week year to year.
These are PUBLIC schools not Christian schools!
Spring break is scheduled very early next year as a result and most of these schools will still be in the 3rd quarter after spring break! Spring break should be fixed to a specific week (ex 1st full week of April, 2nd full week of April) depending on how many weeks are left in the school year (9 or 10) and not when Easter falls! If it's because of Good Friday then squeezing in one day shouldn't be that hard. I understand it's important for nearby counties to align (because teachers may live in one with their children and teach in another) so they should align to a fixed week every year and not have the break in late March one year and the 3rd week of April another year etc. The break should be no earlier then the end of the 3rd quarter.

[Anonymous]

Most public school districts in New England have spring break late in the spring and not tied to Easter week or any religious holiday. That might be due in part to the longer winters in New England.

Here in the DC area Spring Break used to be the week after Easter since Easter Monday was a holiday for most people at the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most public school districts in New England have spring break late in the spring and not tied to Easter week or any religious holiday. That might be due in part to the longer winters in New England.

Here in the DC area Spring Break used to be the week after Easter since Easter Monday was a holiday for most people at the time.

In the midwest there is a mid-winter break to break up the winter, after the December holiday break and before the Spring break. New England may do the same which would explain the timing.

[Anonymous]

I think it should be tied to the end of third quarter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it should be tied to the end of third quarter

+1 It's nice when that happens because the kids can actually get a bit of a break, having all the 3Q work in.

[Anonymous]

It's completely fine to align Spring Break with Easter. This is a predominantly Christian nation, so as a practical matter it makes sense to give a holiday when large numbers of people are likely to be off.

I mean, for Pete's sake, they now cancel school for Jewish, Muslim and Hindu holidays, and those are miniscule populations, except in certain clusters where there are higher concentrations of those populations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's completely fine to align Spring Break with Easter. This is a predominantly Christian nation, so as a practical matter it makes sense to give a holiday when large numbers of people are likely to be off.

I mean, for Pete's sake, they now cancel school for Jewish, Muslim and Hindu holidays, and those are miniscule populations, except in certain clusters where there are higher concentrations of those populations.

Isn't Easter on a Sunday? It lasts one day. It doesn't matter what weekend you pick, you don't have school on Sunday. How does Sunday impact the school week?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most public school districts in New England have spring break late in the spring and not tied to Easter week or any religious holiday. That might be due in part to the longer winters in New England.

Here in the DC area Spring Break used to be the week after Easter since Easter Monday was a holiday for most people at the time.

Yeah but they also traditionally have a February/winter break week off so they then wait longer for the spring break.

[Anonymous]

Why should it be the same every year?

And, FWIW, I grew up in the Deep South and it was never tied to Easter.

[Anonymous]

Having it the same week just adds consistency and makes planning easier, for parents and for schools. And wouldn’t be tied to any religious holiday.

[Anonymous]

With the continual addition of holidays added to the calendar, we’re getting closer to “year round” school ie more frequent shorter breaks rather than one long summer break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:… so as a practical matter it makes sense to give a holiday when large numbers of people are likely to be off. I mean, for Pete's sake, they now cancel school for Jewish, Muslim and Hindu holidays, and those are miniscule populations, except in certain clusters where there are higher concentrations of those populations.

Isn't Easter on a Sunday? It lasts one day. It doesn't matter what weekend you pick, you don't have school on Sunday. How does Sunday impact the school week?

I don’t really care when Spring Break happens, but (for context only) observant Christians have multiple religious events before and after Easter Sunday. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Monday are all examples of “days of obligation”. Many evangelicals or Catholics missed school on those days, which was the (historical) reason to have those as school holidays.

As a matter of principle, I’d like school holidays which align with religious holidays to be ONLY on days when LARGE numbers of students would miss school even if it were not a school holiday. Christmas week (until January 2nd) would be an example of this. Choosing an Exact minimum percentage of missing students to qualify as a school holiday would have endless debates, however.

My school (elsewhere) tried to use this principle, with the result (in that area) that Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Christmas Week (12/24-1/2), Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashanah were the only school holidays which aligned with religious holidays

[Anonymous]

For what it is worth, parents with multiple kids, either in different privates or a private/public combination (e.g., preschool kid plus a 2nd grade kid in public), have it worse, because the different schools will have different teacher work days, holidays, etc. This can make it very difficult if both parents work or for single parents - just not enough vacation days to cover all the gaps.

[Anonymous]

What I think would be great is a week off in February and a week off in April like they do in New England.

[Anonymous]

I'm a non-religious person (immigrant from a non-Christian country) and I don't understand this rant. School calendars are published wayyyyyyy ahead of time - for example, my older kid is in APS and the 2023-2024 school year calendar was published in December 2021, which gives parents 15+ month to plan for 2024 spring break vacations or childcare arrangement. Most people don't even plan vacations that far ahead. Maybe when my kids are older (now my older kid is in K) I'll understand this issue better. But for now I couldn't see why this is an issue based on what OP and some PPs were ranting about.