Do independent schools have fewer days off than public?

[Anonymous]

We have tons of days off compared to publics and parish schools. An administrator explained it to me and she said they are more strict about how they count instructional time during the day so they can get by with fewer days overall. That sounded shady to me, but we’re still at the school. It does seem like all schools have far fewer days of school than I did in the 80s and 90s. Don’t get me started about half days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe they all have 180 days no matter how you slice and dice it.

In VA yes. However in Md the number of days required for private schools are less than public and any day students are on campus counts as a school day. Orientation, graduation student led conferences, etc. doesn’t even need to be all divisions on campus to count. I think it’s 168-170 days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SSSAS parent here; we live in Ffx (right by public elementary that has a police car morning and afternoon for street crossings) and obviously drive through part of Alexandria, including the public MS a bit down Seminary, so it’s very obvious when one or both of those public systems are closed but I’m driving DC to school. As a pp noted, we have fewer random teacher workdays and don’t get some of the non-federal holidays (like Ffx being closed yesterday for Lunar New Year). But Ffx was back in school for at least a week before SSSAS was in August, we end at least a week earlier, and we often have an extra day or more at fall, winter, spring, and Easter breaks. We do have fewer snow days - only one, and then it goes to remote learning. Overall though, we have fewer school days than public.

FCPS was not closed for lunar new year. It was a teacher work day at the end of semester that happened to coincide with lunar new year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe they all have 180 days no matter how you slice and dice it.

In VA yes. However in Md the number of days required for private schools are less than public and any day students are on campus counts as a school day. Orientation, graduation student led conferences, etc. doesn’t even need to be all divisions on campus to count. I think it’s 168-170 days

We moved to a different state and independent schools are allowed to add up instructional hours and divide it by some set number of hours to equal school days. I think the count gets closer to the low-mid 160s at some schools!

[Anonymous]

I’ll take quality over quantity any day of the week.