NC districts taking school calendars into their own hands. Virginia already changed its law
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School calendar rules in NC
Have you ever wondered who decides when children in North Carolina start class? A 20-year-old North Carolina school calendar law pits public school districts against the second-largest industry in the state - tourism. Now, schools are taking matters into their own hands.
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NC districts taking school calendars into their own hands. Virginia already changed its law
A few months before Virginia repealed a law that regulates when public schools can open, a report showed it hardly had any significant impact on students or tourism.
An Old Dominion University report in 2019 analyzed Virginia’s “Kings Dominion Law” that prohibited districts from opening until after Labor Day unless they had a waiver. North Carolina has a similar law that long has been unpopular with school districts, but it’s remained on the books amid persistent advocacy from the state’s tourism industry and an unwillingness for the N.C. Senate to bring bills about the matter to the floor.
Virginia lawmakers approved the law to provide an August boost for tourism. It got its name because its strongest backers were leaders of the hotel, recreation and resort industries. It became synonymous with a Richmond-area theme park, the Washington Post reported in 2004.
Opponents of the law argued the law hurt student performance.
“Our analysis reveals that the Kings Dominion law has not significantly impacted school graduation rates, student retention or test scores,” the Old Dominion report stated. “Further, repealing the law would not have a very large negative impact on Virginia’s travel and tourism industry.”
Researchers say the law was not created based on research about student performance or the need for farm labor during the late summer harvest, according to the report.
Data also didn’t support arguments that later school openings negatively impact on-time graduation rates, according to the report.
In March 2019, Virginia’s governor signed bills into law that allowed all districts to open up to two weeks before Labor Day.
If the talking points behind the Virginia law sound familiar, it’s because they’re nearly identical in North Carolina, where a calendar law pits school leaders and what’s in the best interest of public school students against the tourism industry and the billions of dollars it collects annually.
North Carolina’s calendar law, approved in 2004 with the backing of the tourism industry, requires most districts to wait until the Monday closest to Aug. 26 to bring students back and end no later than the Friday closest to June 11.
This school year, 16 districts are defying North Carolina’s law and have already started or are starting early. Lawmakers against more flexibility scold districts who break the law and call them a bad example for students.
SC districts buck trend
There’s a shift happening south of the North Carolina, border, too.
A pair of Charlotte-area school districts in South Carolina — Clover and York — started school last week, joining a statewide trend in bucking the long practice of waiting until the third Monday in August, The Rock Hill Herald reported.
”Going back earlier in Clover allows the district to have a pure 90-90 semester split with the first semester being completed prior to the winter break in December,” Bryan Dillon, the public information officer for the Clover School District told the Charlotte Observer. “The earlier start time also allows the district to offer content recovery options to students in need and enrichment opportunities to others.”
Local districts in South Carolina have the authority to establish annual school calendars for teachers, staff and students. But beginning in the 2007-2008 school year, South Carolina law stipulated the opening date for students must not be before the third Monday in August — except for schools operating on a modified year-round school calendar.
Clover adopted such a calendar this year. And other districts across South Carolina are creating modified school calendars that offer earlier start times and additional breaks throughout the year. For the 2023-24 school year, the majority of districts are on modified year-round calendars and starting early, according to the South Carolina Department of Education.
Districts in Beaufort, Berkeley, Horry, Lancaster and Charleston are among those who are starting Aug. 21 or beyond.
The York calendar has four week-or-longer breaks for students. The weeks of Oct. 9-13 and Feb. 19-23 are new with the modified calendar. Traditional breaks include more than two around Christmas, from Dec. 22 to Jan. 8, and another week in the spring, April 1-5. Students finish May 30.
What other states do
The Charlotte Observer reached out to multiple states inquiring about school calendar laws.
A spokesman for the California Department of Education says there is no requirement in California Education Code that specifies school year start and end dates.
Mississippi state law grants the authority to local school boards to set the opening/closing dates of the school year, as long as the minimum days of 180 are met.
In Florida, public school boards also are expected to set the opening and closing of schools, “however, the opening date for schools in the district may not be earlier than Aug. 10 of each year,” according to state statute.
Texas, Tennessee and Alabama have laws that outline the number of instructional days districts must hold each year, but none dictate start and end dates.
This story was originally published August 17, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
