APS Calendar Should Return to Normal 180+ Days
October 11, 2022
In our last newsletter, APE advocated for a return to a school calendar with at least 180 days (which is both a state and national standard), echoing our advocacy during this past school year. We use the word “return” because, historically, APS has had 180 or 181 days until the first full pandemic year (2020-2021), when it delayed the start of school by one week to prepare for online learning. Similar to returning to other pre-pandemic norms, APE is advocating for a return to the pre-pandemic school year length. With discussions of the 2023-2024 calendar underway, APE has analyzed 10 years of APS calendar history, as well as current school year calendars for nearby school divisions.
What did we find?
As you can see from the chart above, over the last 10 years, 181 days has been the norm for student attendance days, allowing APS to meet both the 180 day and 990 instructional hours standards set by the state. (The Virginia Administrative code states that the standard school year shall be 180 instructional days or 990 instructional hours.) Further, middle school and high school students had 182 and 183 days, respectively, in the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years. However, for most of the past decade, there has been a division-wide calendar for all grade levels, with exceptions like the Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) programs and Barcroft Elementary School; the latter previously maintained a year-round model.
While a 10 school-day winter break has been the most common over the last 10 years, some years have provided slightly shorter winter breaks, depending on when the two federal holidays fell. In this analysis, this year will be the first time that winter break extends to 11 days.
Starting the school year before Labor Day became an option for the 2020-2021 school year when Governor Northam signed legislation allowing school divisions to begin two weeks before Labor Day. Despite that change, APS has tended to start later than neighboring divisions. The result is fewer days of school for Arlington children. The 2020-2021 calendar presentation indicates that most northern Virginia districts’ calendars started during the week of August 24th, while APS originally planned to start August 31 (the start date was subsequently delayed to September 8). For the 2021-2022 school year, APS started four days later than Loudoun County and seven days later than Fairfax and Prince William counties, allowing FCPS and Prince William to offer 180 days. Alexandria and Falls Church City’s draft calendars were presumably unknown at that time and were not included in the APS presentation.
While APS currently shares some alignment with other nearby divisions, there are differences this school year as well. Notably,
Arlington starts later than every other NOVA school district except Falls Church City.
Three divisions–Alexandria, Falls Church City, and Loudoun–appear to not observe Veterans’ Day.
All divisions, except Falls Church City, have an expectation of staff attendance, whether professional development or otherwise, on Columbus/Indigenous People’s Day.
Beginning with the 2021-2022 school year, APS added additional cultural and religious holidays. Other school divisions have likewise recognized additional cultural and religious holidays, but there is some variation. For example, Alexandria City appears to only recognize Rosh Hashanah and Diwali; while Loudoun appears to be the only division that recognizes Lunar New Year (January 23rd) in its current school year calendar.
APE will continue to advocate for a return to a school year with 180 days. This look-back at 10 years of calendar history and the comparison of the current APS calendar with that of our neighbors indicates that whether it is an earlier start, later finish, use of federal holidays, or different patterns around winter break, APS has options for how it can meet 180 days. Abandoning our longstanding commitment to providing at least 180 days of school, especially given the historic learning loss currently facing APS students, is the wrong approach. Our students deserve for their school system to return to its historical practice of meeting both the 180-day and 990-hour Virginia state standards.
You can let APS know your thoughts by emailing them.
