First-graders quietly head into the cafeteria at Tulip Grove Elementary School in Bowie, Maryland, on Sept. 4, 2018. The district is among the 22% of public school districts that start classes afterward Labor Day. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Mail via Getty Images)

It's the second full week of Baronial, which means millions of American schoolkids are heading dorsum to school or take already started. And depending on where you live, that argument might produce a reaction of either "That sounds about right" or "That seems way likewise early!"

When elementary and secondary students go back to schoolBack-to-schoolhouse dates in the United states of america, it turns out, vary considerably by land and region, based on our analysis of a sampling of the nation'south xiii,000-plus public schoolhouse districts. By the end of this week, for example, nearly all uncomplicated and secondary school students in the E S Fundamental region – a Census Agency division that includes Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee – will be back in school. But non a single commune in the nine New England and Middle Atlantic states volition resume classes earlier Aug. 26, and many expect until after Labor Day.

The prize for the earliest start date among the 500-plus districts in our sample goes to Arizona's Chandler Unified School District, which serves part of suburban Phoenix. The 44,000 or so students in Chandler Unified went back July 23 (though they get the first of three two-week "intersession" breaks starting Sept. 30). At the other extreme are the Trenton, New Bailiwick of jersey public schools, whose almost 14,000 students won't get dorsum to school till Sept. 9 – the latest opening engagement in our sample.

In the U.S., first day of school varies by region

Broadly speaking, earlier starts are more than common in the South and Southwest: In a crude band of 13 states stretching from Arizona to Florida and upwardly to Southward Carolina, 79% of the districts we examined will be dorsum in school by the end of this week. Later starts are more than mutual forth the East Coast (from Maine to North Carolina), the upper Midwest (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan) and the Northwest (Oregon and Washington).

Historically, the tourism and hospitality industries have favored after back-to-school dates, arguing that they give families more time to have vacations and teenagers more than fourth dimension to work summer jobs. For example, since 1986 Virginia'south "Kings Dominion law" (named for the amusement park simply due north of Richmond) barred nearly schools in that state from opening before Labor Day. Earlier this year, the police force was amended to permit districts to open up to two weeks earlier, and then long every bit they too requite students a four-day Labor Day weekend. Still, six of the 10 Virginia districts in our sample are starting their 2019-20 school years after Labor Day; ii will open Aug. 26, one on Aug. 22, and one (subject field to a special provision) on Aug. 12.

To go a sense of when students head back to school, nosotros looked at the x largest local school districts by enrollment in each state (except for Hawaii and the Commune of Columbia, which have just one district apiece). We as well examined additional districts in Texas, Florida and California, so that the terminal 509-district sample would include the nation's 100 biggest districts. Nosotros excluded private and parochial schools, public charter schools, state-run schools and other educational institutions that often operate on their own schedules. Our concluding sample covered about 36% of the nation'south l.six meg public elementary and secondary students.

For each district in the sample, we determined the date or dates on which well-nigh of their get-go-through-12th graders started autumn classes. (Kindergartners frequently commencement school later than their older peers.) Although a scattering of districts are on some form of year-round schedule, and many others have individual schools that operate year-round, we focused on the "traditional" calendars followed by most schools in a given district. When start dates were staggered by school or grade level, we used a date range.

All told, 124 of the districts in our sample (representing 29% of students) are starting schoolhouse between Aug. 12 and Aug. 16, making it the nearly popular beginning week. Another 74 districts (with 14% of students) went dorsum earlier this summer; 93 (xix% of students) will outset up once more adjacent week.

But 105 districts (xiv% of students) won't outset until the last week of Baronial – and almost half of these (48) are in New England or the Middle Atlantic states (New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania). An additional 113 districts (with 23% of students) won't resume classes till after Labor Day, all simply 22 of which are north of the Mason-Dixon line. (The 22 exceptions are in nearby Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.)

Are students going dorsum to school earlier than they used to? Finding school calendars from years and decades past for our sample districts proved to be beyond the accomplish of this assay, but there's some evidence that more secondary-school students, at least, are spending part of their summers in the classroom.

A separate Pew Inquiry Center analysis establish that U.South. teens are spending more of their summer hours on educational activities – and less time on leisure – than they used to.