It’s every kid’s dream: less school and more vacation. And that dream may be coming true next school year!
The 2025-26 NYC public school calendar has a short week on the tail end of the holiday season–schools are off from Wednesday, December 24th through Thursday, January 1st. In this scenario, schools would reopen on Friday, January 2nd, for a one-day school week.
The same thing happened this past holiday season–Monday, December 23rd, 2024 was a school day on the 2024-2025 school year calendar, making for a one-day school week being students were off the rest of the week.
As a response to this, Mayor Adams deemed December 23rd a day off to give staff, students, and their families an extra day to spend together during the winter recess. So now the question to ask is: will the same thing happen next year?
As for the answer, we have a feeling it will be a yes. According to the 2014-15 NYC public school calendar, the last time January 2nd fell on a Friday was in 2015, and it was a day off. Plus, if it is ultimately decided to make January 2nd a day off, it wouldn’t be the first time the school calendar changed after it’s been published.
Education officials told Chalkbeat that as of now there are no plans to change the 2025-2026 calendar, but they said they’ll continue to engage with stakeholders. Under state law, New York City schools must have at least 180 school days or they risk losing state funding.
In the meantime, NYC public school students will have to cross their fingers that they’ll get a longer winter break. Or, just take a page out of this Brooklyn 7th grader’s book and start a petition to have that day of classes cancelled!