Alix Fetch has recently noticed how few five-day weeks appear the Fairfax County Public School.
There are federal holidays baked in, and at various points during the year, there are teacher workdays that count as student holidays. Elementary school students also have early-release days almost every month to give teachers time to complete finish required training.
On planned days off, the county’s Park Authority offers one-day camps at recreation centers. They’re about $75 for the day, but Fetch called the option “kind of vital for a lot of us that are working.”
The alternative, she said, is taking a paid day off from work or arrange for another child care option.
Students in Northern Virginia’s largest school district began spring break Monday. But when they return to class next week, the school week will include two days off. April 6 is listed as a teacher workday and April 10 is a school planning day.
Campuses will be closed to students both days.
“When every other week they’re not in school for the full week, that’s certainly not helping maintain any of that consistency or behavioral expectations in the classroom or transitioning to learning,” Fetch said. “And then we’re also hearing, ‘Your kid’s behind in reading, your kid’s behind in math.’ Well, yeah, they’re never in school. So I’m not sure what we’re expecting here.”
Virginia law requires students have either 180 school days or at least 990 instructional hours, but each school division determines how those requirements are met
In 2023, Fairfax County’s school board approved a three-year calendar plan that includes the 2025-26 academic year. That calendar featured scheduled breaks and religious holidays. More recently, Superintendent Michelle Reid said elementary early-release days are necessary so teachers can complete required training.
But unplanned closures, including those tied to weather or the April 21 special election, add another layer of frustration.
“I’m fortunate enough to have flexibility in my job,” Fetch said. “That means I can work from home on days where the kids have to come home early. But I think we all learned during COVID that working from home while providing child care is fairly impossible and quite stressful.”
Just over half the school weeks in the 2025-26 academic year are full five-day weeks, according to a calendar analysis shared with families by School Board Member Mateo Dunne in a community newsletter.
Fairfax County, Dunne said, has the longest school year, the shortest summer break, the most days off, the largest number of cultural and religious holidays and the lowest percentage of five-day weeks.
“The FCPS school calendar is a clear outlier, both regionally and nationally, when compared to other large school districts, and that is concerning,” Dunne told WTOP. “I don’t think anyone intended for it to become the worst school calendar in the country, but that’s just a fact of what it is today, and we need to fix it. And we need to fix it now.”
Eileen Chollet, whose son attends Providence Elementary School, said being her family’s breadwinner has enabled her husband to work around school schedules.
However, she said, “There’s always this implicit assumption that, ‘Well, mom and dad work exactly nine to five every day, and therefore arranging calendars is easy.’ Well, lots of moms and dads work in retail, in trucking, I work for the military. The military families, they don’t necessarily have consistent schedules.”
To address the logistical challenges frustrating some parents, several school board members, including Dunne, Melanie Meren, Ricardy Anderson and Ryan McElveen, are proposing changes.
One would allow schools to remain open on Veterans Day and Indigenous Peoples Day. Another would limit early-release days at elementary, middle and high schools to no more than four per year.
A vote on the proposals is scheduled for April 9.
“These changes would provide at least two additional full school weeks for families this fall,” Meren wrote in a Facebook post. “While there is more substantial policy work to be done, these motions would help parents sooner rather than later.”
Meren is also working with school board colleagues to develop a school calendar policy that would create guardrails for future schedules.
Fetch said she hopes the changes lead to more five-day weeks and the end to monthly half days for elementary school students.
“Having the kids out of school for an afternoon once a month, I don’t understand why we have that when a lot of other districts don’t have that,” Fetch said.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
