Virginia school holidays

The three districts on this page all sit in Northern Virginia and all serve the Washington DC commuter belt, which gives them a shared shape but not shared dates. Loudoun County Public Schools starts first on August 17, 2026, and Fairfax County Public Schools and Prince William County Public Schools both start on August 24.

Virginia's old Labor Day start rule has been relaxed, but the tradition of a four-day Labor Day weekend survives: all three districts close from September 4 to 7, 2026, which is unusual and effectively means the school year starts twice.

Loudoun finishes earliest on June 11, 2027, Fairfax on June 16 and Prince William on June 17. Fairfax notes that its dates are subject to change, which in this region usually means snow.

Northern Virginia builds its calendar around clusters of student holidays rather than long breaks. All three districts close on November 2 and 3, 2026, and Loudoun adds October 29 and 30, giving Loudoun families a five-day break at the end of October that neither neighbor gets.

Thanksgiving is November 25 to 27, 2026 in all three districts, three days rather than a full week.

Winter break starts on December 21, 2026 everywhere. Prince William runs to January 1, 2027 and Fairfax to January 3.

Late January brings another cluster. Fairfax closes January 29 to February 1, 2027 and Prince William January 28 and 29, in both cases around the end of the semester. Loudoun does not.

Spring break is nearly uniform. Fairfax and Loudoun both take March 22 to 26, 2027 and Prince William takes March 22 to 29, extending through the Monday because it is a teacher workday. Loudoun also closes for Eid al-Fitr on March 8 and 9, 2027.

The week of March 22, 2027 is the pressure point. All three Northern Virginia districts are off together, Maryland's are not, and the Smithsonian museums and the Tidal Basin absorb the whole region at once. Cherry blossom peak in an average year lands within a fortnight of it.

The clustered holidays are better suited to two and three night trips than to weeks away, and Northern Virginia families use them accordingly: Williamsburg, Shenandoah and the Eastern Shore all see spikes on the early November and late January weekends when nowhere else in the country is on holiday.

Loudoun's late-October closure is the quietest useful window on this page. Nothing else in the DC region is off then and Shenandoah is at its best.

This page covers Fairfax County Public Schools, Prince William County Public Schools and Loudoun County Public Schools.