Over Whelmed by Spring Breakers

It used to be staggered until about two years ago. Then the state of Texas education board had the "brilliant" idea of standardizing the calendar. The ENTIRE state is now off the same week. They did the calendar thing in part to keep districts from the crazy practice of starting at the beginning of August. Keller ISD used to have two weeks off because there were so many parents that worked for the airlines they started pulling their kids out before spring break started so they could get a jump on standby flights. That changed as the industry changed and the district got huge. But you're right it makes things insane around here. The zoos aren't even fun.

California was staggered, can you imagine Disneyland otherwise? Here in Oregon, all the schools including the state and community colleges are off the same week. Great for those of us with kids at different schools who want to travel that week. Hey, I think we'll go to Texas!

All the schools in this area have next week off. That's a really good time to stay home and play in the back yard with your children!

I just remembered. Here in Austin the District has a "Calendar committee". They encourage parents to be on the committee to suggest these sorts of things. Maybe you should sign up for net years calendar committee in your district? This committee helps plan start dates, teacher work dates, holidays, snow make up dates and of course Spring break.

You will learn the requirements set by the state. It is supposed to be very interesting to learn how and why the dates are set a certain way, but also get to help also make final decisions.

Here is Austin and the area.. the kids have been off this weekend, same with UT.. Of course we are also dealing with SXSW, so thousands of people have been here all week too..

Our daughter goes to college in Mass.. and she has even been on spring break this week.. So have the other 4 colleges up there.

I SO agree with you! It used to not be this way, but changed when the state standardized the school year. To me it hurts the businesses. Instead of being busy for a few weeks they are overwhelmed for one. Then there are people like me who refuse to do anything locally during spring break, just not worth it! The businesses miss out on my business all together, and my poor kids miss out too!

I have lived in Missouri all of my life. Never, ever heard of staggered Spring Breaks! Our spring break tries to follow the Quarterly calendar for the district....or tries to follow the schedule for the state universities to allow families to coordinate time off.

I don't remember my home town growing up in SC, how they did it. but here in utah, everyone gets off the same week. I noticed because I'm out of college and every other school (high, middle, elem) is out of school. But this city has hidden gems to play... like the park by my house doesn't have a lot of kids, but if you go to the park that's 5 mins away there are hundreds of kids. I haven't checked the futuristic looking park 5 mins the other way but I should probably check cuz it's a cool park :P We don't have a zoo here or amusement parks... just a little city water park.

In the NY metro area most of the schools - including those in NJ and CT pretty much have the same weeks off. but since it's usually still too cold to have amusement parks, or most other outdoor activities open - it's just not that big an issue. We're used to crowds I guess. ;o)

All the schools that are in the same district will have the same week off. However, generally it is spread out a bit. My kids have off the week before Easter as do most in our area. There are a few that are going the week after.

I grew up in IL, and all the schools in our area always had the week before Easter off, regardless of whether Easter was mid March or late April. It was considered "holy week".

My area has several school districts - city schools and county schools - so we have about three weeks of overall spring break Coast Wide. It is really not to bad - as a parent I take advantage of school breaks to schedule my son's doctor's appointments and such.

In our area, we have vast amounts of college students who come down for alternate spring break and who have helped with the Katrina rebuild and Oil Spill clean up in the past 5 years - I think Spring Break is amazing!!!! Our beaches are always more crowded than usual as are our coast road during college spring breaks but it is worth it.

Staggering spring break for our local schools does not affect our tourist season as people who live here leave town for vacation, plus the local school kids just are not big spenders. LOL

I live in a tourist area - seeing vacationers in town is good for our local economy. I like it.

God Bless

I am in Northern CA - all the schools in my kids' school district have the same time off......

we dont even get a week off here the middle school get Thursday and Friday of next week off for "spring break" that is it.

Look at it positively. Next time grab a website of a district and schedule your appointment around it. I would never have waited 2 hours at the dentist. And it may be inconvenient for you, but it is convenient for others like myself and my family. We live in one district and my husband works in a different one. Having the same week off is perfect to be able to get away as a family and not stay home because one of my kids or husand are in school.

In my area, some schools started Spring Break last week.
Some start next week.
Public and private schools are different.
Then there are Universities. And their schedule.

We only get Easter Thu/Fri as well. We lost Easter Monday as a snow makeup.

I'm assuming you are not speaking about college? Our spring breaks have always been at Easter, to honor that holiday (but silently, because it's a public school). It has always been that way here. I've lived in northern VA my whole life. I went to several different schools. My kids have been to three so far. All the same deal -The week before Easter.