Since, I’ve been talking to a lot of people about vacations lately, I thought I’d talk about how vacations work for schools and universities in the United States.
For Schools (elementary school, middle school and high school), the school year starts in the middle of August. There is no set day amongst schools, not all schools start the same time. Some a little earlier, some a little later.
Schools usually give the students off the entire week of Thanksgiving. If not the whole week, usually the students get at least 1/2 of the week off. Thanksgiving is in November for the USA.
Schools then will give students a 2 week break over the Christmas holidays. The next big break after that is somewhere between March and April. Schools give their students 1 week for Spring break, but again, each school is different for when the actual week takes place. There are also National and State holidays that are sprinkled throughout the school year.
School is over around the end of May or early June. This means that kids get almost 2.5 months off for summer vacation.
For University Students, it works a little bit differently. School starts in September for the Fall semester. It ends in the middle of December when students take their final exams. Students will have a short 2 or 3 day break in November for Thanksgiving.
The Spring semester starts in the middle of January and runs until the middle of May. Students get 1 week off for Spring break somewhere during the months of March and April.
The Summer semester runs from mid-June to mid-August. Lots of college students take the summer off and relax or get a job.
Please let me know if you have any questions!