# When did schools stop recognizing Federal holidays? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 13, 2018, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568 "2018-01-13T22:02:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/21 "2018-01-14T03:55:55Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Things I learned today: Chicago Public Schools stopped closing for Casimir Pulaski Day in 2012. I did not know that. I was actually looking that up earlier, as I had remembered it being a CPS holiday in the past. And, I didn’t know that it wasn’t a school holiday any longer, either. 🙂 For non-Chicagoans: [Casimir Pulaski Day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_Pulaski_Day) (the first Monday in March) is a local holiday, largely due to the large number of Polish-Americans who live in Chicago. As Alley Dweller notes, it was, but is no longer, a CPS holiday (though I think that city and county offices may still be closed on that day). Similarly, I suspect that CPS gets Columbus Day off because that day is a _de facto_ Italian-American Heritage Day. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/22 "2018-01-14T04:30:54Z")
In Ohio, schools are supposed to be open on Veterans Day, with an in-school observance taking up at least one class period (this was the law when I was in high school, but they only did around 15 seconds on the morning announcements). I went to a public university and I think we had Columbus Day and Veterans Day on the Wednesday and Friday in the week of Thanksgiving. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/23 "2018-01-14T06:55:06Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You are talking about a US public school that gets Good Friday off? I’ve never heard of that. I know it’s fairly common in Europe, but not the US in my recollection. Kids don’t get Good Friday or Easter Monday off in NH or MA, but they do in many other places in the US. And not just kids, either, we have difficulty scheduling March/April meetings with some locations we work with due to the area agencies being closed then too. That said, kids here are off Monday. And get off Veterans’ Day. And when I was small we did get President’s day (actually didn’t Washington and Lincoln each have a day?) off…but it was always during February vacation. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/24 "2018-01-14T06:55:10Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You are talking about a US public school that gets Good Friday off? I’ve never heard of that. I know it’s fairly common in Europe, but not the US in my recollection. I went to school from 1984-1997 and my kids have attended school since 2005. I don’t recall ever having a school open on Good Friday. When I was a kid, “Spring break” was always the same as Easter Break. Naturally it started around or a day or 2 before Good Friday and extended a week or so past Easter. Sometimes it was a total of 2 weeks, about 1 before and after. Never went to school on Good Friday. My kids usually get both a short Easter Break and a separate spring break. Just checked their calendar. A little different this year- they get 1 week off before Easter, and that’s it. So that includes Good Friday but they are back on Monday. Our school district (in OH) is closed this Monday (MLK) and Friday. President’s day is both a holiday AND an inclement weather makeup day. If school closes at all due to weather between now and then, then schools will be open. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/25 "2018-01-14T07:30:32Z")
When did they START recognizing them? In the 40s,when I was in school, the only non-school holidays were Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. Good Friday, we got off at noon. The others, Decoration Day, Fourth of July, Labor day, fell during the summer holidays. Snow days were not even dreamed of, and Spring Break was Friday noon to Tuesday on Easter weekend. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/26 "2018-01-14T08:14:51Z")
Our large district in Maryland closes for MLK Day, Presidents’ Day, and Memorial Day, Good Friday, and Easter Monday, but not Columbus Day or Veterans Day. Columbus Day is parent open house day, since all the feds are off, and Veterans Day is a half-day for parent-teacher conferences. We also close for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and Election Day in even-numbered years. I think technically Election Day is a state holiday, but since most of the schools are used as polling places and thus have to be left wide open so the public can come and go, it’s also a security issue. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/27 "2018-01-14T11:28:53Z")
Here in St. Mary’s County, MD, it appears the schools close for all of the Federal holidays. Not a big surprise, tho, since we’re a bedroom community to DC, plus we have a Naval Air Station that employs a big chunk of residents. FWIW, the company I work for is open on MLK day, but they give us the day after Thanksgiving as a holiday. And we don’t get Columbus Day, but we get the rest. I was a Fed employee for 37 years, and I always thought there were far too many holidays, not that anyone cared about my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/28 "2018-01-14T14:17:57Z")
My school district recognizes all federal holidays but one: we work on Veterans’ Day then get a full week off at Thanksgiving. Seems like a good deal to me. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/29 "2018-01-14T20:51:15Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You are talking about a US public school that gets Good Friday off? I’ve never heard of that. I know it’s fairly common in Europe, but not the US in my recollection. In the public school district where my wife teaches, they always get Good Friday off, because it’s always the first day of spring break. Spring break for them is always Easter week. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/30 "2018-01-16T04:13:34Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > In the public school district where my wife teaches, they always get Good Friday off, because it’s always the first day of spring break. Spring break for them is always Easter week. So does this mean some years spring break is in March and others April? Here kids always get a week off in April. It’s usually towards the end of the month too, so it doesn’t overlap with Easter. I almost think that’s intentional… ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/31 "2018-01-16T05:44:39Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You are talking about a US public school that gets Good Friday off? I’ve never heard of that. I know it’s fairly common in Europe, but not the US in my recollection. Around here, at least, only recently has the idea of not getting off Good Friday became a thing. Heck, one way to deal with losing too many days to snow was to change Spring Break to just Good Friday and Easter Monday off, giving you a four day break but only losing one day of school. Forcing Good Friday only happens if there are a lot of snow days. I don’t remember ever getting Columbus Day or Veteran’s Day off, though we’d do something special at 11:11, with a special announcement for the latter. MLK day usually was a compromise with a teacher in-service day, so the kids didn’t go to school, but the teachers still did some stuff. Presidents’ Day sometimes got the same treatment. There were other in-servioce days sprinkled throughout the year. I think a limited number of them still count as school days, which is why they did them. And it was definitely a required number of days, not hours, though there was a minimum amount of hours to call it a day. So there were tricks used, both in inclement weather and just for special days, like Homecoming, which gave us a shorter school day. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/32 "2018-01-16T16:43:58Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > So does this mean some years spring break is in March and others April? Here kids always get a week off in April. It’s usually towards the end of the month too, so it doesn’t overlap with Easter. I almost think that’s intentional… That’s right, some year’s spring break is in March and others it’s in April. It varies with Easter. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/33 "2018-01-16T17:10:46Z")
In Georgia, MLK Day is a holiday. It’d be strange if it wasn’t considering he was from here. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/34 "2018-01-20T01:06:43Z")
[Weighing in late…] When I was in elementary school, we observed Washington’s birthday and Lincoln’s birthday as separate days but they seemed to shift around just a bit in February. I vaguely recall getting a couple four-day weekends because of that – and also naively thinking we were getting Valentines day off one year. But I was young and confused and hated being in school anyway, so any excuse to not attend… Then, i don’t know precisely when, the powers that be said Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays would be observed as one – and not as a long weekend. ☹ And then, years later, we started observing MLK day when I was in high school. –G! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/35 "2018-01-20T02:07:50Z")
My kids had MLK Day off. Also Presidents Day. Spring Break is the week before Easter but they take away days from there to make up snow days. No Colombus Day. The teachers convention is the week of Veterans Day (also known in Disney World as New Jersey week). Also Memorial Day. I looked at the calendar of my old school. We always had the Jewish high holy days off. I see they still got Rosh Hashana (Yom Kippur was on a weekend). In addition they now get Diwali off. I’m guessing Indian students outnumber Jewish students by at least 10 to 1 now. MLK Day, Presidents Day and Memorial Day. They also get Good Friday and the week after Easter. For some reason they started the Friday before Labor Day then took a three day weekend. > [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Things I learned today: Chicago Public Schools stopped closing for Casimir Pulaski Day in 2012. I did not know that. You can take back his Skyway too. That thing is a death trap. > **[Pulaski Skyway](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulaski_Skyway)** > > The Pulaski Skyway is a four-lane bridge-causeway in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey, carrying a freeway designated U.S. Route 1/9 (US 1/9) for most of its length. The structure has a total length of 3.502 miles (5.636 km). Its longest bridge spans 550 feet (168 m). Traveling between Newark and Jersey City, the roadway crosses the Passaic and Hackensack rivers, Kearny Point, the peninsula between them, and the New Jersey Meadowlands. > Designed by Sigvald Johannesson, the G... ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2018, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568/36 "2018-01-21T01:41:01Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Our school district closes on MLK Day, Presidents Day, and Veterans Day. Not Columbus Day. Same in the local district, here in Kansas. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-schools-stop-recognizing-federal-holidays/806568.md?page=1)