Palm Beach County School Calendar 2026-2027: Key Dates, Holidays, and Academic Terms

The Palm Beach County School Calendar 2026-2027 runs from Monday, August 10, 2026, to Thursday, May 27, 2027. Major breaks include Thanksgiving Break (November 23-27, 2026), Winter Break (December 21, 2026-January 1, 2027), and Spring Break (March 22-26, 2027).

The School District of Palm Beach County (SDPBC) approved its 2026-2027 school calendar on Wednesday, April 15, 2026. The academic year begins Monday, August 10, 2026, and ends Thursday, May 27, 2027, spanning 179 student instructional days across three elementary trimesters or four secondary quarters.

SDPBC ranks among the ten largest public school systems in the United States and is the fifth largest in Florida, enrolling more than 190,000 students across upward of 180 schools, making Palm Beach County (SDPBC) the tenth largest public school system in the United States and the fifth largest in Florida.

The calendar governs traditional public schools operated directly by the district; it does not apply to independently chartered schools, which typically set their own academic calendars, nor to private schools or postsecondary institutions.

Palm Beach County School Calendar 2026-2027 Overview

The Palm Beach County school calendar 2026-2027 organizes the academic year into distinct phases: teacher pre-planning, student instruction, grading periods, holidays, and post-planning.

Teachers report for pre-school preparation from Monday, August 3, 2026, through Friday, August 7, 2026, one week before students begin. Elementary schools track attendance in three trimesters; middle and high schools (“secondary schools” in district terminology) track attendance in four quarters grouped into two semesters.

Every version of the calendar — student, teacher, and 12-month employee — shares the same instructional-day framework but differs in reporting dates, paid holidays, and workday obligations.

Three employee categories appear throughout the official calendar:

• Students and all employees except 12-month staff follow the traditional 10-month school-year schedule.
• 12-month employees include district and school-based staff who work year-round, with modified summer and holiday schedules.
• 10-hour-day employees — 12-month staff who work compressed four-day weeks during specific weeks (explained in the District Closures section below).

Key Dates at a Glance

The Palm Beach County school calendar’s key dates for 2026-2027 cover pre-planning, instructional start and end points, and every major break.

The table below lists each milestone with its exact date and day of the week, sourced directly from the board-approved calendar.

Complete Holiday and Non-Work Day Schedule for 2026-2027

Palm Beach County’s 2026-2027 school calendar designates twelve separate holiday or non-work periods, each carrying a distinct status for students, standard employees, and 12-month employees.

Not every holiday closes district offices — some apply only to instructional staff while 12-month employees continue working. The table below separates each category using the district’s own status codes.

Understanding the Palm Beach County School Calendar 2026-2027: Symbols and Terminology

The Palm Beach County school calendar 2026-2027 uses a consistent icon system across every monthly grid, and each symbol answers a specific question: who is off and what kind of day it is.

• Pencil icon — applies to students and all employees except 12-month staff; indicates a standard no-school day.
• Phone/megaphone icon — applies specifically to 12-month employees; paired with the pencil icon on days when district offices are fully closed.
• Clock icon — marks 10-hour compressed workdays for 12-month employees, used during specific summer and break weeks.
• DUTY — a teacher’s work day with no defined professional-development agenda; teachers report, but students do not.
• PDD (Professional Development Day) — a teacher work day dedicated to structured training; students do not attend.
• District Closed — district administrative offices are shut, distinct from a standard student holiday.

This distinction matters most for the six teacher workdays listed later in this guide, where secondary schools and elementary schools are assigned opposite DUTY/PDD designations on the same calendar date.

First Day and Last Day of School for 2026-2027

First Day of School: Monday, August 10, 2026

The first day of school for Palm Beach County students in 2026-2027 is Monday, August 10, 2026. This follows a five-day teacher pre-planning week running from Monday, August 3, 2026, through Friday, August 7, 2026, during which returning and new teachers complete orientation, classroom setup, and curriculum planning before students arrive.

August 10, 2026, falls one day later on the calendar than the 2025-2026 start date of Monday, August 11, 2025 — meaning the two academic years begin on functionally the same first full week of August despite the year-over-year date shift.

Last Day of School: Thursday, May 27, 2027

The last day of school for Palm Beach County students in 2026-2027 is Thursday, May 27, 2027. This date also marks the close of the third elementary trimester, the fourth secondary quarter, and the second secondary semester simultaneously — all three grading structures converge on the same final instructional day.

Students are dismissed for the summer immediately following this date, two days earlier on the calendar than the 2025-2026 last day, Friday, May 29, 2026.

Teacher Post-Planning: Friday, May 28, 2027

The single business day immediately following the last day of school, Friday, May 28, 2027, is designated a Duty Day for both secondary and elementary staff.

Teachers use this day to finalize grades, close out classroom records, and complete end-of-year administrative tasks; students do not attend.

Teacher Planning Days, Professional Development Days, and Duty Days

Palm Beach County schedules six dedicated teacher workdays throughout 2026-2027 during which students do not attend school but staff report for work. Each date carries a different designation depending on school level — a structural detail most calendar summaries omit entirely.

DUTY vs. PDD: What Each Designation Means

A DUTY day is an unstructured teacher work day used for grading, planning, and administrative tasks specific to a teacher’s own classroom.

A PDD (Professional Development Day) is a structured day built around district- or school-led training sessions, curriculum workshops, or compliance instruction.

Elementary and secondary schools frequently receive opposite designations on the same calendar date because their grading-period transitions (trimesters versus quarters) do not always align.

2026-2027 Palm Beach County School Calendar Teacher Workday Schedule

Five of the six teacher workdays fall on a Monday, immediately preceding or following a grading-period transition; only the final post-planning date on Friday, May 28, 2027, breaks this pattern, since it follows the last day of instruction rather than a mid-year quarter boundary.

Elementary School Attendance Calendar: Trimester Schedule

Elementary schools in Palm Beach County operate on a three-trimester attendance calendar rather than the quarter system used at the secondary level.

The trimesters divide the 179-day instructional year unevenly, with the third trimester running longest due to the absence of major holidays between February and May.

Elementary report card distribution dates for all three trimesters remain TBD (to be determined) as of the calendar’s approval date. Districts typically finalize exact distribution dates closer to the end of each grading period, once instructional-day counts are confirmed and any emergency closures are factored into the final schedule.

Secondary School Attendance Calendar: Quarters and Semesters

Middle and high schools use a four-quarter, two-semester attendance structure. Each quarter’s length varies based on how holidays fall within it — the second quarter is the shortest at 42 days due to Thanksgiving and Winter Break, while the third quarter is the longest at 51 days.

Secondary Quarters 2026-2027

Secondary Semesters 2026-2027

As with elementary schools, secondary report card distribution dates for all four quarters are listed as TBD pending final confirmation closer to each quarter’s close.

Florida law requires public school districts to operate for 180 actual teaching days each year, or an equivalent measured in instructional hours set by the State Board of Education, requiring school districts to operate all schools for a term of 180 actual teaching days or the equivalent on an hourly basis as specified by rules of the State Board of Education, with the hourly equivalent set at 900 hours for students in grades 4 through 12 and 720 hours for students in kindergarten through grade 3.

This explains why Palm Beach County’s 179-day calendar, one day short of the traditional 180-day figure, remains fully compliant: the district meets the requirement through the hourly-equivalent standard rather than a strict day count.

Employee Calendar: Contract Periods and Paid Holidays

Teachers’ and Assistant Principals’ Paid Holidays

Teachers and assistant principals receive six paid holidays during the 2026-2027 contract year, each falling on a standard non-work day:

• Monday, September 7, 2026 (Labor Day)
• Thursday, November 26, 2026 (Thanksgiving Day)
• Friday, December 25, 2026 (Christmas Day)
• Friday, January 1, 2027 (New Year’s Day)
• Monday, January 18, 2027 (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day)
• Monday, May 31, 2027 (Memorial Day)

Employee Contract Periods by Group

Contract length varies significantly by employee classification, ranging from 180 to 260 working days depending on role and 12-month status.

The table below summarizes the shortest and longest contract bands within each major employee group; nine additional intermediate bands (182 to 226 days) apply to specific job classifications and are detailed in the district’s Employee Calendar Notes.

District Closures, Modified Schedules, and Emergency Make-Up Days

Friday Closures in July 2026 and June 2027

District offices close every Friday during July 2026 and June 2027 — four Fridays in each month — regardless of the standard 12-month employee schedule. During these two months, 12-month employees work compressed 10-hour days from Monday through Thursday to offset the Friday closures, maintaining full weekly hours across a four-day week instead of five.

Modified Spring Break Schedule for 12-Month Employees

Spring Break (March 22-26, 2027) applies a hybrid schedule for 12-month staff. From Monday, March 22, 2027, through Thursday, March 25, 2027, 12-month employees work 10-hour compressed days. The district then fully closes on Friday, March 26, 2027, extending the break to a complete five-day closure for all staff by the end of the week.

Emergency Make-Up Days (EMD) Policy

Emergency Make-Up Days are assigned at the Superintendent’s discretion in accordance with Florida’s state statute governing student instructional time.

The calendar does not pre-designate specific EMD dates. If severe weather, hurricanes, or other emergencies close schools during the year, the district selects make-up dates afterward from among the scheduled non-instructional days — commonly holidays, planning days, or, in rare cases, an extension of the school year — to preserve the state-required instructional-hour minimum.

Palm Beach County School Calendar: 2026-2027 vs. 2025-2026

Comparing the current calendar year against the prior year highlights how SDPBC adjusts holiday structure and instructional timing annually.

The 2025-2026 figures below come from the district’s official published key-dates page, which lists July 3, 2025 as Independence Day (Observed); September 1, 2025 as Labor Day; September 23, 2025 and October 2, 2025 as Fall Holidays; November 24-28, 2025 as Thanksgiving Holiday; December 22-23, 2025 and December 24, 2025-January 2, 2026 as Winter Break; January 19, 2026 as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday; March 16-20, 2026 as Spring Break; April 3, 2026 as Spring Holiday; May 25, 2026 as Memorial Day; and June 18, 2026 as Juneteenth (Observed), alongside elementary trimesters of 62, 53, and 64 days and secondary quarters of 46, 39, 47, and 47 days.

What changed: The 2026-2027 calendar restructures fall observances — replacing 2025-2026’s two generic “Fall Holiday” dates with a single Fall Holiday plus a separately named Veterans Day, without changing the total number of fall non-school days.

Spring Break moves roughly one week later in the calendar (March 22-26 versus March 16-20), and the standalone Spring Holiday shifts from April to early March, ahead of Spring Break rather than after it. Total instructional days remain unchanged at 179 across both years.

Downloading, Printing, and Language Versions of the Official Calendar

The official Palm Beach County school calendar is published as a board-approved PDF and distributed through the district’s calendar hub page.

In addition to the standard English printable version, the district publishes printable and employee-notes calendars in Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, consistent with its practice for the 2025-2026 printable calendar, list of key dates, student attendance calendar, and employee notes calendar, each offered in Spanish, Creole, and Portuguese versions.

Families seeking a downloadable copy should reference the district’s official calendar page directly rather than third-party PDF mirrors, since board-approved revisions are updated first at the source.

This calendar does not apply to Palm Beach County charter schools, which typically set independent academic calendars subject to their own governing boards, nor does it govern private-school schedules, postsecondary institutions, or individual school-level event calendars such as athletics or club meeting schedules.

Palm Beach County School Calendar for Parents: Planning Considerations

School Closures During Severe Weather

Palm Beach County falls within the Atlantic hurricane season, June through November, which overlaps with roughly the first four months of the school year.

This calendar does not provide real-time closure updates. Same-day or storm-related closure decisions are announced separately through the district’s official website, its parent notification system, and local news media — not through the annual printed or digital calendar, which only reflects planned, pre-scheduled dates.

State Testing and Enrollment Windows

Florida’s statewide FAST (Florida Assessment of Student Thinking) testing windows apply to Palm Beach County students at multiple points during the school year, generally clustered in the fall, winter, and spring progress-monitoring periods.

Specific FAST testing dates for 2026-2027 are announced separately by the Florida Department of Education and communicated to families through individual schools; they are not fixed on the district-wide calendar reviewed here.

Enrollment, School Choice applications, and transportation registration typically follow separate deadlines administered outside this academic calendar.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Palm Beach County School Calendar 2026-2027

Related Florida District School Calendars

Families comparing school calendars across South Florida may also reference:

• Broward County School Calendar 2026-2027
• Miami-Dade County Public Schools Calendar 2026-2027
• Duval County School Calendar 2026-2027
• Orange County Public Schools Calendar 2026-2027
• Hillsborough County School Calendar 2026-2027

Official Resources

The board-approved 2026-2027 calendar and its multilingual variants are maintained on the School District of Palm Beach County’s official calendar page at palmbeachschools.org/calendar, which also hosts the district’s key dates lists, student attendance calendars, and employee notes calendars for both the current and prior academic years. Revisions approved after April 15, 2026, if any, would supersede the dates listed in this guide.