LAUSD Calendar 2026-2027: Key Dates, Breaks, and Instructional Days

The LAUSD Calendar 2026-2027 is the Los Angeles Unified School District’s official instructional schedule covering Wednesday, August 12, 2026, through Friday, June 4, 2027, with 180 total instructional days split into an 84-day Fall Semester and a 96-day Spring Semester.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is the largest school district in Los Angeles County and the second-largest public school district in the United States, enrolling approximately 392,654 students for the 2025-2026 school year across roughly 780 campuses.

The 2026-2027 Single-Track Instructional Calendar was approved by the LAUSD Board of Education on March 11, 2025, as part of a three-year calendar plan that the Board approved by a 6-1 vote that keeps a mid-August start date and a three-week Winter Recess in place through the 2027-2028 school year.

This guide covers the traditional, single-track calendar that applies to the majority of LAUSD schools. It does not cover individual school bell schedules, magnet or charter campus variations, or the separate multi-track “Basis” duty calendars used for payroll purposes — those are addressed in their own sections below.

LAUSD’s Wednesday, August 12, 2026, opening date is one of the earliest among Los Angeles County school districts for the 2026-2027 school year.

Beverly Hills Unified School District opens on the same date, August 12, 2026, while Burbank Unified School District and Downey Unified School District both begin on August 13, 2026, and Glendale Unified School District and Culver City Unified School District both begin on August 19, 2026.

This roughly one-week spread affects family vacation planning, childcare scheduling, and interdistrict permit timing for households near county lines.

LAUSD Calendar 2026-2027: Key Dates at a Glance

The table below lists every major date on the LAUSD Calendar 2026-2027 as published in the district’s official Instructional Calendar. Each entry includes the day of the week to support calendar syncing and vacation planning.

LAUSD 2026-2027 Semester and Instructional Day Breakdown

The LAUSD Calendar 2026-2027 divides 180 total instructional days into 84 days for the Fall Semester and 96 days for the Spring Semester, per the district’s Board-adopted Instructional Calendar.

Fall Semester 2026 Instructional Days

Fall Semester instruction runs from Wednesday, August 12, 2026, through the final school day before Winter Recess begins on Monday, December 21, 2026.

This span totals 84 instructional days and includes four non-instructional breaks: Admission Day (Friday, September 4, 2026), Labor Day (Monday, September 7, 2026), Veterans’ Day (Wednesday, November 11, 2026), and the two-day Thanksgiving Holiday (Thursday–Friday, November 26–27, 2026).

Spring Semester 2027 Instructional Days

Spring Semester instruction runs from Monday, January 11, 2027, through Friday, June 4, 2027, the Last Day of Instruction. This span totals 96 instructional days and includes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, a full-week Spring Recess, Farm Workers Day, and Memorial Day as the primary non-instructional dates.

Holidays and Recess Periods on the LAUSD Calendar 2026-2027

LAUSD schedules three multi-day recess periods and six single-day holidays across the 2026-2027 school year, in addition to the Thanksgiving Holiday break.

Winter Recess: December 21, 2026 – January 8, 2027

Winter Recess spans 19 calendar days, from Monday, December 21, 2026, through Friday, January 8, 2027, with students returning for the Second Semester on Monday, January 11, 2027. This is two days shorter than the 2025-2026 Winter Recess, which ran 21 calendar days.

Thanksgiving Holiday: November 26–27, 2026

The Thanksgiving Holiday consists of two non-instructional days: Thursday, November 26, 2026, and Friday, November 27, 2026, per the district’s published Instructional Calendar.

Some third-party planning guides describe a longer Thanksgiving week; the calendar itself designates only these two dates as official Thanksgiving Holiday non-instructional days.

Spring Recess: March 22–26, 2027

Spring Recess covers five school days, Monday, March 22, 2027, through Friday, March 26, 2027, one week earlier on the calendar than the equivalent 2025-2026 break.

Farm Workers Day and Other Single-Day Holidays

Farm Workers Day falls on Wednesday, March 31, 2027, five school days after Spring Recess ends. This date corresponds to the state-recognized Cesar Chavez Day, observed statewide on March 31 each year.

The 2026-2027 calendar observes it on its statutory date; the 2025-2026 calendar instead observed the equivalent holiday on Friday, March 27, 2026, positioned to extend that year’s Spring Recess weekend.

Other single-day holidays on the 2026-2027 calendar are Admission Day, Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, and Memorial Day.

Pupil-Free Days and the Conditional January–June Swap

The LAUSD Calendar 2026-2027 designates two standard Pupil-Free Days — Tuesday, August 11, 2026, and Monday, June 7, 2027 — plus one conditional swap mechanism unique to this school year. Pupil-Free Days are staff workdays with no student attendance.

The district’s official calendar footnote states that if an individual school selects Monday, January 11, 2027, as an additional Pupil-Free Day, then Monday, June 7, 2027, converts from a Pupil-Free Day into a regular Instructional Day.

This mechanism preserves each school’s 180-day instructional-day total: removing a day from the January calendar requires adding one back in June.

This exact swap condition is independently confirmed by mommypoppins.com, which notes that if a school selects Monday, January 11, 2027, as a Pupil-Free Day, Monday, June 7, 2027, becomes an Instructional Day.

Families should confirm with their specific school site whether this swap applies, since the decision is made at the school level rather than districtwide.

Comparing School Years

LAUSD Calendar 2026-2027 vs. LAUSD Calendar 2025-2026: What Changed

The table below compares confirmed dates from both school years.

All 2025-2026 dates reflect the calendar officially approved by LAUSD on March 11, 2025.

The general direction across both years favors an early-to-mid-August start with a three-week Winter Recess, consistent with the multi-year calendar structure the Board approved in 2025.

The Thanksgiving Holiday is the most notable reduction: it shrinks from a full week in 2025-2026 to two days in 2026-2027.

A-Basis, B-Basis, C-Basis, and E-Basis Calendars: How They Differ From the Instructional Calendar

The A-Basis, B-Basis, C-Basis, and E-Basis calendars are LAUSD staff duty-year classifications, not separate student attendance tracks.

They determine how many months an employee works and are published separately by LAUSD Payroll Administration from the student Instructional Calendar covered above.

This distinction matters because the term “Basis Calendar” is frequently misused online to describe year-round, multi-track student schedules.

LAUSD’s own published documentation labels its 2026-2027 basis dates as tentative: the district’s 2026-2027 Tentative Basis Calendar Dates document explicitly states that not all B, C, or E-Basis employees will follow the listed dates.

Parents and staff should not assume a specific school’s schedule differs from the standard Instructional Calendar based on basis terminology alone; basis assignments are determined by employee bargaining unit, not by school site.

Approval Status of the LAUSD Calendar 2026-2027

The LAUSD Calendar 2026-2027 is Board-approved but carries a standard conditional disclaimer tied to labor negotiations. The Board of Education approved the 2026-2027 Single-Track Instructional Calendar on March 11, 2025, as part of the same 6-1 Board vote that established a three-year calendar plan.

Despite this approval, the official calendar document itself states: the Board’s adoption of these Instructional Calendars is tentative and conditioned on and subject to the outcome of negotiations with the unions regarding their members’ work year calendars.

In practice, this disclaimer language appears on LAUSD’s calendar publications regardless of Board approval status, since certain scheduling details remain subject to ongoing union agreements even after the core dates are set.

How to Find and Download the Official LAUSD Calendar 2026-2027 PDF

Follow these steps to access the official, non-third-party version of the calendar:

1. Navigate to the LAUSD Calendar page at lausd.org and locate the “Calendar” or “School Calendars” section under the district’s main navigation.
2. Select the 2026-2027 school year from the available calendar year options, since the site typically lists multiple years simultaneously.
3. Choose the calendar format — a month-grid layout or a linear/graphic layout- to be published for the same instructional dates.
4. Download the PDF directly rather than relying on a screenshot or third-party reproduction to ensure the pupil-free day conditional footnote and semester day counts are visible.
5. Cross-check your specific school’s site through its own LAUSD-hosted page, since some campuses post a locally adapted version alongside the districtwide PDF.
6. Confirm bell schedule and minimum-day times separately, since these are not included in the districtwide Instructional Calendar PDF.

Grading Periods, Report Cards, and Minimum Days

The districtwide LAUSD Instructional Calendar does not itemize specific grading-period cutoff dates, report-card release dates, or minimum-day release times for 2026-2027.

These details are set and communicated at the individual school level, typically through the school’s Parent Portal account or Schoology platform, and can vary by grade span (elementary, middle, or senior high school).

Families needing exact grading-window or minimum-day dismissal times should check their child’s specific school site rather than the master Instructional Calendar, since this guide does not substitute for school-level scheduling communications.

Frequently Asked Questions About the LAUSD Calendar 2026-2027

What This LAUSD Calendar 2026-2027 Guide Does Not Cover

This guide covers the districtwide, single-track Instructional Calendar for 2026-2027 only.

It does not cover: individual school bell schedules or minimum-day dismissal times; magnet, affiliated charter, or independently negotiated campus calendars; exact grading-period or report-card dates, which are set at the school level; multi-track, year-round calendars at the small number of campuses that still operate them; or any calendar revisions made after this guide’s publication.

For legally binding scheduling information, confirm directly against LAUSD’s official calendar page or your child’s specific school site.