Labor Day used to mark the end of summer break for the majority of the nation’s school districts. Not so anymore.
Across the country, school start dates have moved up in recent years. In the 1980s, most public school students in the United States started back to school after Labor Day. Now, about 70% of students in the nation’s public K-12 schools return to school before September, according to Pew Research Center data from 2023, the most recent available on the subject. Some start as early as July.
Only about 18% of students return in September. Students who live in the mid-Atlantic (New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) are most likely to start school after Labor Day, according to the Pew Research Center.
Concern over losing out on late-summer tourism dollars drives some of the holdouts. But proponents of an earlier start to the school calendar say it could minimize summer learning loss, give teachers more time to prepare students for standardized testing, and coincide better with students’ engagement levels (assuming they’re ready to return after summer break, and eager to get out of school at the end of the academic year).
Additionally, school board representatives argue that individual communities know what’s best for their constituents and should be allowed to make their own calendar decisions.
Laws over post-Labor Day start times lean into tourism
Minnesota passed a state law in 1985 enforcing a post-Labor Day school start, although districts can apply for waivers based on exceptions related to district construction projects or calendar agreements with local universities. The law still stands today, but not without controversy.
Representatives of the tourism industry backed the Minnesota law and, for years, have been pushing to maintain it. Paul Bugbee, owner of a lakeside resort in central Minnesota, wrote in a local paper in 2015 that “allowing earlier starts could decrease the tourism season and corresponding business receipts by 20 percent or more.”
In Maryland, former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, was one of the most vocal defenders of schools starting after Labor Day during his tenure from 2015 to 2023.
In 2016, Hogan issued an executive order requiring public schools in Maryland to remain closed until after Labor Day, announcing it from the boardwalk of Ocean City. Hogan said the later start date would provide a late-summer economic boost to the state’s tourism industry.
But the Maryland Senate fought successfully to repeal the order, arguing that the power to decide when to start school should rest with local school boards.
“I can’t imagine where this kind of idiocy comes from. … It’s just an incredibly stupid idea,” Hogan said on a local news broadcast in 2019, in response to those efforts.
Ultimately, his order was overturned in 2019 when the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation allowing local school districts to decide when to start school. Currently, most Maryland districts start school before Labor Day.
School boards seek local control of start dates
In Minnesota, school boards want local control to determine school start dates, and their representatives have been pushing to overturn the 1985 law.
“We have had a long-standing legislative position that very clearly says that the local school board should be able to set their start and end times for their school calendar,” said Kirk Schneidawind, executive director of the Minnesota School Boards Association.
Minnesota proponents of local decisionmaking over school start dates won a small victory this past legislative session with the passage of a bill that will give districts some amount of local control of start dates for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years—years when Labor Day falls later than normal, on Sept. 7 and 6, respectively. Minnesota school districts can start the school year on or after Sept. 1 those years.
Lobbying on behalf of the bill, Kristi Peterson, vice chair of the Shakopee School Board, argued that allowing schools to start before Labor Day could stem summer learning loss and allow educators more time to prepare students for standardized tests, which are scheduled in the spring.
Schneidawind stressed that the Minnesota School Boards Association is pushing for local control—not necessarily earlier start dates.
“In large part, these school board members are community representatives serving on the board, and they understand local economics, local culture, local expectations around the schools and businesses, and all the other pieces that make up the community,” he said.
Acknowledging each community’s diverse priorities
Schneidawind also acknowledged that the Minnesota State Fair, which runs through Labor Day, is not just a tourism draw but, for many local communities, an integral part of students’ learning experience.
“Students from these agricultural communities are the ones who go to the state fair, show their cattle, show their pigs, their sheep,” Schneidawind said. “Those are great learning experiences.”
If a school district in an agriculture-heavy community were to permanently move the start date before Labor Day, Schneidawind said he believes the school board would make concessions for students who participate in the state fair, such as providing an extended excused absence. It’s all about compromise, he said.
“In many districts, kids are ready to return to school in August,” he said. “And many of our school districts want to be able to have more instructional days in advance of the statewide assessments.”
