APS Calendar 26–27 & 27–28
Days Off, Made for Family Travel

APS spring break runs March 22–26, 2027 for the 2026–27 school year and April 10–14, 2028 for 2027–28. Counting the weekends, Arlington families get nine straight days off in 2027. In 2028 they get ten, because APS attaches a grade preparation day on Monday April 17 that Fairfax and Loudoun do not have. Fair warning from Favorite Grampy: spring break is the busiest family travel window of the year, with Disney World crowd levels running 8 to 10 out of 10. If it is your only option, book six or more months ahead.

The first day of school for Arlington Public Schools is Monday, August 31, 2026 for K through 12, with PreK and VPI starting Tuesday, September 1. For 2027–28 the first day is Monday, August 30, 2027. The last days are June 17, 2027 and June 16, 2028. Arlington starts later than either neighbor, a full week after Fairfax and two weeks after Loudoun, which makes late August the one stretch when Arlington families can still travel while other Northern Virginia districts are already back in class.

APS winter break runs December 23, 2026 through January 1, 2027, with students back Monday, January 4. For 2027–28 it runs December 20 through December 31, 2027. With weekends included that is 12 days the first year and 16 the second. The catch is that Christmas through New Year is the single busiest theme park week of the year, a 10 out of 10 on the Favorite Grampy Travels crowd calendars. The first weekend of the break and the days right before Christmas are noticeably calmer than the week between the holidays.

The two best no-school-missed windows in 2026–27 are January 29 to 31 and April 17 to 19, 2027, three-day weekends built from grade preparation days when Disney World and Universal Orlando crowd levels run just 3 to 5 out of 10. In 2027–28 the standout is April 8 to 17, 2028, a ten-day spring break window, and October 29 to 31, 2027 around Diwali, which is the quietest three-day stretch on the entire Arlington calendar. These windows work because they are built from local holidays rather than national ones, so the whole country is not off at once.

Three differences matter for travel. First, Arlington starts latest: August 31, 2026 against August 24 for Fairfax and August 17 for Loudoun. Second, Arlington observes religious and cultural holidays the other two do not, giving students days off for Yom Kippur, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and Diwali. Third, Arlington gets a longer 2028 spring break, ten days against nine, because of the grade preparation day on April 17. All three districts share spring break week itself in both years. Our Fairfax County calendar page has the same traffic-light view for FCPS.

Yes, and Arlington gives more single-day holidays than its neighbors. Beyond Thanksgiving, winter break and spring break, APS students are off for Yom Kippur, Veterans Day, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and Memorial Day, plus grade preparation days after each grading quarter and a countywide professional learning day. In 2027–28 that list adds Diwali and Election Day. Several land next to weekends and quietly become three- and four-day travel windows. Grampy’s rule of thumb: a long weekend when school is in session elsewhere often beats a full week when the whole country is off.

No, and this is the single easiest thing to get wrong on the Arlington calendar. APS publishes a lot of early-release dates, for parent-teacher conferences, professional learning and the end of the year, and students do attend school on all of them. Only the dates listed in the tables on this page are true days off. In 2026–27 the early-release days that are not days off include October 7, October 28, December 9, January 13, February 10 and March 3. If you are booking a flight around one, check the table above first.