Northern Virginia School Calendars
26–27 & 27–28
Every student day off for Fairfax County and Loudoun County, both school years, checked against the board-adopted calendars. Then the part no district publishes: which of those weeks are actually good ones to travel.
Three Counties, Two School Years, One Page
The three districts started 2026–27 two weeks apart. Loudoun County (LCPS) went back Monday, August 17, 2026 and finishes Friday, June 11, 2027. Fairfax County (FCPS) started Monday, August 24 and finishes Wednesday, June 16. Arlington Public Schools (APS) started last, Monday, August 31, and finishes Thursday, June 17.
All three share spring break in both school years, March 22–26, 2027 and April 10–14, 2028, and all three are off from late December into the new year. Where they separate is everything else. Loudoun gives a six-day Fall Getaway in late October and a five-day Lunar New Year break in January 2028. Fairfax gives a four-day semester break at the end of January 2027. Arlington observes Yom Kippur, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and Diwali as student days off, and attaches a grade preparation day to the end of spring break 2028, making it ten days when the other two get nine.
Pick your county below for the full traffic-light calendar, printable PDF, and downloadable .ics file.
Pick Your County
Fairfax County Public Schools
First day August 24, 2026. Last day June 16, 2027. Five multi-day travel windows a year, and the best one is the semester break, January 29 to February 1, 2027, when Orlando crowds sit at 3 to 5 out of 10.
Loudoun County Public Schools
First day August 17, 2026. Last day June 11, 2027. Six multi-day travel windows a year, including a six-day Fall Getaway and the Lunar New Year break Fairfax families do not get.
Arlington Public Schools
First day August 31, 2026. Last day June 17, 2027. Starts latest of the three, and the only one giving days off for Yom Kippur, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and Diwali. Gets a ten-day spring break in 2028 while the other two get nine.
The 2027–28 Calendars Are Already Adopted
Most families do not realize all three school boards adopt the following year’s calendar a full year ahead. That is the whole advantage. The 2027–28 dates are on all three pages right now: Fairfax runs August 23, 2027 to June 14, 2028, Loudoun runs August 19, 2027 to June 14, 2028, Arlington runs August 30, 2027 to June 16, 2028, and all three take spring break April 10–14, 2028.
Cruise lines and Disney open their booking windows roughly eighteen months out. Knowing your 2028 spring break today is what lets you book the week it goes on sale instead of taking what is left. Arlington families have the most room here, with a ten-day window from April 8 to 17.
Prince William and Montgomery Are Next
Fairfax, Loudoun and Arlington are live today. Prince William County and Montgomery County are next, each getting the same treatment: every student day off, both school years, checked against the board-adopted calendar, with a printable PDF and a calendar file you can drop straight into your phone.
If your district is not here yet and you want it, tell us. We are a Leesburg agency and these are our neighbors, so the request list is genuinely how we decide the order.
Northern Virginia School Calendar FAQ
This hub covers Fairfax County Public Schools, Loudoun County Public Schools and Arlington Public Schools, each for the 2026–27 and 2027–28 school years. Together those three districts serve well over 300,000 students, including the two largest in Virginia. Prince William County and Montgomery County in Maryland are planned next. Every district page carries the same three things: a color-coded calendar you can read at a glance, a full table of every student day off with dates, and downloadable PDF and .ics files.
Yes. All three districts take spring break the same week: March 22–26, 2027 for the 2026–27 school year and April 10–14, 2028 for 2027–28. Arlington gets one extra day in 2028 because it attaches a grade preparation day on Monday April 17, making its window ten days against nine for the other two. Winter break also lines up closely across all three. Where they split is the fall and January: Loudoun has a six-day Fall Getaway and a Lunar New Year break, Fairfax has a semester break at the end of January 2027, and Arlington has Yom Kippur, Diwali and both Eids.
Every date is read off the board-adopted calendar published by the district itself, not from a third-party listing or a news article. Fairfax was checked against the official FCPS calendars on August 11, 2026, Loudoun against the official LCPS calendars on August 12, and Arlington against the official APS calendars on August 25. The Arlington figures were additionally checked against the calendar’s own arithmetic: both school years total exactly 180 student days and all four marking periods match their published day counts. Each county page prints its verification date at the bottom. School boards do revise calendars mid-year, so if you are booking something expensive, confirm against your district before you pay a deposit.
Yes. All three school boards adopt the following year’s calendar roughly a year in advance, so the full 2027–28 dates are already published and are on all three county pages. Fairfax runs August 23, 2027 to June 14, 2028. Loudoun runs August 19, 2027 to June 14, 2028. Arlington runs August 30, 2027 to June 16, 2028. This is the single most useful thing on this site for a family planning a big trip, because cruise lines and Disney open bookings about eighteen months ahead. Knowing your 2028 break now means booking the week it opens instead of the week that is left.
A Green Light Week is a stretch when your kids are already out of school and theme park crowds are low, which is rarer than it sounds. Most school breaks are the opposite: spring break and the week between Christmas and New Year run 8 to 10 out of 10 for crowds because the whole country is off at once. The good windows are built from teacher workdays and local holidays, when your district is off but most of the country is not. Fairfax families get one at the end of January 2027, Loudoun families get one at Lunar New Year in January 2028, and Arlington families get two, in late January and around Diwali in October 2027. All of them sit at crowd levels of 3 to 5 out of 10.
You Know the Dates. We Know the Rest.
Favorite Grampy Travels is an award-winning family travel agency right here in Leesburg. We plan Disney, Universal, cruises and all-inclusives around the weeks your family is actually free. Fifteen minutes on the phone and you will know which of your days off is worth booking.
Fairfax dates verified against the official FCPS standard school year calendars on August 11, 2026. Loudoun dates verified against the official LCPS calendars on August 12, 2026. School boards can revise calendars during the year, so confirm with your district before booking.