As the current school year winds down, the North Carolina Board of Education got its annual report on school calendars for the coming year. It shows that 15 districts in a dozen counties, with a total of almost 177,000 students, have decided to ignore the state law that requires them to start classes “no earlier than the Monday closest to Aug. 26.”
That law has frustrated school boards, educators and families across the state for years. It passed in 2004, driven by the tourism industry’s desire for a uniform summer vacation season. The law forces many districts to give high school midyear exams after winter break and makes it hard to synchronize with community colleges, which increasingly partner with public high schools to offer free college-level courses.
A dozen small districts have been exempted from the law, including Mooresville and Rowan-Salisbury. Others have tried to find ways to work around it, and in 2022 three Charlotte-area districts decided to just defy the law and see what happened.
