Mark your calendar: Sept. 8 will be the first day of classes for New York City students next school year.
Education department officials released the 2022-2023 school year calendar on Tuesday, as families have been anxiously awaiting official news about when school will begin.
Historically, the school calendar is released much earlier — typically in March or April. Last year, it was released in early May. City officials didn’t say what caused the delay.
School principals and families are still waiting on other critical pieces of information about next school year. High school admissions offers have not been released; they are expected in June, later than normal. And schools have not yet received their budgets.
Similar to last year, snow days will no longer mean a break from schoolwork, at least officially. The city will expect students to complete assignments virtually if school buildings close due to severe weather.
But in a break from last year’s calendar, students will get a respite on Election Day — Nov. 8 — instead of being required to submit assignments virtually.
Also, families might be pleased there won’t be a repeat of this year’s days off in June for “Anniversary Day” and “Clerical Day,” which fall in the middle of a school week (Tuesday, June 7 and Thursday, June 9, respectively). Next year, those days will fall on a Thursday and Friday (June 8 and 9). And unlike this year’s last day of school falling on a Monday, next year’s last day will be Tuesday, June 27.
Next school year will mark the full first academic year under Mayor Eric Adams and his schools Chancellor, David Banks. The pair have slowly begun revealing their plans for the city’s schools, including pushing schools to adopt stronger reading curriculums, expanding gifted programs, and vowing to launch more remote learning options. Their full agenda has yet to come into focus.
Big challenges remain. The pandemic has continued to bring significant disruptions, with more than one in three students on track to be chronically absent this year, missing at least 10% of the school year. And enrollment in the city’s schools has continued to drop, raising difficult decisions about whether to merge or close schools with few students.
Nathaniel Styer, an education department spokesperson, said the city “will be sharing exciting updates regarding programming in the months to come.”
Amy Zimmer contributed
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
