Chicago Public Schools Submits 2022-23 Academic Calendar Proposal for Board of Education Consideration and Approval on March 23

CHICAGO – Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is putting forth a proposal for the School Year 2022-23 academic calendar, which will be voted on at Wednesday's Board of Education meeting. The proposal comes after the District solicited feedback from students, parents, staff, and community members via a survey in February.

Nearly 200 principals initially met in focus groups to inform the design of next year’s calendar.  The CPS community - parents, administrators, teachers, staff, and students - were then given two options to choose from, both of which aimed to start the year earlier, provide a consolidated report card pick up, and continue to offer important staff professional development - including two additional days -  for our faculty and staff.

Many elements of the two options were the same, with a few key differences. Votes were nearly evenly split, with 24,409 votes for option one, and 24,001 votes for the second option. Because the vote was so close, District leadership is recommending option two, reflecting the preference of 69 percent of administrators, 62 percent of school leaders (assistant principals, counselors and coaches), 58 percent of central office/network office staff, and nearly 56 percent of students.

The recommended District calendar would align more closely with the academic calendars of suburban school districts and local colleges and universities. Highlights include:

• A school start date of Monday, August 22, 2022 and an end date of Wednesday, June 7, 2023

• The last day for students is Thursday 12/22 and the last day for faculty and staff is Friday 12/23.

• A less even distribution of instructional days and weeks across the four quarters of the school year, due to the completion of first semester prior to Winter Break

• Ensures 176 days of instruction for students

• One parent-teacher conference day for both high school (HS) and elementary school (ES) students in the fall of 2022 and one for both HS and ES students the spring of 2023, instead of separate days for HS and ES students in both the fall and spring

• Two weeks of winter vacation and one week of spring vacation

• No student instruction during the entire week of Thanksgiving

The option that was not chosen started and ended a week later (Monday, August 29, 2022 and Wednesday, June 14, 2023) and the first semester ended after students returned from Winter Break.

2022-2023 Calendar Proposal Survey Responses by Stakeholders

###