CPS Board of Education Approves the District’s 2023-24 Academic Calendar

CHICAGO – Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Board of Education today approved the academic calendar for the 2023-24 school year, maintaining the recent trend to start classes in late August. The adoption of the new school calendar during today’s Board meeting follows a public comment period and community engagement on the topic with staff, families, and students. The 2024 school year calendar is similar to the current 2022-23 school year calendar and offers the following benefits:

• Offers consistency and predictability for the academic school year
• Aligns closely with the academic calendars of suburban school districts and local colleges and universities
• Gives students a start date before Labor Day
• Allows more students to participate in summer camps as well as job and recreational opportunities that start earlier in the summer
• Gives students more time to prepare for important exams, including Advanced Placement (AP)  and International Baccalaureate (IB) tests and the SAT

“Our 2023-24 school year calendar builds on the success of our current academic calendar by continuing to provide consistency and ensure fewer student learning interruptions,” said CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. “We were proud to ensure the process for adopting a new school calendar was transparent and open to public input, and we were pleased to engage in thoughtful dialogue with school leaders, families, and students that helped us continue to develop a calendar that best meets the needs of our students and staff.”

The 2023-24 calendar highlights include: 

• A school start date of Monday, August 21, 2023 and an end date of Thursday, June 6, 2024

The first semester ends Thursday, Dec. 21, with Friday, Dec. 22 serving as the first day of Winter Break for students

• 176 days of instruction for students
• 12 professional learning days for teachers and school-based staff (consistent with current school year)
• A shift in first quarter Professional Development (PD) to occur the day before report card pick up to allow for more consistent weeks in October 
• Combined parent-teacher conference day for both high school (HS) and elementary school (ES) students in the fall of 2023 and separate, on consecutive days, in the spring of 2024 (ES 4/10 and HS 4/11)
• Two weeks of winter vacation and one week of spring vacation (second half of March)
• No student instruction for the week of Thanksgiving
• Veterans Day as an observed holiday for School Year 2023-24. During the years with November federal elections, the District removes the Veterans Day holiday and observes election day as mandated under State law

SY23-24 CPS Elementary and High Schools Academic Calendars
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Chicago Public Schools serves more than 322,000 students in 635 schools. It is the nation’s fourth-largest school district.