How we check

Every date on this site comes from a calendar the district itself published. This page explains how we find it, how we read it, and when a page is allowed to appear.

Where the calendars come from

We start from the National Center for Education Statistics list of public school districts, which is public domain, and visit each district's own website to find its calendar page or PDF. We do not use calendars from third-party sites, social media, or news reports. Each district page links to the exact page or file we read and shows the day we read it.

How the dates are read

The calendar text is read twice by two separate passes. The first pass extracts the first day, last day, breaks, holidays, teacher workdays and early-release days, and copies the line of the calendar that supports each date. The second pass works out the first day, last day, winter break and spring break again without seeing the first pass's answer. A computer program then turns every date into a standard form and checks that the supporting line really appears in the source. The first day and last day must agree between the two passes, or the district is not published.

When a page is published

A district calendar appears on this site only when all of these are true:

• the source is the district's own calendar page or file;
• we read it within the last 120 days;
• it has both a first day and a last day, and at least two breaks;
• the dates are consistent: the first day falls in late summer, the last day in spring or early summer, and every break falls inside the school year;
• the supporting evidence remains in our data records and is not republished as a source quotation.

A district that does not pass these data checks has no calendar page on this site. Search indexing adds separate checks: each indexed page needs at least 300 words of prose and must pass a similarity check against other calendars. A sound calendar can remain available to readers while excluded from search if it does not meet those content checks. We do not guess, and we do not fill a missing date from a previous year. A state page is listed in search only when it has at least 5 districts behind it.

Approved and tentative

Many districts publish a draft before the board votes. When the source says the calendar is approved we mark it approved; when it says draft, proposed or subject to change we mark it tentative; if it says nothing we say so.

Re-checking

Calendars are revised during the year after storms, board votes and contract settlements. The refresh pipeline is scheduled monthly. A failed request or an unreadable replacement file does not count as a successful check. When a first day, last day or break changes, the page shows what changed and the new check date. A calendar whose source we have not successfully read within 120 days is removed from the published set until it is re-checked.

What we show and what we do not

We show dates and a short description computed from them, such as the length of a break or the number of potential school weekdays after the listed closures are removed. That is a calculation from the events we have, not a certified attendance-day total. We do not reprint the district's wording, use its logo, or suggest that we speak for it. If a date looks wrong, tell us.