Student Accounting

School Calendar Requirements

Start and End Dates

Except for year‑round schools, the opening date for students shall be no earlier than the Monday closest to August 26, and the closing date for students shall be no later than the Friday closest to June 11. Schools that are exempt from this requirement are listed on the School Calendar Waiver Request form page. 

Minimum Instructional Time

All LEAs, charter schools, cooperative innovative high schools, regional schools, residential schools for deaf and blind students, and UNC laboratory schools must provide minimum of 185 days or 1,025 hours of instruction covering at least nine calendar months. G. S. 115C-84.2 (LEAs), -150.12C(3) (Residential Schools), -218.85 (Charter Schools), -238.53 (CIHS), -238.66 (Regional Schools), G.S. 116-239.8(2c) (Lab Schools).

Requirements for LEAs

• Each local board of education shall adopt a school calendar consisting of 215 days, all of which shall fall within the fiscal year.
• A school calendar shall include a minimum of 185 days or 1,025 hours of instruction covering at least nine calendar months.
• A minimum of 10 annual vacation leave days (for staff).
• The same or an equivalent number of legal holidays occurring within the school calendar as those designated by the State Human Resources Commission for State Employees. (Currently 11 holidays; must include Veterans’ Day)
• Local boards shall designate at least 2 days as days on which teachers may take accumulated vacation leave.
• The total number of working days for teachers employed for a 10‑month term shall not exceed 195 days.
• The remaining days shall be scheduled by the local board in consultation with each school's principal for use as teacher workdays, additional instructional days, or other lawful purposes. Note that the school calendar law does not specify a minimum number of teacher workdays.  

Other Requirements for LEAs

• Instructional days or workdays should not be scheduled on Saturdays. A Saturday may be used as a makeup day for an inclement weather day when the school has been closed.
• School shall not be held on Sundays.

Please reach out to your local BOE Attorney should you have other questions or concerns.

Traditional: A school that has one track, in operation for at least 185 days, with a long summer break (approximately 10 weeks.)

Year-round: A school with a single- or multi-track instructional calendar to provide instructional days throughout the entire school calendar year, beginning July 1 and ending June 30, by utilizing at least one of the following plans:

1. A plan dividing students into four groups and requiring each group to be in school for assigned and staggered quarters each school calendar year.
2. A plan providing students be scheduled to attend four quarters of between 43 and 47 instructional days each school calendar year, with vacation periods for students of between 14 and 18 days separating each quarter.
3. A plan dividing the school calendar year into five nine-week sessions of classes and requiring each student to attend four assigned and staggered sessions out of the five nine-week sessions to complete the student’s instructional year.
4. In a LEA with both single- and multi-track instructional calendars, a plan for a single-track instructional calendar that is identical to at least one track of a multi-track instructional calendar adopted by the local board that meets the requirements of either 1. or 3. above.

Modified: A school that a local board designated as having a modified calendar for the 2003-2004 school year or any school that was part of a planned program in the 2003-2004 school year for a system of modified calendar schools, so long as the school continuously operates under a modified calendar. The only schools that are approved to have this calendar are the 4 Guilford County Schools and 3 Wake County Public Schools designated with a modified calendar in in 2004. 

Legislated Requirements

Most LEAs (public school districts) are required to comply with the K-3 class sizes set by the NC General Assembly. It is the responsibility of LEAs required to comply to ensure that the legislated class size for grades K–3 is met for the entire school year. There are no legislated class size limits for grades 4-12.

Exemptions

The following school types are exempt from legislated K–3 class size requirements:

• Charter schools
• Regional schools 
• Laboratory schools 
• Residential schools for deaf and blind students
• Hospital schools
• Restart schools and renewal school system
• The R3 Career Pathways Program in Pitt County Schools
• Advanced Teaching Roles (ATR) schools receiving state grant funds or otherwise identified in legislation
• Programs identified in legislation

The following classroom types are exempt from legislated K–3 class size requirements:

• Dual Language Immersion Classes in which

1. at least one-third of the students' dominant language is English and 
2. instruction involves both English and a target foreign language with a minimum of 50% of core content taught in the target foreign language

• Program Enhancement Classes, defined as

1. Arts disciplines, including dance, music, theater, and visual arts
2. Physical education and health programs
3. World languages

The tables below show the legislated class size maximum for LEAs and individual classes.

Details on exemptions and waivers are in the School Calendar chapter of the School Attendance and Student Accounting Manual (SASA).

K-3 Class Size Affidavit - LEAs only

Each Spring and Fall, all local superintendents must submit a sworn affidavit supplied by the Office of School Business attesting that he or she has complied with the class size reporting requirements.

• Class Size Affidavit

K-3 Class Size Waiver Request - LEAs only

Individual Class Size Waiver Request Form - September 16, 2025

Permissible Reasons to Grant a Class Size Waiver

The legislation and State Board of Education prohibit the granting of class size waivers except under the following circumstances.

Per legislation, the class-size overage must be caused by one of the reasons below:

1. Emergencies, or acts of God that impact the physical availability of classroom space or facilities.
2. An unanticipated increase of more than 2% in the average daily membership of an individual school. The school’s PMR 1 for the prior and current school years should be used for this comparison.
3. Organizational issues in geographically isolated PSUs in which the average daily membership is less than 1.5 per square mile. In recent years, only Hyde and Tyrrell Counties met the requirements for geographic isolation.
4. Classes organized for a solitary curricular area.
5. A charter school closure in the prior or current school year.

Per the State Board of Education, the waiver request must meet each of the requirements below:

1. No individual class size waiver has been requested for the specific school and grade during the previous school year, and
2. The request is for no more than two students above the legislated class size maximums, and
3. The local board of education cannot organizationally correct the exception