Palm Beach County School Calendar 2025-2026 (Key Dates)
June 21, 2026 · 6 min read · By Onias Derilus, Broker
First day, last day, every break, and the school days parents often get wrong, for the School District of Palm Beach County 2025-2026 calendar.
Whether you're already raising a family in Palm Beach County or relocating here, the school calendar runs your year. Here are the key dates for the School District of Palm Beach County 2025-2026 calendar, including a few off-days that catch parents by surprise.
Key Takeaways
- First day of school: Monday, August 11, 2025
- Last day of school: Friday, May 29, 2026
- Winter break: December 22, 2025 to January 2, 2026 (students return Tuesday, January 6)
- Two surprise single-day "Fall Holidays" fall on Sept 23 and Oct 2, 2025.
2025-2026 key dates
- First day (students): Monday, August 11, 2025
- Labor Day: Monday, September 1, 2025 (no school)
- Fall Holiday: Tuesday, September 23, 2025 (no school)
- Fall Holiday: Thursday, October 2, 2025 (no school)
- Thanksgiving break: November 24 to 28, 2025
- Winter break: December 22, 2025 to January 2, 2026 (students return Tuesday, January 6, 2026)
- MLK Day: Monday, January 19, 2026 (no school)
- Spring break: March 16 to 20, 2026
- Spring Holiday: Friday, April 3, 2026 (no school)
- Memorial Day: Monday, May 25, 2026 (no school)
- Last day (students): Friday, May 29, 2026
The days parents get wrong
A few dates trip families up every year:
- Veterans Day (November 11, 2025): students are off, but it's a teacher planning day, not a district holiday.
- Presidents Day: the district calendar does not observe it as a day off. Monday, February 16, 2026 is a normal school day. (There is a separate teacher planning day on February 18.)
- Those two Fall Holidays (Sept 23 and Oct 2) are easy to miss when planning childcare.
Looking ahead to 2026-2027
The next school year is set to begin Monday, August 10, 2026, with the last day on Thursday, May 27, 2027.
Dates are subject to district revision, so always confirm against the official calendar at palmbeachschools.org/calendar, where you can also download the printable version.
Relocating to Palm Beach County? School zones drive home values here. Pure Equity can help you find a home in the right attendance area. Explore Palm Beach County, our school districts guide, or homes by city.
Frequently asked questions
When does school start in Palm Beach County for 2025-2026?
Monday, August 11, 2025 is the first day for students. The year ends Friday, May 29, 2026.
When is spring break in Palm Beach County 2026?
Spring break is March 16 to 20, 2026.
Is Presidents Day a day off in Palm Beach County schools?
No. The 2025-2026 calendar does not observe Presidents Day as a student holiday; February 16, 2026 is a regular school day.
Source
Published June 21, 2026. Dates are from the district's official calendar and may be revised; verify at palmbeachschools.org.
Why the calendar matters to a move
School dates drive more South Florida moving decisions than almost anything else. Families overwhelmingly want to be in the house before the first day, which compresses demand into a narrow window and makes the spring and early summer the busiest selling season in family neighbourhoods.
Working backwards from a first day in mid-August, a financed purchase needs roughly 30 to 45 days from accepted contract to closing, and homes in Palm Beach County average about 107 days on market. A family that wants to unpack before school starts is realistically shopping in early spring, not July.
The dates that actually affect a transaction
- First and last day of school. These bracket the moving season and set the deadline most families are working toward.
- Winter and spring breaks. Showing activity drops sharply, and out-of-town buyers often tour during these weeks.
- Teacher planning days and early releases. Minor for most people, but they matter if you are coordinating a move around childcare.
- Testing windows. Families frequently refuse to move mid-assessment, which quietly removes buyers from the market for several weeks.
Always confirm current dates on the School District of Palm Beach County's own calendar page. Districts revise dates, and any third-party listing including this one can fall out of date between publication and your move.
School zoning is by address, not by neighbourhood
This is the single most expensive assumption buyers make here. Attendance boundaries are set by address and they change. A community's reputation for a particular school can persist years after the boundary moved, and listing descriptions repeat that reputation uncritically.
Verify zoning for the exact address with the district before you write an offer, not after. If a specific school is the reason you are buying in a particular area, that verification is the most important piece of due diligence in the whole purchase.
Choice programmes complicate the picture usefully
Palm Beach County operates magnet and choice programmes that admit students from outside their zoned attendance area, usually by application and often by lottery. That means a home outside a sought-after boundary is not automatically off the table, and a home inside one is not a guarantee of a particular programme.
Application windows typically open months before the school year, so families relocating on a compressed timeline should check deadlines early. Missing an application window is a year-long consequence of a paperwork date.
What this means if you are selling
If your home sits in a well-regarded attendance zone, that is a genuine selling point and worth stating accurately in the listing, with the school named and the zoning verified rather than implied. Buyers check, and an inaccurate claim damages trust at exactly the wrong moment.
Timing matters too. Listing a family home in late spring puts it in front of the largest pool of buyers trying to close before August. Listing the same home in October means competing for a much smaller audience, most of whom are not moving for school reasons at all.
If you are weighing when to list anywhere in the eight counties we serve, we can tell you how homes in your specific community have moved through the seasons rather than generalising from the county.
Common questions
How do I find the school zoned to a specific address?
Use the School District of Palm Beach County's own boundary lookup for the exact address. Neighbourhood reputation and listing descriptions are not reliable substitutes, because boundaries change.
When should we start looking if we want to be settled before school?
Early spring for an August start. Between average marketing time, a 30 to 45 day closing, and the move itself, a summer start is tighter than most families expect.
Do school boundaries change often?
They are reviewed periodically as enrolment shifts and new schools open. Treat any boundary as current only for the year you verify it.
Can my child attend a school outside our zone?
Sometimes, through magnet or choice programmes with their own applications and deadlines. Check those dates early, since they typically fall well before the school year begins.
Buying and selling around the calendar
The seasonal pattern is strong enough to plan around. Family-oriented communities see the most buyer traffic from roughly February through June, as households try to close and move before August. Activity thins over the summer, picks up modestly in autumn, and slows again around the winter holidays.
For a seller in a family neighbourhood, that argues for being on the market and well presented by early spring rather than listing in June and hoping. For a buyer, the quieter months mean less competition, though also less inventory to choose from, so the trade is real rather than obviously favourable.
Practical moving-week advice
If you are relocating from out of state, register your children as early as the district allows rather than waiting until you have unpacked. Enrolment usually requires proof of residency, immunisation records, and prior school transcripts, and gathering those from a previous district takes longer than families expect, particularly over the summer when offices are lightly staffed.
If your closing lands close to the first day, ask the district what documentation they accept in the interim. A signed contract or lease is sometimes sufficient to begin the process while a closing completes, which avoids a child missing the opening days over paperwork timing.
A note on relying on any published calendar
Dates in this article are a convenience, not an authority. The School District of Palm Beach County publishes the official calendar and revises it, occasionally after storms or other disruptions force make-up days. Before booking movers, scheduling a closing, or committing to a start date, confirm against the district's own page. That habit costs a minute and prevents the kind of scheduling error that is genuinely disruptive for a family mid-move.
One further planning note for families buying and selling at once. If your purchase depends on selling your current home, start that conversation early in the year rather than in spring, because the sale timeline and the school deadline compound. We are happy to map both against a realistic calendar for your community before you commit to either side.
Finally, keep a copy of the enrolment paperwork somewhere accessible during the move itself. Proof of residency is the document families most often need again in the first weeks, and it is the one most likely to be packed in a box nobody can find.
