First day of school: A few Long Island districts starting as early as Aug. 31

Summer will soon be coming to an end for Long Island school kids, with most public school districts resuming classes before Labor Day weekend.

Jericho and East Williston will be the first to open, on Aug. 31, and the majority of districts will follow later that week. Only 18 of the Island’s 123 districts will open after the holiday.

Because Labor Day this year falls later in the month, on Sept. 7, East Williston schools Superintendent Danielle Gately said it wasn’t much of a consideration as the district planned its calendar for 2026-27.

“Every year, we look at our calendar, and we look at the holidays and the time off and the way the dates fall, and we make decisions in order to maximize instructional time for the kids,” Gately said. “Labor Day is so late so it didn't really come into play."

In New York, public schools must offer at least 180 instructional days. Putting a school calendar together often requires careful consideration, as many districts over the years have added holidays such as Lunar New Year, Diwali, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

School officials must also account for snow days, as this year’s harsh winter served as a reminder. Massive snowstorms earlier this year led some officials to close schools for three days or more. Districts that didn’t build in enough emergency days on their calendars scrambled to set up remote learning. Since the pandemic, educators have avoided virtual instruction when they can, as many see it as less effective.

East Williston typically starts early. Gately said doing so gives her district more buffer in case of a severe winter like the past one, in which the district used three snow days.

“We want our students here in person,” she said. “On a snow day, we want them to go out and build a snowman.”

'Every day counts'

Districts like East Williston and Jericho also schedule more instructional time than the required minimum to give students more time in the classroom. East Williston has a total of 184 days, while Jericho has 186. Jericho historically has been the first on the Island to open schools.

“We value instruction and we value our students being here,” Jericho Superintendent Robert Kravitz said. “Every day counts.”

Brentwood, the Island’s largest school district, serving 18,000 students, is among the three to open last, on Sept. 9. The other two are the Floral Park-Bellerose and Sag Harbor districts.

Brentwood Superintendent Wanda Ortiz-Rivera said in a statement that students will have the same number of instructional days as they did last year: “While the first day is later on the calendar, there is no reduction in instructional time or learning opportunities," she said. 

Olivia Connelly, a mother of five children who attend school in the Three Village district, said she prefers school starting before Labor Day rather than the academic year ending later. Three Village is among the 49 districts that will open on Sept. 2.

Connelly said she understood the early start might be annoying to families that planned to spend the Labor Day weekend elsewhere.

“Everybody would love to start after Labor Day,” she said. “For people that usually go away for that last long weekend … I could see them being grumbly.”

As a former teacher, Connelly loves the start of the school year and the promise it holds.

“It's the teacher in me,” she said. “Something about September — new clothes, a new backpack and new sharpened pencils. It's fun. It's so much fun. I'll never not love that time of the year.”

Kravitz said he feels a similar energy ahead of a new school year.

“What's great about education and great about schools is that every year is a new year,” he said. “While you do the same job, it's a new job because it's a new group of students, a new group of people. … Here, everything starts afresh.”

To some students, though, that freshness can feel daunting.

Caleb Boyd, 12, was at a back-to-school shopping event with his family on a recent afternoon at Tanger Outlets in Riverhead. The boy said he was not excited to begin eighth grade at Sagamore Middle School in the Sachem district and would prefer school start a couple of weeks later. Students in Sachem schools return on Sept. 2. 

“Grade eight is too hard,” the boy said before his mother took him and his sister to shop for supplies. 

But Caleb's sister, Brooklyn, 8, said she looked forward to meeting new teachers and friends in third grade.

Jamie Morales and her three boys, ages 3 to 10, were at the same event. Morales said she was nervous about her youngest starting prekindergarten but happy to send her boys back to school in the William Floyd district. The first day there is scheduled for Sept. 3.

“It’s been a long summer,” she said. “I'm tired. They need to go back.”