CPS school calendar 2026–27: the family planning dates
Start with the dates below for childcare, work arrangements and school breaks. A preschool child and a K–12 sibling do not have identical opening and closing dates, so families with children in both programs need to keep both sets of dates on their calendar.
Opening week starts differently for preschool
K–12 students begin Monday, August 24, with a full day of classes. Preschool begins Tuesday, August 25. If both programs are represented in your household, Monday needs a separate plan for the younger child rather than assuming everyone starts together.
The same distinction applies in June: preschool ends June 10, one day before the scheduled K–12 finish. These are program attendance boundaries. Classroom visits, orientation appointments and other school invitations should be checked against the school’s own communications.
Source: CPS announcement confirming K–12 and preschool dates
Thanksgiving gives students the entire week off
Students have no classes Monday through Friday, November 23–27. The first three dates are separate days without students or teachers in school. The named Thanksgiving holiday is November 26–27. Those labels matter when reading the calendar, but families arranging weekday care need to cover the whole five-day stretch.
Classes resume Monday, November 30. Including the surrounding weekends, the student-off window is November 21–29. There is no need to add an absence on November 23, 24 or 25 to make this a full week away from classes; those dates are already off.
Winter return is January 5; spring return is March 29
Winter vacation is December 21–January 1. Monday, January 4 is a professional development day without student classes, so students return Tuesday, January 5. For care arrangements, the winter no-class period therefore includes January 4, even though that date sits outside the named vacation range.
Spring vacation runs March 22–26, followed by the weekend of March 27–28. Classes resume Monday, March 29. April 6 is a separate professional development day and April 12 is a conference day. Neither extends spring vacation: April 5 is a regular student date on this calendar.
Conferences and staff days need their own childcare reminders
November 2, 2026, and April 12, 2027 are parent-teacher conference days without student classes. They also carry the first- and third-quarter report-card arrangements. Schools organize appointment times, so the annual calendar alone is not a conference booking or a guarantee of one meeting format.
November has additional interruptions before Thanksgiving week. November 3 is the General Election holiday observed in lieu of Veterans Day. November 11 is also a no-student day, for professional development. The reasons differ, but both dates need a plan for children who would otherwise be in class.
Other professional development closures include September 25, January 4, January 29, February 23 and April 6. A grading-period endpoint or progress-report date does not, by itself, mean students stay home. Read the attendance entry alongside any academic reporting label.
June 11 is a full day; emergency dates are separate
The scheduled K–12 last day is Friday, June 11, 2027, with a full day of classes, the end of quarter four and final report cards. Preschool ends Thursday, June 10. A family with children in both programs should keep those pickup and care arrangements separate.
The calendar reserves June 15, 16, 17, 21 and 22 for emergency make-up use if needed. These are individual candidate dates, not an activated June 15–22 attendance block. In particular, June 18 is not marked as one of the five emergency dates. Check CPS announcements before assuming any reserved date becomes a school day.
Graduation milestones are not individual ceremony appointments
High school graduations may begin May 28, and elementary graduations may begin June 7. Those are the earliest permitted ceremony dates, rather than one districtwide event. Your school supplies the actual ceremony date, time and arrival instructions; a milestone does not establish that other students have finished their year.
Use the full CPS school calendar linked above for the monthly view, printable PDF and Google/Apple calendar options. Save the preschool dates separately when they apply to your household, and check school notices for conference appointments and graduation arrangements.
Sources and calendar review
This guide uses the district materials reviewed for our calendar record on October 27, 2026. The article publication date is separate from that source review. District notices may change the schedule; check the current downloads before making firm arrangements.
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