Each district page on this site starts from the district's own published calendar source—usually a PDF posted on the district website or an official district calendar page. From that source, the site extracts and organizes the dates that change whether students are in school.
This article explains the rules that control which dates appear where. For why the site separates dates into Key Dates, monthly calendar, and official source layers in the first place, see Why Key Dates Are Shorter Than the Full School Calendar.
The Core Rule
The site's default filter is one question: does this calendar item change whether students attend school on a normal weekday?
If the answer is yes, the date goes on the district page. If the answer is no, it stays off. The sections below explain how that rule applies to the calendar items districts actually publish.
What Goes on the Page
First day, last day, and major breaks. Thanksgiving Break, Winter Break, Spring Break, and Fall Break appear in every district page where the source calendar includes them. These are the dates families check first.
Full no-school days. Staff development days, professional learning days, teacher planning days, parent conference days, and student holidays all go on the page when the district source marks them as student no-school dates. The district's label varies. The site's treatment is the same: students are out, so the date appears.
Early release and half-days. These go in the monthly calendar, not in Key Dates. Students attend part of the day, so the item is a pickup problem rather than a full-day closure. The monthly calendar shows the shortened schedule in context with the surrounding week.
Testing windows. STAAR and other assessment windows appear as informational items. They are not treated as school closures because students still attend on testing days.
Conditional makeup and storm days. These go on the page with their conditional label preserved. A date marked "possible bad-weather makeup day" stays conditional until the district confirms activation. It is not displayed as a confirmed student holiday.
What Stays Off the Page
Staff-only workdays where students attend school, pre-planning and post-planning days outside the student year, grading period start and end dates, report card dates, semester markers, internal district deadlines, board meeting dates, and campus-specific events such as open house or picture day stay off the family-facing page. None of these items change whether a student is in class on a given weekday.
How District Labels Get Translated
District calendars use inconsistent labels. One district writes "Paid Holiday." Another writes "Legal Holiday." Both mean Labor Day. The site maps these to recognizable holiday names when the match is clear.
Teacher workdays, staff development days, and professional learning days appear on the page only when the district source marks them as student holidays or no-student days. A staff-only workday during the school year where students still attend does not go on the page.
Connected no-school days get merged into a single break range. If a district lists Winter Break as December 21-31 and also marks January 1 as a holiday and January 4 as a staff development day with no students, the page displays a single connected student no-school window: December 21-January 4. The individual pieces are noted in the detailed calendar view. The merged range gives families the practical answer: "my child is out from this date through this date."
Early release patterns get summarized. A district with early dismissal on the last three days before Winter Break does not need three separate entries in Key Dates. The monthly calendar shows each day. The Key Dates summary may note the pattern: "Early release December 16-18." The rule is not a fixed count. The pattern determines whether summarizing or listing individually is clearer for a family scanning the page.
Conditional makeup days stay conditional. If a district calendar says "Bad Weather Makeup Day" on March 29, the page keeps that label. It does not convert it to a student holiday. Families need to know the date could be either a day off or a class day depending on whether the district needs to recover time.
A Real Example: How One District's Calendar Gets Processed
Katy ISD's 2026-2027 calendar shows how the rules work on a published page. The district's official PDF contains grading periods, report card dates, STAAR testing windows, board meeting dates, campus professional learning days, early dismissal days, and the full holiday and break schedule.
The site page extracts and organizes only the student-facing items:
| What the district source says | How the site handles it | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| First day August 12, last day May 26 | Displayed as-is | Key Dates |
| Thanksgiving Break November 23-27 | Displayed as-is | Key Dates |
| Winter Break December 21-January 4, with early dismissal December 18 | Merged into connected no-school window December 21-January 4; early dismissal listed separately in monthly calendar | Key Dates (break range); monthly calendar (early dismissal) |
| Spring Break March 8-12 | Displayed as-is | Key Dates |
| Campus Professional Learning October 9-13 (no students) | Displayed as full no-school days | Key Dates and monthly calendar |
| Early dismissal December 18 and May 26 | Displayed in monthly calendar; summarized in Key Dates as "Early Dismissal" on those dates | Monthly calendar |
| STAAR testing windows | Noted as informational; not treated as closures | Informational only |
| Grading periods, report card dates, board meetings | Excluded | Not on the page |
The finished page gives a family five things in one place: the major break dates for trip planning, the full no-school weekdays for childcare, the early dismissal dates for pickup scheduling, the connected break ranges so no single-day gap gets missed, and a clear path to the original district PDF when the complete administrative calendar is needed.
Where the Label on Each District Page Comes From
Each district page carries a calendar status label: Official, Draft, or Projected.
The label reflects the site's reading of the district's own source. If the district's calendar PDF uses no tentative language and the calendar has been board-approved, the label is Official. If the district's source says Draft, Tentative, Proposed, or Pending Approval, the label is Draft. If the district has not published any calendar for the target year and the dates are estimated from the district's historical patterns, the label is Projected.
The label tells families how much weight to put on the dates before acting on them. A full explanation of each label, including when labels change and what edge cases look like, is in Official, Draft, or Projected: What Those Labels Mean.
When Sources Conflict
Occasionally a district publishes calendar information in more than one place—a PDF and a webpage, or an amended calendar that replaces an earlier version. The site uses the most recent board-adopted source available. If a district posts a PDF labeled "Amended" with a later date than the original, the amended version controls. If the district's webpage and PDF disagree and no amendment date clarifies which is newer, the site defaults to the PDF, which is typically the more formal district record.
Families who spot a discrepancy between the site page and a district source they are looking at can report it through the site's Sources & Corrections page.