ASD Calendar 2026-27: Winter Break Dec. 21-31, Last Day May 28

The Anchorage School District (ASD) 2026-27 calendar has winter break from Monday, Dec. 21 through Thursday, Dec. 31, 2026, spring break from Monday through Friday, March 15-19, 2027, and a last day of classes on Friday, May 28, 2027, according to the district’s “2026-27 School Year Calendar” PDF (revised 6-24-26, marked “Subject to change”). Classes resume Monday, Jan. 4, 2027. A table of every no-school day, the staggered start by grade, what changed in April 2026 and a printable are below.

Classes began Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026 for grades 1-6 and 9. The calendar the district posted on its calendar page is the one in force: a plan to start a week earlier was dropped in April, as the section on the April change explains. The printable school-year calendar at the bottom of the page puts the year on one sheet.

Anchorage School District breaks at a glance

Return days are our reading of the calendar. The district prints “4 Classes begin” for Jan. 4 only; the other return days are the next weekday it does not list as a no-school day.

Break	District’s dates	Weekdays off	Students return
Thanksgiving	Thu.-Fri., Nov. 26-27, 2026	2	Mon., Nov. 30, 2026
Winter Break, then New Year’s Day	Mon., Dec. 21 to Thu., Dec. 31, 2026; Fri., Jan. 1, 2027	10	Mon., Jan. 4, 2027
Spring Break	Mon.-Fri., March 15-19, 2027	5	Mon., March 22, 2027

Friday, Dec. 18 is a student release grading day that ends the second quarter, and the calendar lists Thursday, Dec. 17 as the last day of classes before it. Counting weekends, students are out from Friday, Dec. 18 through Sunday, Jan. 3, which is 17 days in a row. The December 2026 printable calendar shows the weeks. Other districts list their own dates in our winter break 2026 roundup.

Every Anchorage student no-school day in 2026-27

The district marks these days “Students do not attend school.” Days before Aug. 19 and the two early-release conference windows are covered after the table.

Date	What the district lists
Mon., Sept. 7, 2026	Labor Day
Mon., Oct. 12, 2026	Indigenous Peoples Day
Fri., Oct. 16, 2026	Student release grading day, end of first quarter
Fri., Oct. 30, 2026	Student release professional development (PD) day
Tue., Nov. 3, 2026	Student release PD day (State Election Day)
Wed., Nov. 11, 2026	Veterans’ Day
Thu.-Fri., Nov. 26-27, 2026	Thanksgiving holiday
Fri., Dec. 18, 2026	Student release grading day, end of second quarter
Mon., Dec. 21 to Thu., Dec. 31, 2026	Winter Break
Fri., Jan. 1, 2027	New Year’s Day
Mon., Jan. 18, 2027	Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) holiday
Mon., Feb. 15, 2027	Presidents Day
Fri., Feb. 26, 2027	Student release PD day
Fri., March 12, 2027	Student release grading day, end of third quarter
Mon.-Fri., March 15-19, 2027	Spring Break

Teachers’ first day was Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, with teacher PD days on Aug. 17-18; Aug. 18 was the State Primary Election Day. The calendar does not mark Aug. 17-18 as no-school days for students, who had not started yet. After spring break the calendar lists no further day off: Memorial Day is Monday, May 31, 2027, after the last day for students, and teachers’ last day is Tuesday, June 1. Juneteenth is listed as observed on Friday, June 18, 2027.

Which Anchorage days are early release?

The district lists two sets of parent/teacher conference days with early release.

Dates	What the district lists
Wed.-Thu., Oct. 28-29, 2026	Parent/Teacher conference days, early release
Wed.-Thu., Feb. 24-25, 2027	Conference days, early release (elementary only)

The Feb. 24-25 release applies to elementary schools only, and Friday, Feb. 26 that week is a student release PD day, so elementary students have two short days and then a day off.

When do Anchorage students start school, by grade?

The calendar lists staggered starts, with a footnote that they are for comprehensive and neighborhood schools only.

Group	First day of classes
Grades 1-6 and 9	Wed., Aug. 19, 2026
Grades 7-8 and 10-12	Thu., Aug. 20, 2026
Preschool and Kindergarten	Wed., Aug. 26, 2026

What changed in the Anchorage calendar in April 2026?

In early April 2026 the district moved the first day earlier, to Aug. 13 for some students and Aug. 14 for others, Alaska Public Media and Alaska’s News Source reported. The change added three instructional days. Alaska Public Media quoted the contract as calling for days “to allow for more canceled school days due to weather.” The Anchorage Daily News reported on April 16 that the district was backtracking on the plan to start a week earlier.

On April 21, 2026, Superintendent Dr. Jharrett Bryantt issued ASD Memorandum #160, “Approval of Update to ASD 2026-27 School Calendar.” It said “the changes to the beginning of the 2026-27 school year did not provide sufficient notice to families and community stakeholders” and returned the start dates to those “approved September 2, 2025.” The three new instructional days were not dropped: the memo added “the three (3) new instructional days to the last quarter,” converting the “possible closure makeup” days, and states that “April 19, 2027, is a school day.” Alaska’s News Source reported the board “approved an updated 2026-27 school calendar that returns the first day of school to Aug. 19.”

The fourth quarter shows the effect. The calendar prints day counts of “Q1-40, Q2-39, Q3-46, Q4-50.” Q4 runs through Friday, May 28, and 50 equals the weekdays from Monday, March 22 to May 28, so no day in that stretch is a day off (our arithmetic). Snow closures are a separate question; our snow days 2026-27 story covers how districts make them up.

How many weekdays off does Anchorage have in 2026-27?

Counting every weekday the district marks as a no-school day for students between Aug. 19, 2026 and May 28, 2027, there are 28 weekdays off. Early-release days and the conference windows are school days and are not counted.

Month	Weekdays off
September 2026	1
October 2026	3
November 2026	4
December 2026	10
January 2027	2
February 2027	2
March 2027	6
April 2027	0
May 2027	0
Total	28

There are 203 weekdays from Aug. 19, 2026 to May 28, 2027. Minus 28 leaves 175, which matches the sum of the district’s printed quarter counts (40 + 39 + 46 + 50). The district does not print a student-day total, so 175 is our sum. March has six weekdays off because the Friday, March 12 grading day sits next to Spring Break, so students are out from Friday, March 12 through Friday, March 19. Spring break dates for other districts are in our spring break 2027 roundup, and the March 2027 printable calendar shows the week.

When does the Anchorage 2027-28 school year start?

The district’s 2027-28 calendar (revised 8-4-26) lists teachers’ first day as Aug. 9, 2027 and classes beginning for grades 1-6 and 9 on Aug. 12, 2027. This story does not use other dates from that calendar.

Print the Anchorage School District calendar

The printable shows the first and last day, Winter Break, Spring Break, the holidays, the student release days and the early-release conference days on a 10-month sheet, with space to write in conferences. It uses only the dates in the district’s 2026-27 calendar, which is marked “Subject to change”, so check the district’s calendar page before booking travel.