Wichita Public Schools Calendar 2026-27: Fall Recess Nov. 24-27 and Last Day May 25

Wichita Public Schools, Unified School District (USD) 259, has no school Nov. 23-27, 2026, Dec. 21 to Jan. 4 and March 15-19, 2027, by the district’s “School Year Calendar 2026-2027” PDF, which carries the footer “Revised May 13, 2026”. The last day of school is Tuesday, May 25, 2027. The first day was Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, so the fall recess is the next long stretch off. The footer adds that the calendar “may be changed at the discretion of the Board of Education and/or the Administration.”

The PDF is an image, so we read its dates by eye and checked them against the district’s calendar page. We found no Board of Education vote date for 2026-27 on either. The calendar page does say the 2027-28 school year calendar was approved by the Board of Education on February 2, 2026.

Which days have no school in Wichita in 2026-27?

Every day or range the district lists with no school for students, in order. The weekday is computed from the date; the label is the district’s own.

Date	Weekday	District label
Sept. 7, 2026	Monday	Labor Day Holiday
Oct. 15, 2026	Thursday	No School (Conferences)
Oct. 16, 2026	Friday	Nonteaching Duty Day; End of First Grading Period
Nov. 23, 2026	Monday	Conference Release Day
Nov. 24-27, 2026	Tuesday-Friday	Fall Recess
Dec. 18, 2026	Friday	Nonteaching Duty Day; End of Semester
Dec. 21, 2026 to Jan. 4, 2027	Monday-Monday	Student Winter Recess (Jan. 4 is also a District Inservice Day)
Jan. 18, 2027	Monday	Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Observed
Feb. 15, 2027	Monday	District Inservice Day
March 11, 2027	Thursday	No School (Conferences)
March 12, 2027	Friday	Nonteaching Duty Day; End of Third Grading Period
March 15-19, 2027	Monday-Friday	Spring Recess

Four more dates carry a label that appears above: Sept. 8, Nov. 3 and April 19 are District Inservice Days, and April 16 is a Conference Release Day. We did not confirm from the district whether students are out on those days, so they are not in the table or on the printable. After the last day, the calendar lists Wednesday, May 26 as a Nonteaching Duty Day and Monday, May 31 as the Memorial Day Holiday. The calendar does not list Veterans Day, Good Friday, early-release days or a February break.

When is fall recess for USD 259, and does it cover Thanksgiving?

The district does not use the words Thanksgiving break. It lists Fall Recess on Tuesday-Friday, Nov. 24-27, 2026, and Conference Release Day on Monday, Nov. 23, so students are off Nov. 23-27 in total. Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, Nov. 26, inside the recess. For other districts’ dates around the holiday, see our winter break 2026 roundup and the Tulsa Public Schools calendar.

When is Wichita Public Schools winter recess in 2026-27?

Student Winter Recess runs Monday, Dec. 21, 2026 to Monday, Jan. 4, 2027. Before it, Friday, Dec. 18 is a Nonteaching Duty Day that also ends the semester, after High School Finals on Dec. 16-17. Monday, Jan. 4 is a District Inservice Day, and students return Tuesday, Jan. 5 for the second semester.

By our count from those dates, students are out 18 days in a row, from Friday, Dec. 18 through Monday, Jan. 4. A separate line in the PDF reads “Winter Recess … Dec 24-Jan 1” with no audience stated, so we do not interpret it.

When is USD 259 spring break in 2027?

Spring Recess is Monday-Friday, March 15-19, 2027. It follows parent-teacher conferences on March 9-11, when Thursday, March 11 has no school, and a Nonteaching Duty Day on Friday, March 12 that ends the third grading period. Counting those listed days, students are off from Thursday, March 11 through Friday, March 19, which is 11 days in a row with the weekends (our reading). The fourth grading period starts March 22. For other districts’ spring weeks, see our spring break 2027 roundup.

What long weekends does the Wichita calendar create?

Conference and nonteaching days stack up with weekends. By our count from the district’s dates:

Stretch	Days in a row without students	Back in class
Thu., Oct. 15 to Sun., Oct. 18, 2026	4	Mon., Oct. 19
Sat., Nov. 21 to Sun., Nov. 29, 2026	9	Mon., Nov. 30 (our reading)
Fri., Dec. 18, 2026 to Mon., Jan. 4, 2027	18	Tue., Jan. 5
Thu., March 11 to Sun., March 21, 2027	11	Mon., March 22

The calendar prints a return date only for winter recess. The other three come from reading the table, which lists no closure on those Mondays.

What are the Wichita Public Schools grading periods and contact days?

The district lists four grading periods with contact days:

Grading period	Dates	Contact days
First	Aug. 13 to Oct. 15, 2026	43
Second	Oct. 19 to Dec. 17, 2026	38
Third	Jan. 5 to March 11, 2027	46
Fourth	March 22 to May 25, 2027	45

The four figures add up to 172 contact days, our sum of the district’s numbers. The district lists High School Finals on Dec. 16-17 and on May 24-25, and New Student Orientation for grades 6-12 on Aug. 12. It lists no staggered start.

When does the Wichita school year start and end?

Students start Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, and the last day of school is Tuesday, May 25, 2027. Print the printable school-year calendar 2026-27 page or the November 2026 printable calendar, and use the sheet attached to this story to mark each recess.