Denver Public Schools' 2026-27 year runs Monday, August 24, 2026 (K-12; ECE starts Tuesday, August 25) to Friday, June 4, 2027, which is a half day. Students get the whole of Thanksgiving week, two weeks at the turn of the year and the week of March 29 through April 2 off. The days that catch families out are the five stand-alone Planning and Professional Learning Days on ordinary school weeks, three of them Fridays and two Mondays, and a "Conference" day on Monday, October 12.
DPS publishes this calendar as a colour-coded grid rather than a dated list, so below is every shaded or outlined cell inside the school year, read against the district's own key, with the key's wording, then how to get it onto your phone next to the rest of the family's schedule.
Source: DPS School Year Calendar 2026-27 (PDF) and the district's 2026-27 Professional Learning Schedule. Last checked November 9, 2026. The calendar is a one-page colour-coded grid (file dated June 16, 2026) with a seven-line holiday list and a key; it carries no approval or revision date. Most entries below are read from the grid's colour against that key.
Every date below is copied from the district's own published calendar, not estimated. Districts do revise mid-year, so confirm against the source before you book anything around a date.
25 published entries, 21 of them closures or breaks. A single entry can cover a span of days. Labels are the district's wording.
| Date | What the district calls it |
|---|---|
| Aug 17–21, 2026 | Planning and Professional Learning DaysNo school |
| Mon, Aug 24, 2026 | First Day of School (K-12)First / last day |
| Tue, Aug 25, 2026 | First Day of School (ECE)First / last day |
| Mon, Sep 7, 2026 | Labor Day — Holidays / No ClassesNo school |
| Mon, Sep 28, 2026 | Planning and Professional Learning DayNo school |
| Mon, Oct 12, 2026 | Conference |
| Fri, Oct 30, 2026 | Planning and Professional Learning DayNo school |
| Nov 23–25, 2026 | Vacation / No ClassesNo school |
| Thu, Nov 26, 2026 | Thanksgiving Day — Holidays / No ClassesNo school |
| Fri, Nov 27, 2026 | Vacation / No ClassesNo school |
| Dec 21–24, 2026 | Vacation / No ClassesNo school |
| Fri, Dec 25, 2026 | Holidays / No ClassesNo school |
| Dec 28–31, 2026 | Vacation / No ClassesNo school |
| Fri, Jan 1, 2027 | New Year's Day — Holidays / No ClassesNo school |
| Mon, Jan 4, 2027 | Planning and Professional Learning DayNo school |
| Mon, Jan 18, 2027 | Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day — Holidays / No ClassesNo school |
| Mon, Feb 15, 2027 | President's Day — Holidays / No ClassesNo school |
| Fri, Feb 26, 2027 | Planning and Professional Learning DayNo school |
| Mar 29–30, 2027 | Vacation / No ClassesNo school |
| Wed, Mar 31, 2027 | Holidays / No ClassesNo school |
| Apr 1–2, 2027 | Vacation / No ClassesNo school |
| Fri, Apr 30, 2027 | Planning and Professional Learning DayNo school |
| Mon, May 31, 2027 | Memorial Day — Holidays / No ClassesNo school |
| Fri, Jun 4, 2027 | Last Day of School (First half of day, early release; second half of day, planning day)First / last day |
| Fri, Jun 18, 2027 | Juneteenth - June 19 (observed June 18) — Holidays / No ClassesNo school |
The grid colours Monday, September 28, Friday, October 30, Monday, January 4, Friday, February 26 and Friday, April 30 as Planning and Professional Learning Days, and the district's Professional Learning Schedule lists the same five dates with August 17–21 before students arrive ("Professional Learning (PL) Days = 8 a.m. - 4 p.m."). The calendar key does not spell out "no classes" for these days, but its own count does: it states "174.5 Student Contact Days", and the weekdays from August 24 to June 4 minus every shaded cell and the October 12 conference day come to 175, less the half day on June 4. January 4 means students return from the winter stretch on Tuesday, January 5.
Monday, October 12, 2026 is the only cell in the magenta "Conference" colour. The calendar does not say whose conference or what it means for students, and the day is not in the holiday list. It is excluded from the 174.5 student contact days by the arithmetic above, but because the document does not label it a no-class day, this page does not either. Check with your school.
DPS does not print the words "Thanksgiving break", "winter break" or "spring break" anywhere on the calendar. What it shows is: November 23–25 and 27 in the Vacation / No Classes colour around Thanksgiving Day on November 26; December 21–24 and 28–31 as vacation with December 25 and January 1 in the Holiday colour (only January 1, New Year's Day, is in the holiday list); and March 29–30 and April 1–2 as vacation around Wednesday, March 31, which is coloured as a holiday but is not named in the holiday list. All of July 2026, August 3–14, 2026 and June 7–30, 2027 are shaded as vacation too, with July 3, 2026 and June 18, 2027 in the holiday colour.
The key defines Last Day of School as "First half of day, early release; second half of day, planning day", and the Professional Learning Schedule confirms the last day "is an additional half day of teacher/special service provider (SSP) directed planning time". The holiday list's last entry is "Juneteenth - June 19 (observed June 18)", a Friday after the year ends. The document counts 186 Teacher Contact Days against the 174.5 for students.
There are no dismissal times, no quarter or semester end dates on the grid, and no statement about snow days or make-up days. The blue underlines on many dates are "Holiday and Observances", which the calendar says are listed in full on a district page the calendar links to; they are observances, not closures, and the calendar warns that some "are not fixed to a calendar but based on the actual sighting of the moon and therefore there may be some variance by a day". The linked "Term Dates" sheet is for rostering software and deliberately moves term boundaries to "the Saturday after or the Sunday before" the real dates, so it is not used here. The file is the English edition (its title says "_ENGLISH"); this page follows that document.
The quick way: create a free Schedule Caddie account from this page and the 2026-27 calendar above is already on it as your own schedule — the version we verified on November 9, 2026, yours to edit. If Denver revises the calendar later, upload the new version and you see exactly which days changed before approving them.
Doing it yourself, or a different district:
The district publishes this calendar as a document, not a feed you can subscribe to. Schedule Caddie reads that document for you: download the 2026-27 calendar from the district (the source link above), upload it as a PDF, PNG, or JPG up to 10MB, and it pulls out the no-school days, breaks, early releases with their dismissal times, teacher days, and the first and last day of school.
Nothing is saved until you have looked at it. Every day it found shows up as its own row with the date and label, you uncheck what you don't want and fix anything it misread, and only then does it land on your family calendar, color-coded as School so a holiday Monday reads differently from a 4pm practice. Team schedules you have added as calendar links keep refreshing on their own; the school year sits beside them.
Either way it travels like anything else on your Schedule Caddie calendar: subscribe to your Schedule Caddie link in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook and the school days come along.
Add it to my calendarFree account. How the upload and review step work, in detail: school calendars on Schedule Caddie.
The first day of school is Monday, August 24, 2026 for K-12 and Tuesday, August 25, 2026 for ECE (early childhood education). The last day is Friday, June 4, 2027, which the calendar defines as a half day: "First half of day, early release; second half of day, planning day".
Students are out Monday, March 29 through Friday, April 2, 2027. The calendar does not use the words "spring break": it shades March 29–30 and April 1–2 as Vacation / No Classes and colours Wednesday, March 31 as a holiday. Classes resume Monday, April 5.
Thanksgiving: the whole week of Monday, November 23 through Friday, November 27, 2026 is out, with Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, November 26 in the holiday list and the other four days shaded as vacation. Winter: no classes Monday, December 21, 2026 through Friday, January 1, 2027, then Monday, January 4 is a Planning and Professional Learning Day, so students return Tuesday, January 5, 2027.
Only one: the last day of school, Friday, June 4, 2027, is an early release for the first half of the day (the table flags it as the last day rather than an early release). The district calendar shows no other early release or late start days; any that your school runs would be on its own schedule, not this document.
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Denver Public Schools, Colorado. Schedule Caddie is not affiliated with the district; the calendar above is reproduced from its public website for convenience.
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