Gwinnett starts in the first week of August and is done before Memorial Day: the first day of school is Wednesday, August 5, 2026 and the last day is Wednesday, May 26, 2027, 180 days with a full week off in October, a Friday-to-Tuesday break in February, and three planned Digital Learning Days when students learn from home. What catches parents are the half-days: two conference early releases in October and two in March for grades K-8 only, and three exam early releases in December plus three more in May for high school only.
Below is the whole year as the district published it in its approved calendar, every row, with the district's own wording and semester day counts kept intact — then how to get it onto your phone next to the team schedules.
Source: GCPS Approved 2026-27 School Year Calendar (PDF) and the 2026-27 Student Grid Calendar (PDF). Last checked November 6, 2026. The approved calendar is the one linked from gcpsk12.org/about-us/calendar (also published in Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese); the student grid calendar is dated May 2026, and the two agree on every date listed here. The calendar covers all GCPS schools; it says nothing about charter or private schools.
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.
26 published entries, 11 of them closures or breaks and 4 flagged early release. A single entry can cover a span of days. Labels are the district's wording.
| Date | What the district calls it |
|---|---|
| Fri, Jul 3, 2026 | Independence Day Observation (Systemwide Holiday)No school |
| Tue, Jul 21, 2026 | Administrative Staff Meeting |
| Jul 27–31, 2026 | Required Pre-planning/Staff Development [#1-5] |
| Aug 3–4, 2026 | Required Pre-planning/Staff Development [#6-7] |
| Wed, Aug 5, 2026 | First Day of SchoolFirst / last day |
| Mon, Sep 7, 2026 | Labor Day (Systemwide Holiday)No school |
| Fri, Sep 18, 2026 | Digital Learning Day #1Remote |
| Oct 12–16, 2026 | Fall Break (School Holidays)No school |
| Oct 28–29, 2026 | Early Release Elementary and Middle SchoolEarly release |
| Tue, Nov 3, 2026 | Digital Learning Day #2 (Election Day)Remote |
| Nov 23–27, 2026 | Thanksgiving Break (School Holidays)No school |
| Dec 16–18, 2026 | Early Release for High School ExamsEarly release |
| Fri, Dec 18, 2026 | End 1st Semester [Day 87] |
| Dec 21–31, 2026 | Winter Break (School Holidays)No school |
| Fri, Jan 1, 2027 | Winter Break (School Holidays)No school |
| Mon, Jan 4, 2027 | Teacher Planning/Staff Development [#8] (Student Holiday)No school |
| Tue, Jan 5, 2027 | Begin 2nd Semester [Day 88] |
| Mon, Jan 18, 2027 | MLK Jr. Day (Systemwide Holiday)No school |
| Feb 12–16, 2027 | Student/Teacher Holidays (School Holidays)No school |
| Mar 3–4, 2027 | Early Release Elementary and Middle SchoolEarly release |
| Fri, Mar 19, 2027 | Digital Learning Day #3Remote |
| Apr 5–9, 2027 | Spring Break (School Holidays)No school |
| May 24–26, 2027 | Early Release for High School ExamsEarly release |
| Wed, May 26, 2027 | Last Day of School [Day 180]First / last day |
| May 27–28, 2027 | Teacher Post-planning/Staff Development [#9-10] |
| Mon, May 31, 2027 | Memorial Day (Systemwide Holiday)No school |
September 18, November 3 and March 19 are Digital Learning Days #1, #2 and #3. The student calendar's legend defines them as "Planned Digital Learning Days (all students learn at home)" and adds: "Students should plan ahead to ensure they have their district-issued devices at home for planned DLDs." November 3 is also Election Day on the student calendar.
October 28–29 and March 3–4 are "Early Release Elementary and Middle School" on the approved calendar; the student calendar calls them "Early release grades K–8 for parent-teacher conferences" and its legend says "School releases 2½ hours early". December 16–18 and May 24–26 are "Early Release for High School Exams" — grades 9–12 only, and the district does not print a dismissal time for those. A family with one child in middle school and one in high school has early releases on ten days — four for K–8 and six for high school — never the same ones.
The approved calendar lists Winter Break as December 21–31 plus January 1, then Monday, January 4 as "Teacher Planning/Staff Development [#8] (Student Holiday)", with the second semester beginning Tuesday, January 5. The student calendar simply prints "Dec. 21–Jan. 4 Winter Break" — same thing from a student's side. The first semester ends Friday, December 18 at day 87; January 5 is day 88.
The approved calendar's note reads: "GCPS will make up any inclement weather days by using Digital Learning Days, and/or extending the school day or year." The student calendar adds that if bad weather cancels school or dismisses early, announcements go out on GCPS TV, gcpsk12.org, district social media, ParentSquare and metro-Atlanta television, and that "Unscheduled DLDs and full-day cancellations usually are announced by 6 a.m."
February 12–16, 2027 is listed as "Student/Teacher Holidays (School Holidays)", Friday through Tuesday. Fall Break (October 12–16), Thanksgiving (November 23–27) and Spring Break (April 5–9) are each a full Monday-to-Friday week. Wednesday, November 11, 2026 does not appear on the calendar at all, so it is a regular school day.
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 6, 2026, yours to edit. If Gwinnett County 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 Wednesday, August 5, 2026. The first semester ends Friday, December 18 (day 87), the second semester begins Tuesday, January 5, 2027 (day 88), and the last day of school is Wednesday, May 26, 2027 (day 180). Teacher post-planning follows on May 27–28.
Monday, October 12 through Friday, October 16, 2026, listed as Fall Break (School Holidays). The other breaks are Thanksgiving (November 23–27), Winter Break (December 21 through January 1, with January 4 a student holiday), the February holidays (Friday, February 12 through Tuesday, February 16, 2027) and Spring Break (April 5–9, 2027).
No. On the three planned Digital Learning Days — September 18, November 3 and March 19 — "all students learn at home", per the student calendar, and students are expected to have their district-issued devices at home. GCPS also uses Digital Learning Days to make up inclement weather days.
For grades K–8: October 28–29, 2026 and March 3–4, 2027, parent-teacher conference days on which school releases 2½ hours early. For high school (grades 9–12): December 16–18, 2026 and May 24–26, 2027, early release for exams; the district calendar does not print a dismissal time for those, so check with the school.
Every kid, every schedule, every app — merged, color-coded, and watched for changes.
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Gwinnett County Public Schools, Georgia. Schedule Caddie is not affiliated with the district; the calendar above is reproduced from its public website for convenience.
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