Plano ISD's 2026-27 year runs Tuesday, August 11, 2026 to Friday, May 21, 2027 — 171 instructional days by the district's own count, with an early release on the last day. The three big breaks are the whole of Thanksgiving week, December 21 through January 1 (students return January 5) and March 15–19. The week that surprises people is October 12–16: five straight days with no students, three of them a holiday and two of them staff days.
Below is the district's Important Dates list, every line, with Plano ISD's own wording kept intact and the grading periods from its 171-day table — then how to get it onto your phone next to the team schedules.
Source: Plano ISD 2026-2027 Academic Calendar (PDF) and the district's text version of the same calendar, dated April 20, 2026. Last checked November 9, 2026. The graphic calendar is marked "CALENDAR SUBJECT TO CHANGE" and its file was last modified July 23, 2026; the text version is dated April 20, 2026. Both are the district-wide calendar for all grade levels.
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, 15 of them closures or breaks and 1 flagged early release. A single entry can cover a span of days. Labels are the district's wording.
| Date | What the district calls it |
|---|---|
| Jul 28–31, 2026 | New Teacher Professional Learning |
| Aug 4–7 and 10, 2026 | Staff Days |
| Tue, Aug 11, 2026 | First Day of School; start of 1st grading periodFirst / last day |
| Mon, Sep 7, 2026 | Labor Day HolidayNo school |
| Fri, Oct 9, 2026 | End of 1st grading period (43 days) |
| Oct 12–14, 2026 | Student/Teacher HolidayNo school |
| Thu, Oct 15, 2026 | Staff Day/Student Holiday (text calendar: "Student Holiday | Staff Development | Work Day")No school |
| Fri, Oct 16, 2026 | Campus PLC Day/Student Holiday (text calendar: "Student Holiday | Staff Development | Work Day")No school |
| Mon, Oct 19, 2026 | Start of 2nd grading period |
| Tue, Nov 3, 2026 | Staff Day/Student HolidayNo school |
| Nov 23–24, 2026 | Professional Learning Trade Days (students out; the text calendar lists Nov 23–27 as "Thanksgiving Break (Student and Teacher Holiday)")No school |
| Nov 25–27, 2026 | Thanksgiving BreakNo school |
| Fri, Dec 18, 2026 | Student Early Release; end of 2nd grading period (39 days) and of the first semesterEarly release |
| Dec 21, 2026 – Jan 1, 2027 | Winter BreakNo school |
| Mon, Jan 4, 2027 | Staff Day/Student HolidayNo school |
| Tue, Jan 5, 2027 | 2nd Semester Begins; start of 3rd grading period |
| Mon, Jan 18, 2027 | MLK Day HolidayNo school |
| Mon, Feb 15, 2027 | Staff Day/Student Holiday (text calendar: "Student Holiday | Staff Development | Work Day")No school |
| Tue, Feb 16, 2027 | Campus PLC Day/Student Holiday (text calendar: "Student Holiday | Staff Development | Work Day")No school |
| Fri, Mar 12, 2027 | End of 3rd grading period (46 days) |
| Mar 15–19, 2027 | Spring BreakNo school |
| Mon, Mar 22, 2027 | Start of 4th grading period |
| Fri, Mar 26, 2027 | Student/Teacher HolidayNo school |
| Mon, Mar 29, 2027 | Staff Day/Student HolidayNo school |
| Fri, May 21, 2027 | Student Early Release/Last Day of School; end of 4th grading period (43 days)First / last day |
The district's Calendar page links a graphic "2026-2027 Academic Calendar" (file modified July 23, 2026) and a text version dated April 20, 2026. Every student-facing date is the same in both. The wording differs on three pairs of days: the graphic calls October 15 and February 15 "Staff Day/Student Holiday" and October 16 and February 16 "Campus PLC Day/Student Holiday", where the text lists each pair as "Student Holiday | Staff Development | Work Day"; and the graphic marks November 23–24 "Professional Learning Trade Days" ahead of a November 25–27 "Thanksgiving Break", where the text simply lists November 23–27 as "Thanksgiving Break (Student and Teacher Holiday)". Either way, students are out those days.
The graphic calendar footnotes its "Staff Day/Student Holiday*" entries: "*May include professional learning, parent conference or individual work time." Students are out on all of them — October 15, November 3, January 4, February 15 and March 29 — plus the two "Campus PLC Day/Student Holiday" days on October 16 and February 16. Put together with the October 12–14 "Student/Teacher Holiday", students have no school from Monday, October 12 through Friday, October 16, and the second grading period starts Monday, October 19.
The calendar prints two "Student Early Release" days: Friday, December 18, 2026, the last day of the first semester, and Friday, May 21, 2027, the last day of school. The text version gives the dismissal times: "EARLY RELEASE at 12 noon for Elementary and 11:55 AM for Early Childhood Schools: Beaty, Isaacs, Pearson and Head Start", and exam dismissal of 1:10 PM for high and senior high schools, 1:30 PM for Academy High School and 12:40 PM for middle schools "ON THE LAST DAY OF EXAMS ONLY". Regular hours are also printed there: elementary 7:40 AM – 3:00 PM, middle 8:25 AM – 3:45 PM, high and senior high 9:05 AM – 4:30 PM.
The district's table: August 11 – October 9 (43 days), October 19 – December 18 (39), January 5 – March 12 (46) and March 22 – May 21 (43) — 82 days in the first semester and 89 in the second. The second semester begins Tuesday, January 5, the day after the January 4 staff day.
The graphic calendar says "CALENDAR SUBJECT TO CHANGE" and names no bad-weather make-up day; neither version does. The grid shades July 6, 2026 and May 31 and June 18, 2027 as "Non-Academic Year Holiday" without naming them, so they are not in the table above. The text version lists graduation dates as "TBD". The "♦ Faith Acknowledgements" diamonds on the grid mark observances, not school-day changes.
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 Plano ISD 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 Tuesday, August 11, 2026 and the last day is Friday, May 21, 2027, which is also a student early release. Staff days run August 4–7 and 10 before students arrive, and new teachers start July 28–31.
Monday, March 15 through Friday, March 19, 2027. Students return Monday, March 22, the start of the fourth grading period. The following Friday, March 26, is a Student/Teacher Holiday and Monday, March 29 is a Staff Day/Student Holiday, so that is a four-day weekend the week after the break.
Students are out the whole of Thanksgiving week, Monday, November 23 through Friday, November 27, 2026 — the graphic calendar labels the 23rd and 24th "Professional Learning Trade Days" and the 25th–27th "Thanksgiving Break"; the text version lists all five as "Thanksgiving Break (Student and Teacher Holiday)". Winter Break runs December 21, 2026 through January 1, 2027, followed by a Staff Day/Student Holiday on Monday, January 4; classes resume Tuesday, January 5 for the second semester.
Two: Friday, December 18, 2026 (last day of the first semester) and Friday, May 21, 2027 (last day of school). The text version of the calendar gives elementary dismissal as 12 noon and early childhood schools as 11:55 AM on those days, with secondary exam dismissal times of 1:10 PM (high and senior high), 1:30 PM (Academy High School) and 12:40 PM (middle schools) on the last day of exams only.
October 12–14 is a Student/Teacher Holiday, October 15 is a Staff Day/Student Holiday and October 16 is a Campus PLC Day/Student Holiday, so there are no classes Monday through Friday. The first grading period ends the Friday before, October 9, and the second begins Monday, October 19.
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Plano Independent School District, Texas. Schedule Caddie is not affiliated with the district; the calendar above is reproduced from its public website for convenience.
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