Year-round school in Florida is a four-year pilot program created by House Bill 891 in 2023, under which a small number of selected districts rearrange the state’s required 180 instructional days across the full calendar year instead of concentrating them between August and May. The first schools opened on the new calendar in July 2024 in Alachua County, and 2025–2026 is the pilot’s second year.
Which Schools Are on the Year-Round Calendar
Three elementary schools in the Alachua County area are participating. Marjorie K. Rawlings Elementary and Metcalfe Elementary started the year-round calendar in July 2024. P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, a public laboratory school operated by the University of Florida, joined for the 2025–2026 school year.
All three are elementary-level schools, so early data from the pilot will reflect younger students rather than middle or high school populations. Florida has more than 4,000 public schools across 67 districts, so three schools in one county is a small sample by any measure. If your child’s school is not on this list, it is not part of the pilot.
How the Calendar Actually Changes
Year-round schooling does not mean more school. The total stays at 180 instructional days. What changes is the spacing. Instead of a nine-month block followed by a 10- to 12-week summer break, a year-round calendar typically rotates roughly 9-week instructional periods with 2- to 3-week breaks between them, often called intersessions. A summer break still exists, but it is usually four to six weeks rather than the full summer.
Florida’s pilot schools use a single-track model, meaning all students at a school follow the same calendar. A separate approach, the multi-track model, splits students into groups that rotate on and off campus to keep the building in constant use; it is primarily a tool for managing overcrowding and is not what Florida is piloting.
State law had already permitted districts to adopt year-round or other nontraditional calendars “that do not adversely impact annual assessment of student achievement.” HB 891 adds a formal, state-monitored framework with required data collection and reporting on top of that existing authority.
What the Law Requires
HB 891 created Section 1003.07 of the Florida Statutes, the Year-round School Pilot Program.1Florida Senate. House Bill 891 – Year-round School Pilot Program The Commissioner of Education selects participating districts through an application process, districts must meet specified requirements during the pilot, and the commissioner must submit a final report to the Governor and Legislature covering participation data, benefits, barriers to implementation, and whether to expand statewide.2Florida Senate. Florida House of Representatives Staff Analysis – HB 891 Year-round School Pilot Program
The State Board of Education may adopt rules governing the program, and the Department of Education assists participating districts in setting up their calendars. Participating districts still have to hit the same 180 actual teaching days (or hourly equivalent) that every Florida public school is required to deliver under the state funding formula.3Online Sunshine. Florida Code 1011.60 – Minimum Requirements of the Florida Education Finance Program
What It Means for Families
The biggest practical issue for most families is childcare during intersession breaks. Traditional summer camps and programs are built around a June-through-August schedule, so when breaks are scattered through the year in two- or three-week blocks, families need to find care for periods that do not line up with most available programming. Intersession childcare exists in some communities, but it is not universal, and school-age care programs can run over $1,000 per month in some areas.
Working parents who have arranged schedules around a traditional school calendar may need to renegotiate with employers. Families with children in different schools face a particular headache if one child is on a year-round calendar and another is on a traditional one. These are real logistical burdens, and whether a district helps families plan around them makes a meaningful difference in how the transition goes.
What It Means for Teachers
Florida law explicitly provides that collective bargaining cannot prevent a district school board from setting the school district’s calendar.4Online Sunshine. Florida Code 1012.22 – District School Board Members, Officers, and Employees – Powers and Duties A district can shift when instruction happens without renegotiating that question through bargaining.
The practical effects on teachers’ lives are still significant. A year-round schedule eliminates the long summer that many teachers use for second jobs, graduate coursework, or extended professional development. The total number of workdays may be the same, but the distribution changes vacation planning and childcare for teachers’ own children. Districts that make the switch without engaging their teaching staff tend to see morale and retention problems.
Special Education Rights Do Not Change
If your child has an IEP, the calendar change does not reduce the district’s federal obligations. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, districts must make extended school year services available when a child’s IEP team determines they are necessary to provide a free appropriate public education. A district cannot limit those services to certain disability categories or cap the type, amount, or duration of services offered.5Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Sec 300.106 Extended School Year Services
Shorter breaks on a year-round calendar may reduce regression risk for some students and change what an IEP team concludes about extended school year needs. But that is still an individual determination for each child. A district cannot assume the calendar eliminates the need or point to the year-round schedule as a reason to deny services the IEP team has identified as necessary.5Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Sec 300.106 Extended School Year Services Related services like speech therapy, occupational therapy, and counseling also need to continue on a schedule that aligns with the modified calendar.
How It Gets Paid For
Florida’s Education Finance Program does not provide extra per-pupil funding for year-round operations. Each student’s funding is capped at 1.0 full-time equivalent during the 180-day school year regardless of how those days are distributed.6Florida Department of Education. Funding for Florida School Districts
Courses offered beyond the regular 180-day term, including intersession programming, do not generate state funding at all. Districts report intersession FTE for statistical purposes, but it produces no revenue through the state formula.6Florida Department of Education. Funding for Florida School Districts Any enrichment, remediation, or childcare programs offered during intersession breaks have to come from district budgets, federal grants, or community partnerships.
Running a building year-round also costs more. Utility bills rise, maintenance windows shrink because the building never sits empty for long, and cafeteria and transportation services have to operate on a different schedule. HB 891 does not appear to include a dedicated appropriation for these costs. Pilot districts absorb them within existing budgets. For three schools, that is manageable; for a statewide expansion, it would be a serious barrier.
Does Year-Round School Actually Improve Outcomes
The honest answer is that the research is mixed. The most comprehensive meta-analysis, covering 39 studies, found an overall effect size of just 0.06, which is statistically significant but practically very small. Single-track year-round schools, the model Florida is using, showed a modest positive effect of 0.19, while multi-track schools showed essentially no difference from traditional calendars.
The benefits that do appear tend to concentrate among students who need them most. A Virginia study found that Black and Hispanic students in year-round schools had greater gains on state tests than peers on traditional calendars, while the general student population showed no significant difference. A North Carolina study found small positive effects for the lowest-performing students, with smaller changes for higher achievers.
Researchers also flag a confounding factor: many single-track year-round schools offer tutoring, enrichment, or remediation during intersessions, and it is hard to separate the calendar effect from the intersession effect. A South Carolina case study found improved test scores after adopting year-round schooling, but researchers noted that smaller class sizes may have driven the improvement rather than the calendar itself.
What Happens When the Pilot Ends
The pilot runs for four school years from its launch. At the end, the Commissioner of Education must submit a report to the Governor and Legislature covering participation, measured benefits, barriers districts encountered, and recommendations on statewide adoption.2Florida Senate. Florida House of Representatives Staff Analysis – HB 891 Year-round School Pilot Program
That report will carry weight, but the pilot’s size limits what it can conclude. Three elementary schools in one region will not reveal much about how year-round scheduling would work in urban districts with overcrowding, rural districts with long bus routes, or high schools where athletics and college admissions timelines create additional pressures.
For families currently in a pilot school, the practical question is whether the year-round calendar continues after the pilot period expires. That depends on how the legislature responds to the commissioner’s report and whether the individual districts choose to continue under the existing statutory authority that already allows nontraditional calendars.