Schoolchildren across the Commonwealth could be starting the school year earlier quite soon as a bill has been signed into law that would allow school divisions to decide to convene classes before Labor Day. The law does away with the colloquially known “Kings Dominion Law” that was implemented to boost late-summer tourism.
Passed in the late 1980s, the Kings Dominion Law required Virginia school districts to begin classes after Labor Day unless they applied for a waiver through the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE).
Some of the “good cause” requirements to be able to open school doors before Labor Day included:
- Being closed an average of eight days per year during any five of the last 10 years because of severe weather conditions, energy shortages, power failures, or other emergency situations.
- Being entirely surrounded by a school division with a pre-Labor Day opening.
- Providing instructional programs in partnership with another school division that already qualifies for a waiver.
- Providing students with an experimental or innovative program – including instructional programs offered on a year-round basis – that requires an earlier opening date and has been approved by pre-determined regulations.
The VDOE states that a majority of school districts already obtain waivers, with 65 percent of students during the 2017-2018 school year starting classes before Labor Day.
In fact, almost every school division beginning school after the late-summer holiday is located west of Interstate 95.
The original purpose of the law was to help Virginia’s tourism industry. If school starts after Labor Day, amusement parks like Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion, from where the law draws its colloquial designation, would in theory, have more days to attract park guests and a have a larger pool of high school-aged employees available to work.
Nevertheless, that law has now been stricken from the record in favor of schools beginning earlier, but no more than 14 days before Labor Day.
H.B. 1652, introduced by Delegate Roxann Robinson (R-Chesterfield), states that the Virginia Board of Education could waive the requirement for school to begin no more than 14 days earlier than Labor Day for good cause. The bill provides that in each school division in which the school board sets the school calendar so that the first day students are required to attend school is before Labor Day, such school board shall close each school in the school division from the Friday immediately preceding Labor Day through Labor Day.
The new law has an enactment date of July 1, 2019, so school systems could change start dates for next school year, but most localities have already approved calendars for the 2019-2020 school year.