As summer break drew to a close and Tarrant County public school students returned to classrooms, some parents — and certainly many children — were left wondering what happened to the “good old days” when the academic year began closer to Labor Day, if not after.
Around here, the Fort Worth school district was the first to commence classes, on Aug. 10, and others were right behind, most starting Aug. 12.
To illustrate how times have changed, a 2001 Houston Chronicle report said the average start date for Texas schools in 1990 was Aug. 27.
Bus driver Kenneth Meeks drops off students at W.M. Green Elementary School during the first day of school on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, in Fort Worth. Amanda McCoy FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
Perhaps it was the heat, the way the calendar fell or the ease of complaining online, but this year, it seems that plenty of people have had enough. At least one lawmaker says it’s time for a change, vowing to seek a new law to restrict the school year to between Labor Day and Memorial Day.
Starting in August is “one of the dumbest things we do,” said state Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco. Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare even weighed in with a social media post advocating for a later start date.
I’ve seen quite a bit of chatter that we are starting school too early. I could not agree more. It is time to move the start of school to September. Let the kids enjoy the summer! You only get to be a kid for a short time.
— Tim O’Hare (@TimothyOHare) August 11, 2026
Texas state law already says public schools can’t begin the academic year before the fourth Monday in August. But there are exceptions. So-called districts of innovation, a designation that the Legislature created in 2015, have more local control over such matters to stimulate more creative approaches to learning.
About 80% of Texas school districts qualify for the tag. Fort Worth is one, and its innovation plan explicitly calls for an earlier start date “that best meets the needs of FWISD and its students, staff and community in furthering the educational program.”
Pamela McPeters, director of governmental relations for the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, said nearly 1,000 Texas school districts — out of about 1,200 total — used the district of innovation exemption this year to begin classes earlier than late August.
In fact, McPeters said, an early start date is the most popular “innovation” Texas districts roll out.
The same year the Legislature approved the district of innovation model, it made another change relevant to school calendars. Previously, districts were held to a minimum of 180 instructional days per year, but that requirement was adjusted to a minimum of 75,600 instructional minutes a year. A spokesperson for the Texas Association of School Boards said that offered school districts even more scheduling flexibility.
McPeters said the teacher group doesn’t have a position on school start and end dates. Texas public school teachers are contractually obligated to work 187 days a year, and changes to start dates don’t change that, although for some teachers it means returning to work as early as July for training, planning and classroom preparation.
Texas lawmaker wants to push back school start dates
Patterson tentatively plans to call his bill next year the “Save our Summers Act.” He said Texas students suffer as a result of starting school during the hottest month of the year. He mentioned band members and football players who have to practice under the oppressive August sun, as well as younger kids who don’t have a chance to “get the wiggles out” when temperatures are at their highest.
“For elementary-age kids, they can’t even go out and have recess because it’s unsafe,” he said.
The Labor Day-to-Memorial Day schedule would also ease the summertime strain on the electric grid because schools wouldn’t have to crank up their air conditioners for as long to keep hundreds of students and teachers cool, Patterson argued.
From an economic standpoint, he believes extending summer break into September would benefit the state’s amusement parks and tourist attractions. He said he drove past Arlington’s Hurricane Harbor on Thursday, for instance, and saw it was closed.
“That’s a lot of money not being spent where kids could go out and enjoy themselves,” Patterson said.
The debate over school schedules
One group who may not be on board with Patterson’s idea is football coaches. Moving the school schedule would likely mean moving the first week of high school football games to later in September. That would push the season deeper into November, with state championship games taking place close to Christmas. And there are other reasons some will probably balk at starting school after Labor Day.
The prevailing idea is that summer break is a holdover from days when children were needed to help out on farms in rural communities. But a 2014 PBS report said the concept of summer break was more accurately traced back to a time before air conditioning. It just made sense to give students and teachers a vacation when school buildings were often unbearably hot.
Today, thanks in part to central air conditioning, there’s a growing argument to keep students in school longer to combat academic regression, as research has shown time off negatively impacts student performance.
Another argument favors sacrificing the long summer break for more frequent shorter breaks staggered throughout the school year.
Fort Worth’s district of innovation plan justifies an earlier start date by saying such mid-year “strategic breaks” contribute to student and staff well-being. The Fort Worth plan also says a later start date would result in a later end date, which would affect summer school schedules and students looking for summer jobs.
Patterson said summertime learning loss is a valid worry, but his proposal doesn’t call for a longer summer or fewer hours in the classroom. Nothing in his proposed bill, he said, would change the minimum instructional time requirement; it would simply shift the calendar a bit and perhaps shorten mid-year breaks.
Instead of getting the entire week off for Thanksgiving, students could go back to just getting Thursday and Friday off, for example.
It’s an ongoing discussion, but Patterson said he’s already heard words of support from other state lawmakers, including those who often disagree with his policy stances.
“This is one of those common sense things,” Patterson said.
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Matt Adams is a news reporter covering Fort Worth, Tarrant County and surrounding areas. He previously wrote about aviation and travel and enjoys a good weekend road trip. Matt joined the Star-Telegram in January 2025.