Professional development day

What It Means

A professional development day, often shortened to PD day, is a school day when teachers and staff work on training and planning instead of teaching classes. On many district calendars it's marked as no school for students, as Chicago Public SchoolsPublic schoolA school run by publicly elected or appointed officials and paid for mainly with public money, including district, charter and magnet schools. See more does. Districts name and use these days differently: Fairfax County separates teacher workdays from staff development days, and New York City has held professional development days on which only some grades stay home.

How Parents Say It

• "No school Friday, it's a PD day."
• "The kids are off but the teachers are in for training."
• "Is Monday a teacher workday or a holiday?"

The Breakdown

How districts handle them, by example

Source: each district's own calendar. Your district may use different names and rules.

By grade. As the New York City example shows, a PD day can close some grades and not others, so check the calendar for your child's school level, not only the district headline.

What teachers do. Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the Department of Education's 2016 guidance describes professional development as sustained rather than stand-alone one-day workshops, and as intensive, collaborative, job-embedded, data-driven and classroom-focused.

When to ask the school. If a PD day isn't clear on the calendar, or you're unsure whether your child's grade attends, call the school office a week ahead.

Good to Know

Download your district's calendar at the start of the year and mark every no-school day at once, since PD days, holidays and conference days can cluster. District calendars can change during the year, so recheck before booking care. If your child attends an after-school or aftercare program, ask whether it runs on PD days and what hours it keeps.

Related Terms and Categories

• After-school program

  Supervised care and activities for school-age children in the hours after the school day ends, often with homework help, enrichment, sports or clubs.

• School supply list

  The list of supplies a teacher or school asks each student to bring for the year, such as notebooks, pencils, folders and art materials.

• Back-to-school prep

  The jobs a family does in the weeks before school starts, from checkups and forms to supplies, a budget and shifting bedtime earlier.

• Chronic absenteeism

  Missing so much school that it puts learning at risk, measured by the U.S. Department of Education as 10% or more of school days, excused or unexcused.

School and education for parents