Do schools close on federal holidays? What bus contractors should check

Do schools close on federal holidays? Not always. A federal holiday closes banks and federal offices; a school follows its own calendar, set by its district or school board within the state's rules. Many districts close on most federal holidays, but some stay open on some of them — Columbus Day and Veterans Day are the usual examples. For a school-bus contractor that difference isn't trivia: it decides which days you bill, which days drivers work, and when payroll lands.

Bank holidays vs school holidays

There are eleven federal (bank) holidays: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. When one falls on a Saturday it's observed on the Friday before; on a Sunday, the Monday after.

School holidays are whatever the district's calendar says: breaks, teacher training days, snow days and emergency closures, and other days the district chooses to close. Some match the federal list, some don't, and private and parochial schools often keep calendars of their own — even when they're in the same town as a public district you serve.

Do schools close on federal holidays in 2026–27? What to check

The free US bank holidays page lists every federal holiday for this year and next with the day it's observed, worked out from the calendar rules — keep it next to your school calendars.

Do school buses run on Columbus Day?

Only where the schools you serve are open. If you serve two districts, you may run one district's routes and park the other's on the same Monday. A route that drops at a public school and a private school can run for one and not the other. The rule is simple: check each school's calendar, not the federal list — and do it before the school year starts, not on the Friday before.

Why it matters for billing

Most contracts pay a daily rate per route for each school day. Every holiday the school is closed comes off the invoice; every holiday it stays open has to be billed. Get it wrong one way and you underbill; the other way and the district sends the invoice back.

An example from our district invoice template: October 2026 has 22 weekdays. Take off Columbus Day and a route has 21 school days. If that school stays open on Columbus Day, it's 22 — at an example rate of $425 a day, that's $425 per route you'd otherwise miss. The template comes with this school year's federal holidays filled in as closed days; delete one from a school's closed days if that school stays open. It's free, with no sign-up.

Why it matters for pay and the office

• Driver pay — decide (and write in your handbook) whether a holiday the school is closed is paid, unpaid or a day drivers can use time off for.
• Payroll — banks are closed on federal holidays, so direct deposits and ACH payments usually don't move that day. Run payroll a day early when payday falls on one.
• District payments — a check or ACH payment from a district can arrive a day later around a holiday.
• Time off — a holiday inside a week of vacation usually shouldn't count as a vacation day.
• Vendors and the shop — parts suppliers and inspection stations may be closed even when your buses run.

A simple yearly routine

1. 1Collect every school's calendar before the first day of school — public, private and charter.
2. 2Compare each one with the federal holidays and mark the ones each school stays open.
3. 3Add breaks and teacher training days from the calendar.
4. 4Add snow days and emergency closures the day they happen.
5. 5Check again mid-year — districts sometimes change their calendars after a storm.
6. 6Tell drivers which holidays they're working, well ahead.

For the whole monthly invoice routine, see how to bill a school district for bus routes, and for other extras on the invoice, the fuel adjustment clause.

Doing it in FleetCommander

With district invoicing on, every school has a School days calendar. When you start it — the first and last day and the weekdays it's open — the bank holidays are marked closed for you. If the school stays open on one (some do on Columbus Day or Veterans Day), Remove it. Add breaks, PD days, snow days and emergency closures as closed days; closed days are never billed. Copy the closed days of another school saves typing when schools share a calendar, and each month's district invoice counts every route's school days from its school's calendar × its price per day. See Districts, school calendars and invoices.

The Schedule marks every U.S. bank holiday in purple on the day it's observed and lists Upcoming bank holidays under the calendar, worked out for every year (see the Schedule guide). On a weekend or bank holiday, Drivers › Attendance shows no Late or Not in yet counts, and time off recorded in HR doesn't count bank holidays as days off.

Ava (Beta), the assistant built into FleetCommander, knows the holidays too: When is Thanksgiving?, Is Monday a holiday? or When is the next bank holiday? To plan around one, say Add an event: driver training on Friday at 9am — she shows a card, and it goes on the Schedule only when you press Add event.