Year Round Information

What is a Year-Round School?

Schools in the Wake County Public School System primarily follow a traditional calendar or a year-round calendar. Regardless of which calendar students follow, all students attend school for 180 days. The year-round calendar simply spreads the 180 school days throughout the entire year. Students attending a year-round school are in school for 45 days and then have a 15-day break. Year-round students have the same holidays as students on the traditional calendar.

What is a Year-Round Calendar?

Schools following the year-round calendar begin the school year in mid-July and end the year in late June. The year-round calendar provides students with periodic breaks spread throughout the school year rather than one long break during the summer months. Calendars for the year-round schools can be viewed online at http://www.wcpss.net/Calendars/.

What is a Track?

WCPSS operates its year-round schools as multi-track, year-round schools. This means that the students in the school are split into four groups or "tracks." Each track follows a different schedule. The schedules are staggered so that at any given time, three of the tracks or groups are in school and one track is out on break. For example, the school year for students in a year-round school would begin on July 10 for those students on tracks 1, 2 and 3. Students on track 4 begin the school year with their 15-day break. The students on track 4 would have their first day of school on July 31 - the same day that the students on track 3 begin their 15-day break. By operating schools on a multi-track system, where one group is always on break, schools are able to accommodate up to 33 percent more students in a building. For every three schools on a multi-track, year-round calendar, that's one less school that has to be built.

What is Track-out?

Students on the year-round calendar attend school for 45 days then have a 15-day break, known as "track-out" before returning to school for another 45 days. The cycle repeats itself throughout the entire year. At River Bend Elementary School, we offer academic remediation services through our Track-Out Academy program during each track-out period. For students needing childcare services during the track-out period, Raleigh Parks and Recreation offers track-out programs for River Bend Elementary School students. To enroll your child in track-out programming, please contact Raleigh Parks and Recreation at (919)831-6165.

What are the Advantages / Benefits of Year-Round Schools?

Some of the advantages to the multi-track, year-round calendar include the expanded use of our school buildings and being able to accommodate more students in a single building. This saves on construction costs by better utilizing available space. Other advantages include savings on costs for books, materials and other equipment, lessening the amount of learning loss that occurs after a long summer break, a wider variety of vacation options for families and the lessening of teacher and student burnout throughout the year by providing more frequent breaks.

Further information can be found at the Wake County Year-Round Schools Resource Center.