In fact, APS has fewer Native American students than schools within the district. The 2025-26 student demographic data shows there were only 37 “American Indian” students attending APS across all 42 of its schools and educational programs. American Indian is the term APS calls students of indigenous origin, according to the district’s “DEI Glossary.”

Last year, Native American students comprised a vanishingly small subset of the student body — just 0.13% — so minuscule that, for reporting purposes, APS grouped them in demographically with the district’s 12 Pacific Islanders and the 2,275 students who identify as multiple ethnicities.

The proposed amendment to APS’s attendance policy would permit students who are members of a state or federally recognized tribal nation headquartered in Virginia to skip a full day of classes each academic year to attend that tribe’s “pow wow gathering,” an often annual event, provided that the student’s parent or guardian gives advance notice.

FAIRFAX COUNTY SCHOOLS RETAIN COPIOUS CULTURAL OBSERVANCE DAYS OUT OF ‘DIVERSITY’ CONCERNS

A memo submitted by the APS policy review team says that adding the Native American ritual to the school district’s list of approved absences, which currently accepts 13 eligible excuses, would bring Arlington County into compliance with Virginia’s existing education code.

In 2022, the state legislature unanimously passed a bill, introduced by Virginia House Democrat Elizabeth Guzmán, that granted one excused absence per school year to public school students of Native American heritage wanting to attend “pow wow gatherings.”

As a result, every Virginia public school division is legally required to honor “pow wow”-related absences, though districts did not necessarily have to rewrite their truancy policies.

The latest U.S. Census Bureau counts estimate that American Indians, grouped with Alaska Natives, constitute just 1.1% of Virginia’s total population.

APS school board members are scheduled to decide the cultural accommodation on Thursday evening as part of their consent agenda, administrative items grouped together as routine, non-controversial business matters, and are voted on in a single motion, typically without breakout discussion to maximize meeting efficiency.

Thursday’s meeting will be the last before school starts on Monday.

School staff suggests eliminating two school days to accommodate parent-teacher conferences

Also pending on the school board’s agenda is a staff proposal that would wipe out two school days in the upcoming academic calendar, from 180 days as mandated by Virginia law to 178 days.

While the last-minute reduction would put APS two school days short of the 180-day baseline that all Virginia school districts are required to reach, Arlington County would still be above the 990 instructional hours needed as an alternative quota. Public schools can meet state requirements if they hit the 990-hour threshold of allotted instruction time in a single school year, even if the hours are spaced out over early release days or an extended academic calendar that cuts summer short.

According to presentation slides, prepared by APS chief of staff Brian Stockton and Corey Dotson, assistant superintendent of human resources, the revisions to the 2026-27 school year suggest replacing three consecutive early release days in October and again in March with one and a half professional development days “to provide dedicated time” for elementary school parent-teacher conferences.

APS’s current calendar has six days set aside those months, three in October and three in March, for parent-teacher meetings. The staff accommodations would turn these six school days, which are structured as back-to-back early releases, into two off-days, two early releases, and two full instructional days.

The suggested changes would technically convert each set of designated parent-teacher conference days, carved out currently, from three half-days to one and a half days out of class dedicated to parent-teacher meetings, resulting in a net loss of two elementary school days.

Proponents of the switch say it would improve conference scheduling and accessibility for families by simplifying early-dismissal logistics associated with half-day release schedules, while simultaneously maintaining compliance with state instructional time requirements. Under the restructured schedule, total instructional time would fall from 1,067.7 hours to 1,064.8 hours, a 2.9-hour decrease still 74.8 hours, or the equivalent of an excess of 12.3 school days, higher than the state’s standard. 

Still, the school district has seven other early release days — all in the middle of the week — that segment the elementary school calendar and complicate parent pick-up times. Scattered over the academic year, elementary school early release days occupy almost every month, spanning Wednesdays in October, December, January, February, March, and June.

Studies show that fragmented school calendars can severely disrupt classroom learning, as repeat early release days and intermittent periods off lead to cumulative learning loss. Research indicates that elementary-aged students, whose social-emotional development critically depends on consistency, are especially stunted by the irregularity of partial school weeks and constant interruptions to their established routines.

An academic performance review conducted by the Virginia Department of Education has flagged 10 of Arlington County’s elementary schools as “Off Track” or “Needs Intensive Support” out of the 25 elementary schools in the district.

Like its neighboring liberal jurisdictions, Arlington County’s schools also recognize the religious observances of non-Christian faiths, including Rosh Hashanah followed by Yom Kippur, the Hindu holiday of Diwali, the eight days of Hanukkah, a week of Kwanzaa, an entire month of Ramadan, Passover, and both Islamic festivals Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

While only Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism, and the two major Muslim feast festivals are marked as official days off of school, student absences due to the observance of APS-recognized religious holidays are excused.

In March, when the second set of parent-teacher conference accommodations would take place mid-month, students have off school for Eid al-Fitr the week before and spring break the week after, in addition to an unrelated early-release day for staff development on the Wednesday prior to the Muslim holiday, which is also on a Wednesday.

Slashing school days would violate the parameters APS set in 2025 to ensure that all future academic calendars contain 180 instructional days. At the time, Arlington Parents for Education commended the district’s 180-day promise. “We know our students are still struggling with learning loss and crave in-person connections,” the local parent group wrote in a letter to the Arlington School Board. APS has historically had 181 days of instruction until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“We have this commitment to 180 days,” Kathleen Clark, vice chairwoman of the Arlington School Board, said at an Aug. 13 meeting unveiling the proposed cuts.

Clark cited “logistical challenges” of meeting the mandatory 180 days, while Superintendent Francisco Durán blamed the school administration’s difficulties on a late start to the school year and a pre-defined end date.

“This year, we are the latest school system in Virginia” to begin the school year, Durán lamented.

APS policy stipulates that the last day of school be scheduled before Juneteenth and the first day of classes come no earlier than a week out from Labor Day, which lands on Sept. 7 this year and means school begins Aug. 31. The academic calendars must also celebrate all the “diverse religious holidays” that APS has honored in recent years.

“That limits the ability, then, when we look at all these other variables we have to put in place,” Durán said of packing in teacher workdays, parent-teacher conferences, and cultural celebrations. “That is really challenging for us when you see other surrounding school systems that are starting a week before us and have more flexibility to get to the 180.”

The state statute governing school openings closes all Virginia schools the Friday before Labor Day through the actual fall holiday, so APS students will end their first week of classes in a four-day break.

“This is a really complex issue,” Clark said, mentioning that some parents would rather see their child in school those early-release days regardless for “the consistency of learning” and other families might find the school days’ removal to be both a decrease in classroom time and another burden on working parents. “Well, this is less learning opportunity with the number of days,” said Clark, quoting a working-class parent in this situation. “I still have to do an equal amount of navigating schedules to make this work.”

School board members are slated to discuss the modifications at a closed-door work session on Sept. 29. The calendar planning committee includes representatives from the Arlington Education Association, the county’s teachers union, and three seats reserved for APS parents.

APE, the parental advocacy group formed by parents frustrated with the school district’s decision not to fully open schools in the fall of 2020, has asked for extended daycare at the camps offered by the county on days off of school “given the number of disruptive weeks in the [academic] calendar.”

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Arlington County’s Parks and Recreation Department provides “school break” camps with early-release accommodations during teacher workdays and parent-teacher conferences.

APS acknowledged but did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.