Maryland’s largest school system has walked back a plan to use March 20 as a snow makeup day after facing criticism for holding classes on the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.
Montgomery County Public Schools was closed for five days after a dogged winter storm smashed into the D.C. region in late January, icing over roadways and sidewalks.
The district announced in early February that it planned to use March 20, a previously scheduled noninstructional day, to make up for class time lost because of the storm. That’s the day of Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim festival that commemorates the breaking of a month-long fast for Ramadan, and it is considered one of the religion’s most holy celebrations.
The district had previously designated March 20 as a possible makeup day for inclement weather when it approved the 2025-26 school year calendar.
Prince George’s County Public Schools also announcedthis month that it would use March 20 as a makeup day. Both districts said they would grant Muslim students an excused absence to observe Eid al-Fitr.
But the decision to hold classes March 20 drew backlash from advocates who said the districts weren’t giving Muslim holidays the same courtesy as Christian ones.
At a meeting Thursday, the Montgomery County Board of Education voted to return March 20 to the calendar as a noninstructional day, citing, in part, the day’s religious significance. That makeup day, along with others, will now occur in June, extending the academic year to June 25.
“Snow days are fun for exactly 24 hours, and then they stop being fun,” Superintendent Thomas Taylorsaid at the meeting. Then comes the pain, he said, of making up lost learning, navigating operational challenges and addressing the cost of fixing the calendar.
Zainab Chaudry, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office in Maryland, thanked the Montgomery district in a statement Friday for creating a solution that protects both instructional integrity and religious accommodation.
Maryland law requires school districts to have at least 180 instructional days and a set number of instructional hours — elementary and middle schools need 1,080 hours, and high schools need 1,170.
At Thursday’s school board meeting, Taylor said the Montgomery County district easily meets the required hour threshold but has a harder time hitting the necessary days. The Montgomery district’s calendar originally had 181 instructional days, aiming to avoid the need for an end-of-year extension.
After the January storm, the Montgomery district submitted a request to the State Board of Education asking for a waiver of the 180-day requirement, but it was swiftly denied. Taylor said each additional day added to the end of the calendar will cost the district $2.1 million.
Prince George’s County Public Schools also submitted a waiver. The district did not immediately respond to request for comment. Chaudry, of CAIR, urged the State Department of Education to grant the waiver to the Prince George’s district so it, too, can restore Eid al-Fitr as a noninstructional day.
Critics argued that the Montgomery school district isn’t doing enough to prevent last-minute changes to the calendar.
Ethan Baker, parent of two Montgomery County students, urged the school board Thursday to bake more “buffer” days into the calendar, telling the district to “stop praying for luck and start planning for reality.”
“This board has a recurring problem with gambling,” Baker said. “Last year, you built a 181-day calendar with a single day off of buffer for snow days. You bet against a Maryland winter, and you lost. Now you’re gambling with the equity of our religious communities.”
As of now, the district is tacking June 18, 22, 24 and 25 onto the calendar. The district cannot use June 19 because of the Juneteenth federal holiday, and it will be closed June 23 because that is Election Day in Maryland and schools serve as polling sites.
The district said June 24 and 25 will be early-release days.
But there’s a chance this isn’t the final calendar.
The Montgomery delegation in the Maryland General Assembly introduced an emergency bill to cut down the required instructional time for this year. If approved, the measure would allow the district to meet either the required days or the required hours, not necessarily both — which could reduce the number of makeup days needed.
The emergency bill, which would be in effect until the end of next school year, passed out of a committee Thursday. But it still faces votes by the full House and Senate.
“Adding extra school days at the end of the school year is simply a box-checking exercise to comply with state law — it doesn’t result in additional learning by students,” Del. Julie Palakovich Carr (D-Montgomery), who chairs the county’s delegation in the state House, said Thursday in a news release.
The post In reversal, a Md. school district won’t use Eid al-Fitr as makeup day appeared first on Washington Post.
