How Often Is Your Private Preschool Closed?

Every school, including preschools my kids went to are like this. There was no difference between public or private.

They tell us the days well in advance, usually the whole year but sometimes just a few months in advance. If I can't take off work I find a sitter.

I can't imagine a preschool being open on national holidays, or for teacher inservice days, because that's just how schools operate. Daycare, yes that would be open. But preschool? That's school. Usually preschools (private or not) follow the calendar of the local school district, in case there are older siblings in the district. That way all the kids have the same days off.

Maybe you need to find a daycare that isn't affiliated with a school.

Surely, you looked over the school's calendar before you signed her up. But, like you stated, she is in a private preschool. Preschools aren't daycare centers. Daycare centers are open all of the time, not preschools. Daycare centers do not have teachers, they have babysitters. Decide what you want, then keep her where she is or transfer her to a daycare.

The local school district has planning days and days where the teachers have additional meetings and conferences. Our preschool does not take all of these days off, though they pretty much follow the rest of the public school schedule. Getting Presidents' Day and MLK off varies job to job - here DH usually has them off. Some jobs are closed the week of Christmas. I forget what days DD's old daycare was closed, but they were off for several days around Christmas and NYE and you had to put in what days your kid would be there so they could have staff.

I happen to have DD's schedule next to me - she's off today and tomorrow for election stuff. She is off Presidents' Day and MLK Jr Day. She is off from the 24th through Jan 2 for Winter Break.

So I think what you describe is pretty average. DD has 9 days off (not including inclement weather days like last week) and 2 breaks.

My daughter goes to a private school for kindergarten and they still have certain holidays off, they get Christmas and other breaks, and occasional days off or 1/2 days for certain other functions. They won't have extended care on those days and the fact that they are a private school, with tuition, as opposed to public, doesn't change the fact that we need to come up with other arrangements. Once your child starts public school, you will be dealing the same stuff.

I try to arrange time off from work in advance if I can (switching days off with someone else), or sometimes hubby will. I also have friends, some that are SAHMs, that I can make arrangements with in a pinch, and we try to help each other out when we can.

Most Preschools are private operations.
And yes, like companies, they usually get National holidays, off.
And they give the parents an annual calendar or schedule of when they are closed. So that the parents can find alternate care or backup care... ahead, of time.

Regular school is this way too, private or public school.

Per teacher in service day, this is typically when Teachers and the school do training or curriculum changes etc. If they do not have teacher in service days... then, the Teachers would need to come in on weekends to do it, off the clock. They would not get paid for it. Or they would have to get overtime pay for it etc. And that is not feasible.
Public and private schools/elementary, have those days too.

Often times, there are places that hold "intercession" programs for kids. Which is typically coordinated to most school's, holiday or non-school days. So look around in your community, for it. ie: the YMCA, or other venues that run intercession programs.

Schools, like other places of employment, have holidays. The workers are not year round workers. They get holidays too, and they often do not get paid holidays. So their paychecks are affected too. It depends on their employee, plans.

ASK your Preschool, for any Providers they know of, that DO do babysitting etc., for the days they have holidays and non-school days.

Preschools as a whole, does cost money. It is not cheap. And they are privately run, not government run nor are they public schools.

Sounds normal to me!
This will be the case when your child starts elementary school as well, whether it's public or private.
In addition to what you mention above there will be minimum days, early release days, half days during parent teacher conference week, all kinds of stuff.
Our schools are closed a week for spring break, two weeks for Christmas/New Years and a full week for Thanksgiving, and there is NO care during the summer, parents are on their own to figure that out (most working parents I know use local college student sitters for summer, or they send them to various camps.)
And don't forget, your child's teachers need time off too, and I don't think many preschool teachers get paid vacation, so these are their "vacation" days. They deserve some time off, considering how hard they work for such little pay!

My girls went to two private preschools and both closed for teacher in-services, parent-teacher conferences, major holidays, a week at Christmas, etc. So yeah - you pay a lot of money and there are still TONS of days when the school is closed. The only place you don't get that are the big daycare centers where they have overlapping teacher schedules so that some can be off while others are there.

We handle the days off all different ways. Some days I take off and hang out with my kids, other days my husband takes off, my mom comes out and watches them during Christmas break, and we even had a friend of a friend babysit them a few times when no one could take off of work. I hate to say it - but get used to it... public school has had even more days off for us this year!

I think most preschools do this to follow the regular public school year.

My school aged kids get a lot more time off than I do running a home daycare/preschool. But mine is more on the home side than the preschool side of things, so the days I take off are somewhere in the middle of what public school does and what other daycares do. I take off holidays (including the ones you listed), the week of Christmas, a week in the summer and a week in the spring, but no "in service" days.

I hear you about being irritated, but if it's a good school and you're otherwise happy, I'd let it go. There are so many daycares and preschool out there that take off similar time and are really crappy. Be glad you have the option of a good one~

I think that is pretty common. I work at a preschool (montessori school actually) and we follow the public school schedule. We actually have 2 weeks off for Christmas break and get out of school for summer 3 weeks before fairfax county does, but besides that all other school holidays and stuff we are on the same schedule. We are actually closed today and tomorrow for parent teacher confrences. Teachers need that "day" to close the school to work on lesson plans, clean the toys, plan projects and just get stuff done so your kids have a clean and safe place to be. You can't expect the teachers to do that when the kids are there, and you can't expect them to come in on the weekends either. It's ok to take a day to close the school to get everything done so your kids are happy.
But if you are unhappy with your kid there, then look around for another preschool and make sure you double check the calendar first. But, I'm pretty sure that most preschools follow the school districts schedule

My kids go to private preschool/daycare. They are open every day except the major holidays (Christmas day, Thanksgiving day, 4th of July, New Year's day, Labor Day). I would be annoyed if I had yours too - I don't want to use my vacation days for stuff like that.

Teacher institute days are not planning days--they are days for continuing education, meetings, certification/re-certification for first aid & cpr, in-services, etc. We send our kids to private preschool too, but to a Catholic one, so we also have days off for religious observations; part and parcel to what we chose. We are choosing a specific school enviornment for nurturing and teaching our children, not a daycare center.

My Kindergartener is off this Th & Fr and half of Weds for conferences & institute days.

When my daughter attended a home daycare, she actually was closed ALL the state holidays, took a week at Christmas, and the day after Easter (that is inaddition to Good Friday). When she attended a preschool (like the one described) they were closed the major holidays plus a few others (NY, MLK, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, and Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Eve). I didn't understand why they were closed for MLK but not for President's Day.

When my daughter went to Pre-K at a private school, they were closed pretty much the same days as the public schools (almost 2 weeks at Christmas, a week at Easter, plus the typical state holidays and some inservice days).

That's always seemed to be the difference to me between a daycare/preschool and a stand alone preschool... I never needed full time care but wondered what mothers who did need it did. Then I realized - daycare. I think a lot of daycares start to offer a preschool curriculum. I didn't need the full time thing but even for me, the # of days closed was a bit annoying. Of course preschool teachers need paid vacation but they got way way more than the average corporate worker. But it's a free country so if I didn't like it, I could have moved my daughters. In our case, the pros outweighed the cons.

My 4 yo son also attends a private preschool. It costs what it would cost to send him to a very nice private school! Sigh...but that's par for the course where we live and it is a great school. Anyhow, they are closed for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Good Friday, Labor Day, July 4th, Memorial Day and New Year's Day. They close 2 additional days each year - at the end of the school year and at the end of summer. Those days are work days for them however. They turn over the classrooms - everything is disinfected and scrubbed, they strip all of the pictures from the walls, move tables/chairs, put the kid's names on their cubbies, all in order to set up for the new set of students they will have. I don't begrudge the teacher's those days b/c they are not play days - they are still working. All in all, I feel like our preschool does make an effort to be open when parents are working even on the minor holidays like Veteran's Day (and I don't mean that as an offense to any veterans - it's just that most of us don't get that day off)! I would be beyond irked at your school's schedule!

Also, our oldest, who is in regular public school, gets at least one day off every month for a holiday, work day, end of period day or something. We never got that much time off from school. And we wonder why the USA can't compete in the world! Our kids are never in school!!!!

My kids went to a private pre-school, but it rented space in an elementary school. The pre-school kept to the same schedule as the elementary school and didn't operate on any of the days the school was closed. Ours wasn't a daycare though.

Some preschools/daycares that my DD attended had teacher in service days once every three months (so 4 times a year). In addition they were closed whenever the school district was closed.
Our current school is more of a business (the others were non-profits) and open on all days that are not federal holidays.
I have either stayed home for in-service days or had friends sit our DD (for a small fee).
In the end you are the customer and if you don't like their hours - you could choose to take your business/money/kid to a place that is more accommodating to your work schedule.
Good luck.

In TX, schools are required to have ONE full day of mandatory training which requires the school to be closed. Beyond that, the holidays vary a lot.

For my daughter's current school, the school closes less than her other school It's closed for Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Day after, Tgiving, close early Christmas Eve, closed Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July.

The school she went to prior to this was closed Labor Day, Wednesday before Thanksgiving plus the day and day after, closed the entire two weeks of Christmas break when the public school was closed (includes Christmas Eve, Day, and NYE, New Year's Day, and I think closed MLK day. Also closed Good Friday, Memorial Day, 4th of July.

The more you pay, they less they go. :-) We have found this to be true with private schools from daycare up.

My daughter's preschool is closed on all the Federal holidays, the day after Thanksgiving and the week before our county schools start up for the year (late aug.). They also close when the county schools are closed due to inclement weather. Its during the close down week that they make renovations to the building and playgrounds and do their teacher training and planning. We have no back up care. We have taken that week off and gone on vacation. That will change now that Grandma is retired and can spend the week with us :)

Preschools around here are ALL private unless they're the special education preschools. They all follow the exact same schedule as the public schools regarding state and federal holidays as well as the town's school vacations and teacher inservice days. That's just how it's done.