Instructional Days and Hours

The Instructional Days and Hours data file collects the school calendar information as required per HB24-1063, specifically 22-2-310.

Submission Requirements:

All public schools serving grades K-12 (006-120) are required to report the below information. This includes districts, BOCES, and the Charter School Institute.

Data does not need to be submitted for pre-k (004) grades, public schools serving only pre-k (004), and 100% Home Options Schools (school system code 10).

By the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, CDE shall standardize the reporting method that schools of a school district, district charter schools, school districts, institute charter schools, and the state charter school institute use to collect and report data concerning:

Instructional hours;

School calendars; and

The number of hours students spend on instructional time during the school year.

Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, CDE shall collect from schools of a school district, district charter schools, institute charter schools, and the state charter school institute, at a minimum, the following data:

Days of instruction for elementary and secondary schools;

Instructional hours for elementary and secondary schools;

Estimated non-instructional hours, school closures, snow days, and time spent on lunch and passing between classes.

2025-2026

Deadlines

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2026-2027

Deadlines

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General Resources

Training

Additional Resources

Field Calculations

Total Days of Instruction/Student Contact Days

The total number of whole or partial mandatory attendance days for students.

To calculate:

For each grade review the school calendar and count the number of full and partial mandatory attendance days.

A partial day of instruction can be counted as a whole or half day of instructional time.

Do not include: Student non-attendance days or optional attendance days.

Do include: Testing days.

File expectations:

Must be between 100.0 and 250.0. Use .5 decimal for half days.

If the total number of school days varies by grade level, and new record/line/row must be submitted for that grade level.

Total Lunch Hours

To calculate:

Calculate the duration of lunch for each grade.

Duration of lunch plus passing out of lunch multiplied by total days of instruction.

Include passing out of lunch.

If recess after lunch is considered as non-instructional, please include with lunch duration.

Lunch and meal breaks may be shortened for partial/early release days. Be sure to calculate these accordingly.

File expectations:

Cannot be 0.

Format 000.0.

If the total number of lunch and meal breaks varies by grade level, a new record must be submitted for that grade level.

Total Hours for the School Year

Includes all instructional and non-instructional time that fall between first and last bell or first and last scheduled bus for a school route.

To calculate:

Determine the hours of a full school day.

The start of the instructional day is the time at which the first scheduled period of the day begins.

The end of the instructional day is the time at which the last scheduled period of the day ends.

If a school has periods that begin before, or end after, scheduled bus routes for the school, these periods should not be considered as part of the instructional day.

For each grade, multiply the full-day hours by the number of full, mandatory attendance days scheduled for the school year for that grade.

Determine the hours for a partial school day.

For each grade, multiply the partial day hours by the number of half-days scheduled for the school year for that grade.

For each grade, add the full- and partial-day totals and divide by 60.

File expectations:

If in a given schedule one grade has more half-days or fewer full days, then a new record/line/row must be submitted for that grade level.

Frequently Asked Questions

General

Q. Which schools need to submit data for this collection?

A. Districts, BOCES operating schools, and the Charter School Institute will need to submit data for all public schools (school system code 1) serving grades kindergarten through 12th grade (006-120).

Q. Which schools do not need to submit data for this collection?

Public schools only serving pre-k (004) do not need to submit data. If your school serves grades pre-k and above, pre-k may be omitted from the data submitted for the rest of the school.
100% Home Options Schools (school system code 10) do not need to submit data.

Q. Do I need to include summer school calendars in this collection?

A. Summer school calendars should not be included in the Instructional Days and Hours collection.

Passing/Recess Instructional Indicator

Q. How do I know if passing and recess are counted as instructional time or non-instructional?

A. Each district school board should have a policy on whether or not passing and recess are counted as instructional time. You will need to locate and review your district's policy on instructional time to determine if passing or recess are counted as instructional time. If a policy is not defined, assume that passing time is counted as instructional time and enter a 1 (yes) in this field.

Hours of Instruction

Q. How do I classify assemblies?

A. All planned assembly time should be counted as instructional.

Q. How is graduation day calculated?

A. Graduation day (in which no classes or tests are held for any grade) cannot be included as an instructional day or hours. If other grades continue to have instruction and/or testing, these grades would be expected to have a higher instructional hour count than seniors.

Q. How do I classify remote learning days?

A. The use of remote learning days can only be used as instructional days and hours in the event of an emergency school closure, meaning there are no planned remote learning days allowed. Since this collection asks for information based on your planned academic calendar, remote learning days should not be factored in.

Q. How do I calculate instructional time for online schools?

A. Online or asynchronous schools should evaluate how many courses students can enroll in and then multiply that by their course equivalency and then multiply by days in school year. No recess, no lunch, and likely no passing. For example, if an online school allows a student to enroll in up to 6 semester courses at a time and each course equivalency is 60 minutes, instructional time is 360 minutes per day times number of days in the semester.

Q. How do I calculate instructional time for Homeschool Enrichment Programs?

A. Homeschool Enrichment Programs do not need to be included in this collection. You may omit Homeschool Enrichment schedules from your data file.

Total Teacher Workdays

Q. Our new teachers attend an orientation the week before the rest of our teachers return. Should those additional orientation days be included in the Total Teacher Workdays?

A. Total Teacher Workdays is teacher contract days and should not should not include orientation days for new staff. To calculate, use full-time, full school year average of teacher contract days.

Contact

DirectoryData@cde.state.co.us