RICHARDSON, Texas — Spring break is coming one week earlier than expected for students in the Richardson Independent School District during the 2024-25 school year, and they're not the only ones.
Richardson district officials announced the new dates for spring break will be March 10-14, 2025. Since then, Duncanville ISD on Friday, July 19, announced changes to their spring break dates, and Coppell ISD will discuss possible changes on July 22.
The sudden changes less than a month before some districts begin the school year is because Dallas College, which provides dual credit courses to RISD students, altered its spring break dates without notice, RISD officials said. Dallas College and its partnered districts in North Texas must have the same spring break dates to accommodate the more than 3,200 dual credit courses students take.
The classes are taught by professors at Dallas College and meet both district and college guidelines to provide credit in both high school and college.
Dallas College said the recent change was made to accommodate the varying calendars of their more than 150 high school partners. The college then made the decision to "quickly align" and move its spring break dates.
A statement from a Dallas College spokesperson said the college "remains committed to offering an enriching student experience for those enrolled in our dual credit programs, which means supporting students through this change to the 2024-2025 academic calendar."
The Dallas College spring break will now fall in between week 7 and week 8 of their first 8-week term. Students will take their final exams after spring break.
"While this change was made only recently, the new dates will now accommodate a majority of the nearly 30,000 dual credit high school students that also attend college classes on our seven campuses across Dallas County," said the statement.
RISD had previously confirmed with Dallas College that the 2025 spring breaks were identical, according to the district's website.
Richardson is not the only school district likely to be impacted. Other districts in North Texas like Coppell Independent School District and Mesquite Independent School District have dual credit agreements with Dallas College.
Duncanville ISD announced they would also be shifting its spring break to accommodate the Dallas College change earlier this week.
Coppell ISD said it was made aware of Dallas College's schedule change on July 10 in an update from superintendent Dr. Brad Hunt.
The district said they spoke with Dallas College who "has assured us that they have a plan to support their Dual Credit students regardless of the week their school district has for Spring Break and student learning will not be compromised due to this change," according to the update.
Coppell ISD has not changed their spring break dates yet but will discuss it at the board meeting on July 22.
For more information about RISD, click here.