The 2017-2018 school year may be changing drastically for the students of Fairfax County Public Schools. With an average of eight and a half days missed due to snow over the past five years have added up to a total of 42 days missed. How early would Fairfax County Schools start? As early as August 27 or 28.

However, Virginia schools signed a law called the Kings Dominion Law. This law, signed in 1986, required Virginia schools to start after Labor Day and extend the tourist season to bring in more profits to the tourist industry while the students were still out on summer vacation, working and having fun.

Fairfax County schools announced in February that they are eligible for a waiver to the law because of the amount of school days that they missed and have not made up. The waiver for the Kings Dominion Law is good until the 2019-2020 school year. FCPS is over that amount of snow days that they could have off legally, which is 8.

The school department said in a statement that the change to the school calendar would “…provide more instructional time before winter break [and] enhanced flexibility to help students and school staff members meet college application deadlines, and to end the school year earlier in June.”

There will be no changes to the 2016-2017 school year and will start on September 6. The county board is waiting for responses from the community and fellow workers. ABC 7 News posted a poll on Twitter asking for thoughts on whether the start date was too early with 43 percent vote, too late with 7 percent, and who cares? No difference with 51 percent.