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Summer’s over for thousands of kids across the state starting today. As Matt Galka tells us, starting this year Labor Day is no longer dictating when school is back in session.

Students in Hillsborough County said goodbye to summer break and headed off to school Wednesday.

Kids in St. John’s County grabbed their book bags and pencils and headed off to class Wednesday, too.

This was the first year that school start dates weren’t tethered to the Labor Day Holiday. A change in state law meant that Wednesday was the first day districts could start the year, they previously had to wait until two weeks before Labor Day.

Not every kid was back in school, 40 districts opted for August 10^th, with a majority of others waiting until Monday August 15^th.

Ruth Melton with the Florida School Boards Association said that August tourism had been a concern when they pitched an earlier school start date. But they wanted students to be able to finish the first semester before Winter Break.

“With a later school start date that became impossible, so over the course of several years, most of the education related community pushed hard to try and give us a little flexibility so that school could start late enough in the summer so students could complete their school year, but early enough that students could have a nice summer break before coming back to begin the grind,” she said.

Had the old law still been in place…schools wouldn’t have been able to start until August 22^nd this year, because Labor Day falls on September 5^th.

Of course an earlier start means an earlier end.  All school districts are scheduled to wrap up classes by the end of the first week of June, with many ending in late May.