>>The reply I'm most curious about is Sam's. I am sure there are some districts that do so, if he says so, but personally I have never heard of a school year that starts the first week in August.
>
>Orlando, FL - 31 July. The daughter of a friend of ours just started kindergarten there.

Some time in the 90's Orlando implemented a year-round schedule to improve facilities utilization. I don't know what the pattern is (I left in 93 so my information is way out of date), but different grades (or different classes within a grade) could start anywhere from late July to early September.

Different issue, but I believe they also went for several short (2-3 week) breaks rather than one long summer break with the idea being to minimize the amount of forgotten learning during the long break. I don't know what success it has had, but the idea sounded plausible.