Beaverton School District families heading into the 2026-27 school year won't see any changes to their children's schedules because of Gov. Tina Kotek's executive order on instructional time.

That's the upshot of an Oregonian/OregonLive analysis published July 16, which found that at least 137 of Oregon's 197 school districts, serving three-quarters of the state's students, won't need to add a single minute of classroom time under the first phase of Kotek's order. BSD, with 36,267 students, is among them.

The analysis named Beaverton and Hillsboro as "prime examples" of districts that don't rely on loopholes to meet state instructional-time minimums, citing newly collected state data submitted by districts in May 2026.

Kotek signed Executive Order 26-06 on Wednesday, April 15, barring districts from using furlough days to cut costs and requiring those that have already reduced instructional time to restore it by fall 2027.

Districts must match or exceed the bell-to-bell hours they offered in 2024-25 or 2025-26, whichever was higher, or publicly explain why they won't.

The order responded to Oregon's ranking of 47th nationally in time spent in school. Oregon districts average 165 days per school year, compared to 180 days in most states, according to an ECONorthwest analysis.

By graduation, the average Oregon student will have attended 195 fewer school days than peers nationwide.

"Research on instructional time tells us more instructional time is always better for achievement," Paul Thompson, an Oregon State University economics professor who has spent nearly a decade studying the question, told the Oregonian.

Why BSD is unaffected

BSD confirmed in a May 28 statement on its website that the order requires no immediate changes to school calendars or daily schedules.

The district said it has not implemented furlough days, has not shortened the school year, and has not counted teacher training or parent-teacher conferences as instructional time.

BSD's schedules already meet state requirements at every level: at least 900 hours of class time for grades K-8 and at least 990 hours for high school.

That matters for what comes next. About 55% of Oregon districts count parent-teacher conferences or teacher training sessions toward their instructional-time minimums.

The Oregon Board of Education plans to decide later in 2026 whether to eliminate those allowances, according to Candice Castillo, Oregon's deputy director of academics. Because BSD doesn't use them, a rule change wouldn't affect Beaverton families either.

What did change

The order does remove one tool from BSD's budget playbook. In its May 28 statement, the district acknowledged that furlough days had previously allowed it to temporarily reduce costs without laying off teachers and staff, and that option is now off the table.

Only about 15 Oregon districts, primarily small ones, will be asked to extend their school years by more than a day or two.

In the Portland metro area, Reynolds is the lone large district required to add time: two days by fall 2027.

BSD's 2026-27 school year begins Monday, August 24.