The National Day of Mourning takes place each year on the fourth Thursday of November, and is a day that provides a respectful counterpoint to Thanksgiving by recognizing that a historical moment may have been assumed to be a joyful occasion on one side, but it was also the catalyst for tragedy on the other.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance is an annual observance dedicated to commemorating and honoring all of the transgender people who have lost their lives due to anti-transgender violence, hate crimes, and discrimination purely because of their gender identity.

Education is something most Americans participate in without thinking, and even take for granted. Yet each year, American Education Week is held during the week before Thanksgiving, and reminds us of the gift education can be. This week also includes celebrations for Geography Awareness and National Young Readers!

International Students Day is an international observance of student activism across the world that takes place each November 17.

When it comes to education support, teachers are often the first people who come to mind, but education support professionals are just as vital in their dedication support, and their work too often goes unacknowledged. To salute these professionals, Education Support Professionals Day takes place on November 15 and gives us all at PSESD the chance to honor all of the incredible education support professionals who help and inspire our children each day.

Register today for a free PSESD workshop!

Registration now open for a free PSESD workshop! 

PSESD is proud to honor two of our team members included among the 5 awarded the Champions for Children 2023 honor — Arely Maya Dominguez, PSESD Latinx Family Advocate, and Carolyn Solitaire, Transformation Team member!

STEM/STEAM Day celebrates the importance of "Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics," with STEAM acknowledging the importance of the Arts and adding that initial into the original “STEM” acronym.

Widely observed by the Mexican people, as well as those of Mexican heritage, Día de los Muertos, or “Day of the Dead,” both acknowledges the relationship between life and death and also uniquely celebrates that celebration with joy.

National School Bus Safety Week is October 16-20 and provides an important opportunity to address and promote the importance of school bus safety while also educating on better safety practices.

Observed on the third full week of October each year, National Health Education Week (NHEW) promotes health education. This week, it takes place from October 16-20, 2023.

On October 17^th, Black Poetry Day commemorates the birth of the first published Black poet in the U.S. while honoring Black poets of both past and present.

October is LGBTQ+ History Month! Created in 1994, by a Missouri high school history teacher named Rodney Wilson who believed that a month should explore and celebrate LGBTQ+ history, LGBTQ+ History Month honors the history and courageous achievements across the years of LGBTQ+ people, including a spotlight on National Coming Out Day on October 11. Join us in celebrating our LGBTQ+ staff, students, and community members on this important day, and all month long!

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) serves nearly 30 million children every school day, providing the essential basic nutrition that contributes to student success and teacher support, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and fat-free or lowfat milk with every school lunch. President John F. Kennedy created National School Lunch Week (NSLW) in 1962 to promote the importance of a healthy school lunch in a child’s life, as well as the impact a simple school lunch can have both inside and outside the classroom, and this year, National School Lunch Week takes place from October 9-13, 2023.

Taking place on the second Monday of October each year, Indigenous Peoples Day celebrates the culture and history of the indigenous American peoples in the United States.

Celebrated since 1994, World Teachers’ Day is held each October 5, and celebrates the tireless work and achievements of all of the teachers across the globe.

September 30 is Orange Shirt Day—a day of remembrance honoring the hundreds of thousands of children who attended Canadian residence schools and United States Indigenous Boarding Schools, enduring abuse, neglect, disease, and worse. These schools were deliberately created to strip First Nations children of their culture,  language, and way of life, and their effects are still being felt today by those who survived, as well as their families.

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, offering an ideal opportunity to speak out and raise awareness—an awareness that is urgently required, with suicide the tenth leading cause of death among adults in the U.S.—and the second leading cause of death among children and young people aged 10-24. Unfortunately, these rates are increasing, and those who are young, LGBTQ, or BIPOC are especially vulnerable. LGBTQ youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide, while transgender adults, meanwhile, are almost 12 times more likely than the general population to attempt suicide.