Israel School Holidays - Home Assistant Integration

A Home Assistant custom integration that tracks Israeli school vacation periods for both elementary and high schools.

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Features

• 🏫 Separate tracking for elementary and high school vacations
• 📅 Real-time status with automatic updates from official data
• 🌐 Bilingual support - Hebrew and English status messages
• ⚙️ Configurable options through the UI
• 🔄 Automatic data updates with customizable intervals
• 📱 HACS compatible for easy installation and updates

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Why This Integration?

In Israel, school vacation periods differ between elementary and high schools. For example:

• High schools typically end on June 22nd
• Elementary schools end on July 1st
• High schools often have no classes on Fridays

This integration allows you to create separate automations for each school type and get accurate vacation information.

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Installation

Important for Users of the Old YAML Version

If you have the old version installed via YAML, you must remove your old configuration and restart Home Assistant before installing the new integration. Failing to do so may cause conflicts.

HACS Installation (Recommended)

1. Open HACS in Home Assistant
2. Go to Integrations
3. Click the three dots in the top right corner → Custom repositories
4. Add this repository URL: https://github.com/rt400/School-Vacation-UI
5. Select Integration as the category
6. Click Add
7. Find Israel School Holidays in HACS and install it
8. Restart Home Assistant

Manual Installation

1. Download the latest release from GitHub releases
2. Extract the files to your custom_components/school_holidays_ui/ directory
3. Restart Home Assistant

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Configuration

Adding the Integration

1. Go to Settings → Devices & Services
2. Click + Add Integration
3. Search for Israel School Holidays
4. Configure your preferences:

Option	Description	Default
Display Language	Language for status messages (Hebrew/English)	Hebrew
Elementary School	Track elementary school vacations	Enabled
High School	Track high school vacations	Enabled
Friday High School	High schools have no classes on Fridays	Enabled
Update Interval	How often to check for data updates (hours)	24

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Entities Created

Sensors

• sensor.school_status – Current school status summary
  States: "School Day", "Sabbath", "Summer Vacation", etc.

Binary Sensors

• binary_sensor.elementary_school_vacation – Elementary school vacation status

  • on: Vacation day
  • off: School day

• binary_sensor.high_school_vacation – High school vacation status

  • on: Vacation day
  • off: School day

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Usage Examples

Basic Automation - School Mode

automation:
  - id: set_school_mode_off
    alias: "Turn Off School Mode During Vacation"
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.elementary_school_vacation
        to: 'on'
    action:
      - service: input_boolean.turn_off
        target:
          entity_id: input_boolean.school_mode

  - id: set_school_mode_on
    alias: "Turn On School Mode During School Days"
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.elementary_school_vacation
        to: 'off'
    condition:
      - condition: time
        weekday:
          - sun
          - mon
          - tue
          - wed
          - thu
    action:
      - service: input_boolean.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: input_boolean.school_mode

Input Boolean Helper

input_boolean:
  school_mode:
    name: "School Mode"
    icon: mdi:school

Lovelace Card Example

type: entities
title: "School Status"
entities:
  - entity: sensor.school_status
    name: "Current Status"
  - entity: binary_sensor.elementary_school_vacation
    name: "Elementary Vacation"
  - entity: binary_sensor.high_school_vacation
    name: "High School Vacation"
  - entity: input_boolean.school_mode
    name: "School Mode"

Template Examples

# Check if any school is on vacation
template:
  - binary_sensor:
      - name: "Any School Vacation"
        state: >
          {{ is_state('binary_sensor.elementary_school_vacation', 'on') or
             is_state('binary_sensor.high_school_vacation', 'on') }}

# Get vacation status in Hebrew
  - sensor:
      - name: "School Status Hebrew"
        state: >
          {% if is_state('binary_sensor.elementary_school_vacation', 'on') %}
            חופש
          {% else %}
            לימודים
          {% endif %}

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Advanced Configuration

Notifications

automation:
  - id: vacation_starts_notification
    alias: "Notify When Vacation Starts"
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.elementary_school_vacation
        from: 'off'
        to: 'on'
    action:
      - service: notify.mobile_app_your_phone
        data:
          title: "School Vacation Started! 🎉"
          message: "{{ states('sensor.school_status') }}"

Conditional Automations

automation:
  - id: morning_routine_school_day
    alias: "Morning Routine - School Day"
    trigger:
      - platform: time
        at: "07:00:00"
    condition:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.elementary_school_vacation
        state: 'off'
      - condition: time
        weekday:
          - mon
          - tue
          - wed
          - thu
          - sun
    action:
      - service: script.school_morning_routine

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Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Integration not appearing: Restart Home Assistant after installation
2. No data: Check your internet connection
3. Entities not updating: Check the update interval in integration options

Debug Logging

Add this to configuration.yaml:

logger:
  logs:
    custom_components.school_holidays: debug

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Data Source

This integration uses official Israeli school vacation data maintained at:
https://github.com/rt400/School-Vacation/blob/master/data.json

Data is automatically updated and cached locally.

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Submit a Pull Request on GitHub.

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License

MIT License – see LICENSE file.

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Support

• 🐛 Bug Reports: GitHub Issues
• 💡 Feature Requests: GitHub Issues
• 📖 Documentation: GitHub Wiki

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Changelog

Version 1.0.0

• Complete rewrite as a modern Home Assistant integration
• Added HACS support
• UI-based configuration with Config Flow
• Bilingual support (Hebrew/English)
• Improved reliability with local data caching
• Separate binary sensors for each school type

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Made with ❤️ for the Israeli Home Assistant community By Yuval Mejahez