As far as I know, states still set the number of days required. Most places, I think it is 180. Georgia and New Mexico, that I know of without any research, allow systems to modify the number of days as long as the number of hours remains the same, meaning a system could go to a four day week if additional instructional time was added to those four days.
(In Georgia this is new and was a response, I think, to the most recent budget crisis. A lot of money can be saved in transportation and facilities cost by shifting things around. Personally, I doubt it's a good idea instructionally, but when the money's not there, you have to do something.)
I suspect, but I'm not 100% that the nature of Carnegie Units as kind of a national high school credits measure has the effect of nationally controlling "seat time." (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegi...d_Student_Hour)
But it's based on 120 hours. If you think about the variety of 50 minute class periods through block scheduling, there's still a pretty big variety in number of instructional days, even for offering 120 hours of high school class. Again, I think each state outlines what they will fund.
I think that regional differences are just a reflection of local standards/ expectations, so the reasons would vary by community. Georgia seems to have shifted earlier once the colleges all went to the semester system from the quarter system in the 1990s. I can't remember ever starting after Labor day, but we did used to start in late August rather than early August.
It's odd to me because I think we could save more in heating and air by shifting to September to June, and if you really had to, you could shift in-state colleges too.