The biggest East Coast winter storm in years is on target to strike Wednesday and Thursday, but students in many areas might not rejoice over the forecasted 2 feet of snow the same way they once did.
That’s because snow days, those celebrated breaks from school, are melting away during a time of virtual learning in the coronavirus pandemic.
In September, New York City said the nation’s largest school district wouldn’t have snow days. If school buildings couldn’t open, students would learn remotely.
With a snowstorm bearing down this week, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said school would continue normally on Wednesday, with some students learning in person. He promised an update if the storm were to prevent school buildings from staying open on Thursday. In that case, he said Tuesday, students would still learn remotely.
New York isn’t alone. Education Week, a news organization covering K-12 education, surveyed principals and district leaders in November and found nationally that 39{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1} have converted snow days to remote learning days and another 32{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1} are considering it.
West Hartford Schools in Connecticut will give students the day off only on the first two snow days of the year. Green Bay Schools in Wisconsin and the Salem district in Massachusetts won’t have any snow days this year, and Omaha schools have done away with snow days permanently.
But other schools have told parents to let kids be kids.
“Snow days are chances for on-site learners and virtual learners to just be kids by playing in the snow, baking cookies, reading books and watching a good movie,” New Jersey’s Mahwah Township Public Schools told parents in an email in October. “These are times for memory-making, and we believe these types of opportunities should remain intact.”
The district, which has about 3,000 students, is in a hybrid mode of schooling, where students attend both in person and online.
Further north, in Massachusetts, Holbrook Public School District Superintendent Julie Hamilton said in an email Monday she is not getting rid of snow days.
“Teachers in Holbrook come from over 40 other towns which could lead to inconsistency around our ability to run remote instruction if those towns experience power outages,” she said.
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Outside the nation’s capital, both Fairfax and Loudoun County Public School districts left the door open for snow days.
Students in Fairfax County are currently learning entirely remotely, with plans to return groups of students to school buildings starting in January. Although the district has yet to finalize its snow day policy for this winter, officials wrote in an email that heading into this week, “if conditions are warranted, we do anticipate that there will be ‘typical’ snow days as we have had in past years.”
In Loudoun County, students returned to distance learning on Tuesday because of a surge in COVID-19 cases in the community. Even so, classes were canceled Wednesday with the impending storm.
Assistant Schools Superintendent Kevin Lewis told parents in an email, per ABC7 news, that public utilities affected by the weather, staff not being able to get into their classrooms to conduct remote classes and meal service delivery could factor in to a decision to close.
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