School closures and late start school days

Across the nation, there are two words that most students hope to hear, “Snow Day.” Deciding on school closures means; balancing many competing forces. The protection of students, though, is usually the first concern. School closures can be more complex than many people recognize, however.

Schools closing to help keep children safe

Student protection is the primary concern school districts have when making decisions about schooling closure. Too much snow or too much rain will cause schooling districts to have a school closure. Even really cold temperatures could be a reason. The threshold for what constitutes bad enough weather for schooling closures differs for schooling districts. Just a tiny bit of ice on the road can trigger schools to shut down in some areas. Over a foot is needed in other areas where there is typically a lot of snow.

Ensuring you know about school closures

Schooling districts, parents and kids all have challenges that are faced when it comes to schooling closures. The decision to have a schooling closure or a postponed start is often made as early as 4 or 5 a.m. Schooling closures are something parents have to be knowledgeable about right away. Some school districts subscribe to electronic school closure notification systems such as ESD101 and SchoolReport.org to help inform parents of schooling closures. Local media stations and radio stations will often announce the schooling closures too.

The issue of schooling closures

Administers are responsible for making the hard decision of whether or not a school closure should happen. England goes to schooling 12 days longer than the United States which has a 180 day school year while Japan goes an additional 63 days. It’s already a shorter year within the United States than anywhere else. Then there is the truth that United States schools want to save costs. They are thinking about shortening the week to four days to do this. A schooling closure might harm student performance. That means it’s harder to make figuring out just that. Many school districts require that at the end of the year, all the days of the school year that were snow days are added on for making up the time. How do you think school closures should be handed?

Citations

Edu In Review

eduinreview.com/blog/2009/03/obama-proposes-longer-school-days-extended-school-year/

Finding Dulcinea

findingdulcinea.com/news/Americas/2009/jan/Many-US-Schools-Consider-Four-Day-School-Week.html

ESD

esd101.net/16961082215550380/site/default.asp

School Report

schoolreport.org/