Upstate New York School Districts and the Virtual Learning Weather Policy
As communities grapple with severe winter weather, the approach of upstate New York school districts to instruction during these conditions varies, particularly concerning virtual learning policies. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted many districts to implement technology protocols for online lessons, yet debates persist about the value and equity of remote learning. This article examines the policies and considerations surrounding virtual learning during inclement weather in upstate New York school districts.
The Pandemic Pivot and Subsequent Restrictions
The COVID pandemic forced school districts to adopt technology protocols enabling online lessons. However, some states and school systems have restricted remote learning, questioning its overall value and whether it worsens inequities for students who aren’t in stable home environments.
Varying Responses to Winter Storms
States and school districts have reacted differently to winter storms. For example, New York City initially announced school buildings would be closed, with students learning remotely, affecting about 500,000 of the district’s 900,000 students. New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels expressed gratitude to school communities for their work in preparing for virtual classrooms, emphasizing the difficult decision was made with safety in mind and thanking families for their flexibility.
The Debate: Snow Days vs. Remote Learning
Debates about whether to call off schools entirely in the face of severe weather, or shift to online instruction, aren’t new. Advocates for snow day cancellations argue that remote learning creates unequal learning opportunities.
State Regulations on Remote Learning
In New Jersey, state law generally mandates students be in a classroom for the day to count toward the minimum days of instruction, restricting the circumstances in which remote learning can be used. However, if schools remain closed for three consecutive days, remote learning can count towards the minimum days of instruction, according to the law.
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Mixing Snow Days and Remote Learning
Other districts are mixing both snow days and remote learning. In northern Virginia, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid said in a public statement, students were encouraged “to take their devices and materials home as a precaution, while emphasizing that [the district is] not shifting to remote learning and that we also value the importance of snow days.”
The Influence of Online Learning Options
The availability of online learning options seems to have influenced district approaches to dealing with bad weather.
Maximum Temperature Law
A new law sets 88 degrees as the maximum temperature for occupancy of all spaces used by students in public school buildings, beginning in September 2025. The law also mandates that school boards create a policy that requires staff to try to "relieve heat-related discomfort" whenever the temperature of an occupied room reaches 82 degrees (as measured at a shaded location that is three feet above the floor and near the center of the room).
Concerns About the Temperature Law
NYSSBA Executive Director Robert Schneider said NYSSBA was strongly opposed to this legislation, as drafted," said NYSSBA Executive Director Robert Schneider. Puts pressure on school districts to invest enormous sums in air conditioning. "Another problem is that temperature is not a foolproof measure of how comfortable a room is," Schneider added. "Humidity and air movement can make a huge difference.
Snow Days: A Nostalgic Rite of Passage
Snow days, a nostalgic rite of passage for generations of students across the northern United States, might seem destined to be a memory of school days past. For nearly a century, schools have canceled or delayed classes because of heavy or dangerous snowfall that creates hazardous travel conditions. School calendars would include a number of “makeup” days, when any missed time could be rescheduled.
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The Rise of Remote Learning During the Pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools transitioned to remote learning to keep teaching when it wasn’t safe for people to gather. With students already learning at home, nearly 40% of schools chose to forgo traditional snow days and proceed with remote learning during the pandemic. Those choices, and improvements in online education, led several commentators to predict the end of the snow day.
The Persistence of Snow Days
However, policy data collected from the 35 states with the highest average annual snowfall suggests that while more schools are using remote learning days instead of canceling classes, the traditional snow day is far from extinct. Snow days seem to be sticking around, thanks to nostalgia, lingering concerns about the effectiveness and accessibility of online learning and a sentiment that families and children need these unscripted, unplugged breaks.
The Impact of School Closures on Learning
When schools close because of inclement weather, it affects students’ learning. For instance, research in Colorado, Maryland and Virginia has shown that each additional inch of snow led to less continuity of learning, which in turn made it less likely that elementary school students would pass math assessments.
Alternative Options Before the Pandemic
Even before the pandemic, 14 states had policies that allowed schools other options besides closing for inclement weather. Beginning in 2011, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Kansas,Missouri and West Virginia allowed students to work on preassembled packets that had been prepared and sent home instead of calling a snow day. As technology improved, schools replaced take-home packets with online assignments and instruction.
Expansion of E-Learning Days
In 2017, Minnesota authorized five e-learning days a year. Illinois followed suit in 2019. In Pennsylvania, 85% of public school districts can take advantage of a 2019 policy that allows five days of remote instruction.
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Remote Instruction During COVID-19
During the pandemic years, more schools got better at teaching online and saw opportunities to reduce school closings during winter storms. With nearly all states authorized on public health grounds to provide remote instruction during COVID-19, schools began doing so for inclement weather, too.
New York's Authorization of Remote Learning
In 2022, the New York Board of Regents authorized the state’s public schools to teach remotely instead of canceling class on snow days. Days earlier, anticipating the decision, New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks announced: “If a snow day comes around, we want to make sure that our kids continue to learn,” adding, “so, sorry kids! No more snow days, but it’s gonna be good for you!”
States Updating Laws for Remote Learning
Seven other states updated their laws to allow remote learning. For example, Maryland now allows up to eight days a year of remote learning - so long as five of those days include live sessions with a teacher - and Virginia’s new law allows 10 days.
Increased Use of Remote Learning Policies
By the start of the 2022-2023 school year, over three-quarters of snowy states had policies in place to significantly curtail school closures, keep students learning and prevent makeup days from stretching the school year into the summer. That’s up from half of them in the 2018-2019 school year.
Three Patterns: Full Online, Traditional Snow Days, or a Combination
Within those states that allow remote learning for inclement weather, schools have actually followed three different patterns: full online transition, preserving traditional snow days or a combination of both.
Limited Full Online Transition
Relatively few school systems - typically in metro areas like St. Paul or St. Louis - have followed New York City’s lead in announcing plans to move completely online during what would otherwise be snow days. There are also many school districts in very snowy locales - like New York’s snowiest district of Syracuse - that will not be using remote learning days.
The Most Common Approach: A Mix of Both
However, the most common approach across the nation will be a mix of remote learning and snow days depending on local conditions. For example, in Baltimore, the superintendent announced that remote learning would be used under the new Maryland policy only “as a last resort” after the five makeup days in the calendar were exhausted. In West Virginia, schools will use a portion of their allotted nontraditional instruction days but reserve an “old-fashioned snow day” for students.
The Nostalgic Sentiment for Snow Days
The nostalgic sentiment for preserving the snow day tradition was epitomized in a viral post from Jefferson County, West Virginia, Superintendent Bondy Shay Gibson, who declared on the first snow day of last year that school would be “closed for students … closed for virtual … closed for staff.” She said, “For generations, families have greeted the first snow day of the year with joy. … It is a time of renewed wonder at all the things that each season holds. A reminder of how fleeting a childhood can be. An opportunity to make memories with your family that you will hold onto for life.”
The Possibility of Snow Days Remains
For many families this winter, the possibility of a snow day remains. When the first major storm of the 2022 winter season bore down on western New York with as much as 6 feet of snow, students in the region waited anxiously for pending school decisions: Buffalo Public Schools chose to shift to remote learning, but neighboring Niagara Falls canceled.
The Future of Snow Days
The day may well come when remote learning replaces snow days. Upstate New York is known for lake effect snow, which blankets the area, and its bone-chilling temperatures.
School Closing Decisions for Extreme Cold Weather
Each school district in the Rochester region determines whether they should close for the day due to extreme weather, but Monroe County's Department of Public Health offers a guideline to help educators determine how cold is too cold to ask students and staff to report to school. That doesn't, however, mean that a remote learning day in its place is off the table. Both the City School District and Rochester-area suburban school districts generally follow the health department's recommendations that urge closure when wind chills are at or near -25 degrees.
Frostbite Concerns During Extreme Cold
In a letter sent to local school district superintendents in November, Dr. Marielena Vélez de Brown, the county's public health commissioner, implored schools to consider the potential injury to students as a result of bone-chilling temps, in which frostbite can occur on exposed skin in a matter of minutes."Frostbite can occur on exposed skin in about 30 minutes at wind chills of minus 25 degrees. At wind chills of minus 40, frostbite can affect exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes," Vélez de Brown wrote in the letter.
Transportation Issues
“The high school students will be virtual, but … The high schoolers use the Centro buses for transportation to and from school because there aren’t enough school buses. If the district is on a delay, they aren’t able to use Centro buses because they are picking up the public.
State Requirements and Flexibility
New York state requires that students are in school for 180 days and allows up to five snow days. “I would love to have more conversations at the state level of some flexibility with that.
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