The answer to that is yes and no depending on where you live.
There is no rhyme or reason, no data or facts, as with most things governments do these days, as to whether schools should give a day off for bad weather when the students don’t actually have to go to a school building.
The obvious answer would be no. Kids shouldn’t get a day off because they have no change in their learning schedule. No impediment.
But the real answer about whether students get a “snow day” is actually at the whim of the Superintendents.
Pennsylvania and other states in the Northeast recently got whacked by a big snowstorm and schools are treating the weather event differently.
Kids in Philadelphia are getting the shaft [1]and are having to continue with their remote learning instead of sleeping in or making snowmen or women. Monica Lewis, spokesperson with the Philadelphia School District was the Grinch who got to deliver the bad news. She said, “With students and staff learning and working remotely, there is no need to cancel classes.”
NYC schools also don’t get a snow day. [2] But then again, people in NYC don’t get anything positive out of living there. I’m amazed that the city is still inhabited.
Others in the Northeast had students study independently because of anticipated power outages, some shortened the teaching day (which is often already shorter than the regular school day), and some gave students at least one day “off” to have fun and play in the snow.
News organization Education Weed surveyed principals and district leaders in K-12 education and found 39% converted snow days to remove learning days and 32% were considering it. That leaves only 29% who decided to be non-Grinches.
Superintendent Rob McGee of the Neshaminy School District Superintendent in eastern Pennsylvania wrote to parents that snow days, “serve as a ‘rite of passage’ for many family traditions, including sleeping in, playing games, and building snowmen. If it turns out to be a ‘bad winter,’ though — affecting the school calendar — snow days could be replaced by virtual instruction.”
So McGee is letting the kids be kids – but only to a certain point because there will be a lot more snow coming in the future.