For many students in Maryland, the closure of the snowstorm on Tuesday may have been their last snow of the year as schools try to meet their minimum school day requirements.
The state requires schools to conduct 180 days of teaching. School districts usually build on the calendar for a few days in preparation for any bad weather events every year. This year's winter weather has consumed many areas of built-in days and needs to be transferred to virtual learning, extending academics or opening up the potential that could be subject to a 180-day minimum.
In Anne Arundel County, the school took virtual classes Tuesday and Wednesday after using five bad weather days. After using two virtual learning days, it can have up to six more before the end of the year.
State regulations say that districts can use up to eight virtual learning days, five of which require real-time teaching.
The City of Baltimore Public Schools have three expensive weather days to work and use them all to respond to blizzards this week and January. Any future bad weather will cause the school system to move to virtual learning, but the school year has been extended to Monday after the previous scheduled last day of school.
Baltimore County Public Schools used February 6 on the last bad weather days of these three weather. Wednesday was delayed by two hours.
Carroll County Public Schools used its fourth day of snowfall Wednesday during the year, with built-in restrictions exceeding three days. Since virtual learning is not available in the area, the last day of the school is a waste as students no longer allocate laptops.
Carey Gaddis, spokeswoman for Carol County Public Schools, said principal Cynthia McCabe will plan how to make up for the waste of time in April.
The school district chief can ask the state to exempt the 180-day minimum in some cases. McCabe previously dropped Carroll Schools on the 180th day of the school year. However, this requirement can also be waived when the district “proves that sufficient efforts have been made through calendar planning and modification” and that “natural or civil disasters or severe weather conditions are very important.” ”
Including Wednesday’s closure, Harford County Public Schools used five of the five days of six days. While state law allows schools to use virtual learning in exhausted weather later, Harford County has no virtual learning program this year.
Looking ahead, if the school district spends the last bad weather day and still needs more, the school board may try to make school hours longer to compensate.
Howard County Public Schools closed for five snowfall days on Wednesday for the sixth year. The year-round closure makes the last day of the school a calendar week from June 11 to June 18.
The district is consulting the state Department of Education about how best to proceed.
Reporter Bridget Byrne, Thomas Goodwin Smith, Matt Hubbard and Kiersten Hacker for this article The article contributed. Is there any news tips? Contact Racquel Bazos at rbazos@baltsun.com, 443-813-0770, or @rzbworks on x.
