In addition to snow and ice, Winter Storm Enzo forced two days of school closures for pupils in the Greater Houston area.
The subject of whether school districts will have to make up the missed days in late May or early June is brought up as educators and children enjoyed their first snow day since 2021.
The quick answer is that they probably won’t. As hundreds of thousands of children stay home this week, here is more information regarding snow days and schools.
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How much time must kids spend in school?
Texas school districts are not required by state law to be open for a specific number of days. Instead, charter schools and public independent school districts are required to provide a minimum of 75,600 operational minutes, which encompass recess, lunch, classroom instruction, and intermission time.
What happens when schools are closed for two days?
In order to avoid having to add school days during inclement weather, several school systems incorporate extra time into their calendars beyond the statutory 75,600 minutes. For instance, Fort Bend ISD’s calendar contains over 1,000 more minutes, or just over two school days.
Makeup days are incorporated into the school calendars of other districts. The Texas Education Agency advises school districts to schedule two make-up days in case of inclement weather or situations involving health and safety issues.
Some districts put both backup plans in their calendars.
In the end, since schools typically schedule time for closures, it is not a major problem if they do so for a day or two. However, some districts may decide to use one of their scheduled makeup days later this year.
How can I track my district s approach to bad weather days?
It is difficult to determine how many additional minutes are included in their plans because districts usually do not disclose the number of operating minutes on their school calendars. For additional details on how your school or district handles closures due to inclement weather, speak with the administrators.
What happens if schools are closed for more than two days?
To compensate for lost time and still meet the 75,600-minute limit, a school district that takes several days off can add days to its schedule. If districts have used up their two makeup days, they can also request a missed school day waiver from the TEA. (The majority of students must attend classes on holidays and weekends in order to receive credit for holding school, so the TEA discourages districts from setting up makeup days on those days.)
Have schools added days to the end of the calendar after past storms?
Usually not.
In order to make up for a third missed day or more, impacted school districts in Houston were able to file for missing school waivers during the May derecho.
In a similar vein, school districts requested the waiver for up to four extra days of missing classes in September 2017 due to Hurricane Harvey. Those days on the school calendar did not need to be made up by districts that were granted the waiver.
Instead of adding extra days of classes in the late spring, some districts have decided to add a few minutes to the start or finish of the remaining school days in a year.
What if a school district doesn t make up for lost time?
A school district may lose state money if they violate the rules regarding weather days and school minutes. A school district would only receive 95% of state money if they only reported 95% of the needed time.
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