Just 11 days into the new year, and less than a month since the official start of winter, one Northern Virginia school district is close to running out of designated snow days. Another has run out entirely.
Arlington Public Schools — whose current calendar allows for six snow days for elementary students and seven snow days for middle and high schoolers — has already used five snow days.
Once those days are used up, the school system will switch to virtual learning on any additional days that the weather disrupts in-person learning this school year, and the superintendent has told members of the school board that the academic calendar might need to be adjusted as well.
The situation is a bit more advanced nearby. Fairfax County Public Schools — which had allowed for five snow days — has used them all up. Any further inclement weather will mean virtual learning.
“However we will always have to take into consideration the conditions in our area, such as massive power outages, that might impact students’ abilities to learn at home and staff’s ability to deliver that instruction,” the school district said in a statement last week.
