When winter arrives and snow starts to fall, most students experience that pure joy of waking up to see a thick white blanket of snow covering everything. They immediately hope for schools to be closed, yet what many don’t consider is how these weather related closures create a central challenge for teaching that goes beyond just one day off.
School administrators and school districts want to know more about whether keeping schools open during a storm or calling a snow day proves more detrimental to student learning. Especially since study findings from Assistant Professor Joshua Goodman finds that snow days do not impact student achievement.
When diesel-fueled vehicles refuse to start and mechanical issues compound with inability to properly heat buildings, district officials face a crucial choice—and it’s never just about the snow.
How do Snow Days Affect Students? It’s a question that district leaders must balance safety concerns by considering many factors to determine closure, such as low temperatures creating health risk for those waiting at bus stops, overall road conditions threatening safe passage.
Extremely low temperatures that pose danger to anyone walking to school. This is not as severe as other absences explained by the fact that districts typically plan for weather related disruptions. It tack on extra days to the schedule to compensate.
In contrast, student absences force teachers to expend time getting students on the same page with their classmates, because these absences typically aren’t made up on the school calendar, causing kids to fall behind.
This calculus has resulted in four snow days during 2024, according to careful tracking, yet the district uses far more nuanced reasoning than simply measuring snow accumulates on sidewalks. The decision ripples through instructional time, reshaping what was meant as steady, day by day progress into something more fragmented, where teachers scramble to maintain their carefully constructed curriculum while students suddenly find themselves with an unexpected day off that simultaneously offer relief and disrupt educational continuity.
The immediate impacts extend beyond rearranged lessons and pushed-back assignments; there’s genuine concern about students who need that safe warm stable environment daily, where home environment might be stressful rather than welcoming.
Meanwhile, seniors like Blake Wohler and Lucas Sola express how snow days help their overall attitude toward school, providing that rare opportunity to focus on their personal lives. They can enjoy being themselves and relax—something that Sola helps articulate when discussing how stressful regular weeks are packed with classes, homework, studying, tests, clubs, sports, while trying to maintain a social life.
How do Snow Days Affect Students Learning?
School researchers uncovered something surprising when examining grades three-through-ten data over several years: the coordination puzzle matters more than lost hours. A former school teacher discovered that keeping schools open during a storm creates more detrimental outcomes than weather-related closures.
Because student absences force teachers to expend time getting students on the same page as their classmates. This new study, conducted at Goodman’s behest for the Massachusetts Department of Education, reveals that school districts typically plan for these disruptions by tacking on extra days to the schedule, whereas other student absences from parental discretion or transportation issues mean kids fall behind without make-up days built into the school calendar.
The central challenge isn’t the time lost itself—most school administrators already want to understand this model. But rather how teaching suffers when students return at different schedules, forcing educators into slack time patterns where regained momentum becomes impossible. A lesson that might be considered essential for anyone deciding not to declare a snow day despite many kids inevitably choosing to miss school regardless of official decisions.
Calling off school requires thoughtful consideration of how compensation strategies play out—not reflexive impact denial. Since the consistent evidence suggests student achievement depends less on perfect attendance than on education continuity. The claim snow days negatively impact learning does not hold up when districts implement proper recovery structures. Though administrators must still consider each storm individually rather than calling every weather-related event the same threat level.
How Cold Weather Disrupts Learning, Logistics & Safety?
The top priority question becomes: Are snow days good for students? do these closures ultimately protect student welfare or does the disruption to learning rhythm create more damage than the weather itself?
When ice blankets roads and transportation challenges emerge, the ability to get to school safely becomes compromised as school buses struggle with navigating icy roads that pose risk to everyone involved.
The impact extends into classrooms where cold temperatures and snow-covered shoes with wet clothing create messy classrooms that make learning environments less comfortable, forcing educators to constantly adjust their lesson plans to accommodate those who arrive late or miss school due to weather-related issues.
Meanwhile, classroom disruptions become inevitable as schools remain open despite treacherous ice conditions, and the real-time weather data along with road condition updates help transportation authorities make informed decisions about delaying bus routes or closing schools entirely so students can travel safely.
School Closures
Principals making closure calls face enormous pressure as parents anxiously check news and refresh district pages, while officials balance safety concerns against operations continuity.
When winter arrives with its threat of ice, these leaders must start preparing for decisions that impact thousands of staff members and families—not to mention the ways such disruptions ripple through academic calendars.
The United States sees roughly a typical school spanning 6 months, yet frequent closures from snow and ice storms can knock out this carefully planned structure, forcing administrators to adjust everything from scheduling to how curriculum gets delivered.
Officials know each closure means extended school years or shortened vacations, creating a snow day make-up dilemma where they must alter plans that affect students and teachers alike.
What makes these decisions particularly challenging is understanding that while virtual days through snow day calculator by protonreader can help districts best prepare for winter’s challenges. The reality remains that not all students have access to reliable internet or technology, making remote learning an incredibly unfair option for many.
You can also read: When to cancel school due to snow?
Transportation Challenges
When heavy snowfall creates dangerous levels of winter weather, the immediate disruption extends beyond classroom walls—getting to school becomes a logistical nightmare that affects families who rely on bus routes and personal vehicles alike.
Drivers who rely on public transportation inevitably face delays or outright cancellations, creating a difficult situation that demands careful consideration beyond just the slip-and-fall risk students encounter when they walk to school.
The impact ripples through communities where parents scramble to adjust work schedules while roads remain unplowed, forcing districts to weigh safety against maintaining their academic calendar and ensuring every student has equal access to education regardless of transportation challenges.
Classroom Disruptions
When unexpected closures force schools to close their doors, the immediate challenge isn’t just rescheduling—it’s watching staff scramble to offer support for students who miss class during critical learning windows.
The national oceanic atmospheric administration (NOAA) attempts to provide alerts with enough advance notice so districts can cancel or delay classes while minimizing disruption and ensuring safety, yet even with this technology, the ripple effect through daily instruction remains noticeable.
These impacts create scenarios where teachers lose momentum mid-lesson, students return confused about where concepts left off, and the continuity that makes complex subjects click simply evaporates.
Impact on Teachers and Curriculum
When snow days accumulate, the resulting pressure forces educators into an exhausting make-up dilemma where they must handle negative scheduling gymnastics that feel nearly impossible. Teachers face the stark reality of squeezing curriculum content while trying to maintain instructional quality.
They are forced to rush through essential material or skip the hands on creative activities that truly make lessons stick—those engaging moments where class becomes memorable rather than mechanical.
This disruptive cycle doesn’t just impact students; it transforms passionate educators into stressed time managers who can’t deliver their best work, watching helplessly as school schedules unravel and the need to cover state-mandated content battles against their desire to teach deeply rather than superficially.
Difficulty Getting Back Into Rhythm
After multiple snow days, students experience significant challenges getting back into their regular academic flow, particularly when disruptions stretch beyond a single day and classes resume with altered schedules.
The rhythm of daily learning becomes fragmented—teachers rush to cover missed material while students struggle to reconnect with concepts they’d been building momentum on before the unexpected break, creating a jarring transition that affects classroom engagement and performance.
Research shows this disruption proves especially difficult for those who rely on consistent routine to process new information, as the pressure to catch up quickly often leaves everyone feeling stressed and overwhelmed rather than refreshed.
