New York City public schools will no longer have snow days where school is cancelled due to heavy snowfall, Schools Chancellor David Banks said Tuesday.
Banks told Fox 5’s Good Day New York program that when there is too much snow for children to be brought to school, schools will engage in distance learning instead of cancelling classes, making use of new techniques developed during COVID-19 lockdowns..
“There are technically no more snow days," Banks said. “With the new technology that we have – that’s one of the good things that came out of COVID – if a snow day comes around, we want to make sure that our kids continue to learn."
“So, sorry kids! No more snow days, but it’s gonna be good for you!”
The new policy means that children who may have expected to be out having snowball fights, building snowmen, making snow angels, or earning money shoveling snow instead be indoors, sitting in front of their computers and attending classes on ZOOM.
The New York City Department of Education cited the addition of new holidays to the school calendar in recent years as another reason for the change in policy. The new holidays make it more difficult for schools to have children attend for 180 days a year as mandated by New York law, an issue which will be eliminated without random snow snow days cancelling classes during the winter.