No longer will there be days dedicated to building snowmen instead of paying attention in geometry class, as the Department of Education (DOE) announced back in 2020 that all New York schools must continue under remote learning when poor weather conditions occur, and Chancellor David Banks recently confirmed such a ruling on an interview with on Fox 5’s Good Day New York.
These cherished days sprinkled throughout the winter season stood as a fun-filled time for students to swap out their backpacks for snow pants and enjoy the winter wonderland. Sadly, with online options available for conducting class, Chancellor David Banks announced that students will have to revert to remote learning days instead.
The DOE is determined to meet their “180-day instruction requirement” which mandates students attend class 180 days out of the year, and the decision to turn snow days into online instruction days aids in reaching said mandate. Schools are finding out all that they can do without in-person classes and as expected are using that to their advantage since the start of the pandemic.
A statement released by the DOE in 2020 is still relevant today stating, “as we reopen schools for this critical school year, we are utilizing all of the lessons learned from remote schooling this spring to maximize our students’ instructional time,” which called for remote learning on snow days.
Kids, as sad as it may seem, you’ll just have to enjoy your hot cocoa in front of a computer screen this school year.