{"id":445,"date":"2016-02-03T09:30:22","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T14:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pay4schoolstuff.com\/blog\/?p=445"},"modified":"2016-02-03T09:31:41","modified_gmt":"2016-02-03T14:31:41","slug":"the-cost-of-a-snow-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pay4schoolstuff.com\/blog\/the-cost-of-a-snow-day\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cost of a Snow Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every winter students (and many teachers and staff!) cross their fingers at the sighting of snow flurries, hoping that it\u2019ll get them a snow day – a glorious day off from school where they can frolic and play. So what if it tacks on an extra day at the end of the year – the benefit is now, and it\u2019s usually welcome. But what happens when areas of the country that typically don\u2019t experience much – if any – snow get clobbered, as Washington D.C., and parts of Virginia and Maryland did a couple of weeks ago? <\/span><\/p>\n

\"fusion_of_horizons\"<\/a>

via Flickr<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n


\n<\/span>The school district where our company\u2019s very own founder, Jay Bass, lives had a whopping 7 (seven!!) days off of school as their community dug out from under 27 inches of snow. And these days probably weren\u2019t as exciting as they would have been had the closures been for a few inches – 27 inches is a lot of snow, and it was enough to paralyze an entire section of the country, including our capital. Children can\u2019t go outside and play in the snow if it\u2019s so high they can barely move their legs. There\u2019s no meeting up with friends to go sledding when the usually minutes-long walk to their house would take an hour. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, last winter much of Massachusetts and Rhode Island saw at least one school closure every week (on a Monday, no less) for 5 or 6 weeks straight as they were pummeled with snowstorm after snowstorm through January and February. Although these closures were one day every week – as opposed to one week straight – \u00a0they still take their toll on parents, teachers, and administrators – not to mention town officials and state resources. \u00a0And the inability to clear such large volumes of snow from communities\u2019 walkways makes the interaction of cars, buses and schoolchildren a hazardous mix and further delays the re-opening of schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to measure the effects of a snow day by the numbers – there are studies that say that when students spend less time in class their test scores drop. However, that research seems to skim over two important factors: <\/span><\/p>\n