When should school systems call off school due to bad weather?

Today was the 3rd time in the last 12 months that I've had to go pick up one of my kids from a school bus accident where the bus had slid off an icy road into a ditch. Fortunately nobody was hurt in any of the 3 situations, but it makes me wonder. Here is an article from a different part of Indiana where a bus overturned due to bad road conditions. School bus overturns

As a kid I always wanted school called off just to get out of class. Now I'm a bit concerned that officials are so reluctant to call off school that it could be a problem. Where I live, before last year, I can't ever recall a school bus sliding off the road because of ice and snow. The one time last year when I had to get my daughter I drove my Excursion and ended up taking 11 kids to school since their bus was in a ditch and teetering on going over. The road was on a hill with a curve and was a solid sheet of ice. I've never driven a school bus on ice myself, but I'll take the bus driver's word for it that a school bus handles terribly on ice.

Am I being a paranoid parent or should school officials err to the side of caution like they used to around here? Our city and county are not well prepared for snow removal since we don't even get snow every winter.

The district we live in is the largest geographical school district in the state and what I've seen is that they tend to be very cautious. We have FOG and SNOW delays on a regular basis. Typically we get a call about 5:30am announcing the delay. If the conditions continue to be bad, usually about 90 to 120 minutes later they will simply cancel the whole day.

There have been times I've driven my daughter to school (she attends a private school 2 school districts to our north) and wondered why the local district called off. But given the size of the district it is very possible to have good conditions on one side of the county and a storm on the other side.

I think it is up to the district to err on the side of caution.

Dargo said:

Today was the 3rd time in the last 12 months that I've had to go pick up one of my kids from a school bus accident where the bus had slid off an icy road into a ditch. Fortunately nobody was hurt in any of the 3 situations, but it makes me wonder. Here is an article from a different part of Indiana where a bus overturned due to bad road conditions. School bus overturns

As a kid I always wanted school called off just to get out of class. Now I'm a bit concerned that officials are so reluctant to call off school that it could be a problem. Where I live, before last year, I can't ever recall a school bus sliding off the road because of ice and snow. The one time last year when I had to get my daughter I drove my Excursion and ended up taking 11 kids to school since their bus was in a ditch and teetering on going over. The road was on a hill with a curve and was a solid sheet of ice. I've never driven a school bus on ice myself, but I'll take the bus driver's word for it that a school bus handles terribly on ice.

Am I being a paranoid parent or should school officials err to the side of caution like they used to around here? Our city and county are not well prepared for snow removal since we don't even get snow every winter.

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I have never driven a BUS on ice, but many similar vehicles. To say they suck would be an understatement. Out here we have designated routes in some areas that the buses take in bad weather. I would think they would do that there too. A hill with a curve that is covered in ice is NO place for a bus. Parents should be taking the kids to a point on a designated ice route to meet the bus. I dunno... tough call all the way around. Has it been the same driver every time? That concerns me as well...

rback33 said:

Parents should be taking the kids to a point on a designated ice route to meet the bus. I dunno... tough call all the way around. Has it been the same driver every time? That concerns me as well...

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Now that's a great idea, inclimate weather bus routes. We have 'emergency snow routes' just in case we get that once every 15 year heavy snow, but we have no specific routes for buses to take in bad weather. They take their normal routes. I live out of the city in an area that has more hills than any area inside the city.

Each of the 3 incidents with my kids has been on a different route with a different driver. Our county roads just plain were not laid out with the thought of 'what if' bad weather is here. I'm just concerned that they will evenutally make a change only after some child is seriously injured or killed. I'd rather be proactive rather than reactive myself.

Our county tends to be more cautious and will usually delay or close the schools. Of course you have the parents who use school as a babysitting service that go nuts. We only live a mile from the elementary and middle school so my wife takes both of our kids as it is just quicker than waiting at the bus stop (end of our driveway) plus the kids can sleep later.

The part that makes it tricky is that part of the county is on the Blue Ridge Mountains and the roads tend to be a lot worse than in other parts of the county. I think our county has done a good job the past couple of years deciding on closings and delays or early dismissals.

Classes were cancelled around here today and thank goodness.
We've got ice underneath about 1-2" of snow.
Since it's such a large rural area surrounding the city, many kids are bussed into town.
Lots of farm kids around here!
The city schools have always been quick to call off and keep the kiddos safe.

Never.

They never closed school for me.

I used to walk to school 10 miles, uphill both way, in blinding snowstorms with 4 feet of snow on the ground, even in the summer, so the kiddies and teachers these days can do the same.................

I've driven school busses............yes, they're terrible on ice! Here, if they close school early, 1:30 Pm or later, it counts as a full day of school. I remember going out in the morning after freezing rain, running the route and getting the kids to school. Late, but they got there. The sun came out and melted the ice off the roads and at 1:30........you guessed it! They let school out early.

Anyhow, one of the biggest problems with school bussing is the quality of drivers they get. You ain't gonna make a living driving school bus, so you get older semi retired folks who I'd trust further than some of the younger guys and gals they get. I know of a few drivers I wouldn't trust to take a tricycle out in the driveway, but they get to haul 30 members of our future around.

As many of you know, I live in north Alabama. Winter weather here is strange and unpredictable. It maybe 70 degrees on day and below freezing within 24 hours. We get at least one dusting of snow per winter and maybe a good snow once every 10. We are due one by the way. Because of our lack of snow we don't have snowplows, salt spreaders, etc, because it doesn't make sense. Most of the times after one of our light snows, the roads are completely passible with the exception of some of the hilly parts of north Alabama and the schools for that district get closed. Last week a cold front came through and the county I live in and the local city school system cancelled all evening activities and went ahead and delayed school openings the next morning by 2 hours. The snow ended 50 miles from us and it was 50 something degrees the next day.

i live in nw georgia where we almost never get snow. if we do it is at night and is gone shortly after sunup. but just let one weatherman say snow and all school is called off. i think this is a bit much but i have driven on most all the county roads and i guess its better safe than sorry. but i would think it has to get pretty bad up north before they call off school uh?

waybomb said:

Never.

They never closed school for me.

I used to walk to school 10 miles, uphill both way, in blinding snowstorms with 4 feet of snow on the ground, even in the summer, so the kiddies and teachers these days can do the same.................

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ROFL!!

Now you do remind me of a time at college when the college considered calling off classes when we had a really bad blizzard. I'm sure Skurka was there at Wabash then. We had something like 30" or more of snow over the weekend, all roads were closed, we had a drift at the corner of our fraternity that was an honest 15' high. But, no, the school said that they'd never called off classes before in their 150 year history and they weren't going to then. They had the Green Army (what we called their maintenance people for their green jumpsuits) shovel a single wide path from our fraternity to other intersecting paths to different buildings. The sides of these "tunnels" were well over 4' high and you had to squeeze past someone going the other direction. I didn't have to drive anywhere, so it didn't bother me. Some professors couldn't make it though.

But, hey, that was the year that I screwed some cross country skis to a coffin we had and tied it to the back bumper of my VW Beetle that had steel studded snow tires and pulled it around through town. That was the time when the rope broke and one of our Rhoades Scholars was in the coffin. It went through the storefront glass at a shopping center. His stuffy parents wouldn't talk to me after that incident. He really didn't get hurt in that crash. It was later that night when he fell out of the boat that he got his collar bone broken. It wasn't the fall out of the boat (going down the road while being pulled behind my VW) that hurt him. It was when Jim, who was skiing behind the boat hit him that broke his collar bone. Believe me, that one was really hard to explain to the ER physician when he wanted to know "exactly" how his injury occured. He tried to explain that when he was pouring a drink and the boat hit a pot hole that caused him to fall out of the boat. The expression on the ER physician's face was priceless! I'm sure he still likely tells about that incident. Of course no real alcohol was involved.

The schools have been closed here all week.
We have been snowed in since Sunday.
We can go to town, but we can't get back. (It's down hill going)
We have about three inches of solid ice on the roads.

When I was a kid, they didn't cancel school unless we hot gotten at least 6-8" the night before, or alot of freezing rain.
Nowadays, the school is delayed 3 hours for just 2-3 inches of snow.
I don't understand it. Then again, I'd rather see the kids have to go an extra day or two at the end of the year, than attend the funeral of a child whose parent I know because the roads were slippery.

I give alot of credit to the school bus drivers. I don't know if I could do what they do with all the distractions they have.

God I hate people getting on their soup box and saying, when I was a kid, Bla, bla, bla
I lived in a hilly area. When we came to a hill in the snow all the boys got out and helped push the bus up the hill.
We knew if the bus rolled back to get out of the way.
Nobody ever got hurt..
Different times.

Around here they are pretty cautious. They will close schools if it's too dangerous for the buses or even too bad for the kids that have to walk to school. The state only allows them 5 calamity or snow days per year though. Any more than that, they have to make up at the end of the year. Now a 1-2 hour delay doesn't count against those days. So they do that a lot and let the rush hour traffic die down and then get the kids to school for the rest of the day.

They don't close them enough around because they are afraid of losing their funding from the State.

On one icy storm I took my kids to the bus pick up point instead of having them walk. They got on the bus and then I followed. Gravel road the bus starts going down the hill sideways. All I could think of was the bus was going to hit gravel and then roll. Lucky it was ice all the way down. I took my kids out of the bus and had a hell of a time getting back up the hill even with 4 wheel drive. When it got bad I no longer trusted the school and if it was bad I dove.

they close schools here if it 'promises' bad weather, but then this week we had some ice and I'll be danged if they did not call off school, not even late start.

they never really make sense IMHO

Maybe the weather wasnt too bad but the bus driver was hungover?

Whatcha need it a bus with 4 wheel drive... huge nobby tires roll bars. Wait Im thinking of Jurasic Park.

darroll said:

God I hate people getting on their soup box and saying, when I was a kid, Bla, bla, bla
I lived in a hilly area. When we came to a hill in the snow all the boys got out and helped push the bus up the hill.
We knew if the bus rolled back to get out of the way.
Nobody ever got hurt..
Different times.

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WTF? You say you hate it when someone does it, then go and do it yourself!

Bahhhh!!!!!! Wimps!!!!!! Close the schools because of a little snow??????? We got a foot and a half of snow last monday and all the local buses still ran. They still had plans on a delayed bus pickup for the out of town kids but the highways were closed and didn't reopen till the afternoon.

If we were not so quick to sue the school system for everything possible I don't think we would have the "over cautious" problem....how many times do you read of a company being sued because of someones stupidity ....hot coffee burns ....postman sues homeowner because he slips on ice while crossing lawn... the list is endless.

True. In this day and age, everyone wants to sue everyone so we all have to be extra cautious.

We used to say that the superintendant wouldn't call off school as long as he could see it; he lived across the street. Actually, there usually would be a couple times a year, but then a layer of ice on the roads and snow measured in feet not inches with some good wind drifting it. If it was a blizzard, I do recall several gravel roads where the buss wouldn't go unless one of the farmers brought a tractor and escorted the bus with a freshly snowblown path or dropped their kids off at the highway. The drivers all really knew their routes and in any kind of weather - ours always put all the big kids to the back to put the weight over the rear axle (and probably to not hear their less inocent language too), but I do recall rare occasions of one getting stuck (I don't recall the old driver on our route getting stuck, but the new I think did at least once).

More interesting - and less than 10 years ago: my wife was teaching in the west side of the state; many times the weather would be bad enough that kids would come on horseback or their parents would bring them in the tractor to pick up their assignments for the day, then everyone would go home.

Around here, it's a lot like Traktornut noted: they'll try to start late or let out early instead of calling it off, but ussually the weather does exacty the opposite of whatever they're decision was prepared for.

groomerguyNWO said:

True. In this day and age, everyone wants to sue everyone so we all have to be extra cautious.

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Let's sue the idiots causing all this "sueage!"

Spiffy1 said:

Let's sue the idiots causing all this "sueage!"

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Would that make the courthouse the Sueage Tank...
and the attorneys the Sueage Haulers ?

I got caught.
It’s like the old saying, don’t do as I do, do as I say..
The devil made me do it..

darroll said:

I got caught.
It’s like the old saying, don’t do as I do, do as I say..
The devil made me do it..

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I have days like that...

School wasn't called off because of the weather today but the buses were cancelled due to the cold. They don't run in anything less then -35celsius and it is a balmy -40 right now.

-40C; -40degreesF Whaaaattt's the difference?!

same thing at -40. I get mixed up all the time though when you guys say its 0 or 5 or something. I immediately think "Cool, t-shirt weather!" when really it's -18 in modern day terms.