Over the weekend before Kansas school districts went back to school, a large snowstorm hit the State resulting in many school closures.
This storm hit Saline county hard bringing a foot of snow, icy road conditions, and below freezing temperatures. Because of this storm, a state of emergency was issued in the State of Kansas on January 4, 2025. This snow storm resulted in a nearly week-long extension of Christmas break for Saline county school districts including Southeast of Saline.
Naturally, most Kansas schools closed because of the severe winter weather conditions. But even with Kansas being in a state of emergency, this didn’t mean schools would be required to close during this time. School closures are up to the school districts entirely, so during this winter storm, schools that took days off used their built-in inclement weather days.
Kansas schools are allowed by the State to designate inclement weather days prior to the start of the school year. According to the Kansas State Department of Education, “if a school district designates three snow days, then the school district must first make up three snow days on the designated days before any forgiveness is allowed. In this example, the first three days must be made up and the next three days missed because of inclement weather would be forgiven.”
The maximum number of inclement weather days that schools are allowed to designate is five, meaning schools can miss up to ten days because of inclement weather before having to add on days to the school calendar. So if schools have built-in days that can be missed, can these days be taken off at the end of the school year?
The State of Kansas requires students to be in school for a minimum of 1,116 hours or 186 days. If schools are still in session the required amount of days, they would be allowed to take off unused inclement weather days towards the end of the school year.
Southeast records time in school by both days and hours, being in session for 186 contract days and over 1,116 hours. During a school year where no snow days are used, Southeast would have the option to take days off at the end of the year. Over the last couple of school years, Southeast has used close to the maximum amount of snow days, eliminating the option to take these additional days off at the end of the year.
Overall, this snow storm hit the State of Kansas hard and forced many school districts to use several of their inclement weather days. Even though these inclement weather are built-in to school years, they can be taken off towards the end of the year as long as schools are still in session for the required amount of days.