Tonight on our Facebook page I asked if anyone was getting a snow day tomorrow. In the discussion, I heard something about schools changing to a minimum number of hours for a school year rather than a set number of days.
Of course I had to search the internet for this news.
On the Ohio Department of Education’s website, I found the “Guidance on Schedule Change from Days to Hours”. I was so surprised to read all of the details in the article. The changes are taking place for next school year, 2014-2015.
Just a quick bit of info from the article… These are the hour requirements beginning next year:
- 455 hours for students in half-day kindergarten;
- 910 hours for students in full-day kindergarten through Grade 6; and
- 1,001 hours for students in Grades 7-12.
Instead of calamity days, this new arrangement will include ‘blizzard bag’ days. These non-snow days will consist of doing schoolwork at home to make the day count towards the required hours.
I did some searching on this who subject and found that some schools in New Hampshire have been doing this for years now. You can read about that HERE.
I also saw a friend post this on Facebook tonight… Plain local schools have already used 4-5 of their snow days for the year. Now they are adopting the blizzard bags as well. They are going to have online lessons available to be done at home. For those who do not have internet access, they will be given additional time to complete the assignments when they are back to school. You can read their full statement HERE.
I have thought it would be nice to have the day’s scheduled lesson to run through with my daughter on a snow day. Other times I’m happy to just kick back and have fun having both my kids home during the day.
What do you think about these changes? Hours instead of days? Blizzard bags?
I really like the idea of “Blizzard Bags”. It would help to keep the kids in learning mode at home and make it easier to cover everything that needs to be covered throughout the school year. It would also give caregivers (parents/grands/guardians/babysitters) some insight into how their child is doing at school outside of conferences.
I am back and forth on the idea. I have already thought this year that a similar thing would be nice. But on the other hand, who wants all the snow days to end up in just doing work at home? I know, we don’t have a choice and it’s going to be a good change. I just don’t want Grace missing out on the fun of having random days off with movies, etc. 🙂
I don’t like the idea of the blizzard bags..when school is cancelled‚ I want to enjoy that extra time with my kids. I don’t want to play school. I was always excited when school was cancelled when I was a kid. They get enough homework every week now..no need for extra 🙂
i don’t know how i feel about them going to hours instead of days. i don’t think that I would like it unless they keep some of the standards they have to meet know. i know that i don’t like the idea of the blizzard bags.
I like the idea of Blizzard Bags. However, I think there still need to be some traditional snow/cancellation days. But the thought of no more taking away from spring break/extending the school year is a great one. I know many families plan vacation around school breaks and then have to make the decision to cancel nonrefundable vacations or pull their kids out of school. If Blizzard Bags are used only after an allotted number of calamity days, then that sounds perfect.