Growing up in WI, schools were closed when it was extremely cold because the buses couldn't operate properly and they didn't want the kids stranded in the cold. I think it had to be -20ú or maybe it was -30ú, I can't remember for sure.

We thought it was funny because we just bundled up and went outside to play, like normal. Ice skating, sledding, forts, snowball fights, all the usual stuff.

It's really rare that schools are closed in Calgary. Really rare. I only remember once being told to keep the kids home and that was because we got 2 feet of snow over night and most of the teachers couldn't get their cars out of their driveways. We've always lived close to school so the kids would have no problem walking. But if staff can't get there...... When it's super cold like it was yesterday (-34C with the wind chill factor), it's up to the parents. Most of them bundle up the kids and drive them. Those who can't drive them layer their clothes and send them off.

We are in Ohio, my husband says NO they never closed school because of cold and thinks it's ridiculous and people are...well I won't use the word he used...HAHA! He said only if there was a lot of snow on the roads did school get closed...meaning the buses couldn't drive safely. Do the buses have trouble when it's really cold? Maybe that is it, I guess buses were better back in the 60s...HA!

In Southern Ontario we never had school closed for the cold. I don't even remember having any snow days in my youth either. The majority of us walked to school as you had to live at least two miles away before you were allowed a school bus.

No closings for me in Cincinnati Ohio. I grew up in the mid 40's and we just dressed warmer and I walked to school no matter what. My sister and I and my 2 neighbors we walked together to elementary school. I did ride a city bus to middle school and high school.
Mary

I agree Moni. Growing up in New York, I don't ever remember not going to school due to snow. I took a public bus and yes, sometimes had to wait longer, or wait to get on one that wasn't packed, but we never had a day off.

My daughters were raised in Westchester County. I think one of the concerns is the distance some of the teachers have to drive to get to work.

When they had to open during a break, families that had plans would go anyway.

Having an unscheduled day off that you have to pay back later is certainly not fun for you!

Not when I was younger, but we have closed schools due to triple digit weather here (me). And now, we have closed for single digit (my son's group). It could be that we're learning and it might be a better idea not to subject kids to the extreme temps. Their little bodies don't take things as well as older kids or adults. Some really are vulnerable. I can't imagine it's too many, but one is more than I am willing to risk harming. Maybe? It's a thought.

Here it has been decided to close schools just because of wind chill under 10 degrees.

Talk is, it is because it would be to cold for kids to wait on the bus. YIKES, lots of people here are smokers, and go out to eat the majority of meals... granted, fast food, not nice restaurants... but they don't buy coats for their kids, nor do they enforce coats have to be worn... and thus, school is closed for cold.

I really don't understand where this is going. People should be glad, there is school, and send their kids! PERIOD.

Moni

I don't remember school ever closing because of cold, but there were plenty of "snow days" growing up in Buffalo NY and its' suburbs (Clarence). .

Yes, our schools close for very cold weather and snow. Today not terribly cold but the snow plows have not been down a lot of the county roads. Most of the schools in the state are closed today I think.

Right now it is about 25 out.

Sue in Central Indiana

No, I don't remember the schools closing when I was going to school. This was in the fifties and sixties. Talking about the staff not being able to get to school, I remember one teacher that lived in the country would ride the school bus during the winter. I guess she didn't like to drive on snowy roads.

That's an idea, riding the school bus... only it would not work for me. I have to be there at 7 AM, and the kids come in to eat breakfast at 8:30

Moni

I don't remember it when I was growing up, but yes, they did (at least in MN) when my kids were growing up. And in 1994 and 1997 (I believe I got the years right) and then again this year, the MN Governor closed schools across the entire state. That was for wind chills maybe as low as -55 and actual temps that fell (in many places) to as low as -40.

While we can talk about kids going out and playing when it's that cold, it's entirely different if they should get stranded on a bus somewhere and have to sit there for hours (or even an hour or two). We have kids here that are bussed from remote areas, some as far as 35 miles, and not always on the best of roads either. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

We also had longer summer vacations. Why are todays 'energy efficient' schools so cold anyhow? Closing is OK, I guess, as long as make up days provide the required hours of education needed. For me, this unscheduled crap means no pay. Germany is all I know about year round class. 10 yr old kids rode their bikes 5-10 miles to school. A friend did the same for hi school.

mi schools are now working on borrowed time which they have to make up..today the snow was so bad (blowing) that the county down by the ohio border not only closed schools but roads as well...(don't think they can the biggie I75) but they lost lives with a crash last week or 2...

when I was in hs in so ca, we actually closed 2x..once because of very heavy rain, and once for heat (Hollywood was a very old school and no ac) so it can happen in the best of climes!

No, and never because of snow either. I remember being bused from the base to town when I was a kid, some 40 minutes away in 5 or 6 inches of snow. My daughter has now missed 12 days, one of them because they thought there might be snow. There wasn't. Yesterday before the ice storm hit she went snow boarding in the country with her friends.

current conditions here:

Mostly Cloudy and Breezy 12ðF -11ðC

Humidity67%
Wind SpeedN 24 G 32 mph
Wind Chill-8ðF (-22ðC)

and it is only 1 degree warmer than at 5:15 when the "school is closed" call came in.

I understand it to be closed, when it has the kind of cold as in Minnesota and Ohio etc... but it really isn't that bad, in the big scheme of life, and we are talking about more city kids than country kids, this is Oklahoma City School district.

Moni

Just once. Today we are being hit again with another snow storm and the usual closures are taking place (not private businesses) - and the people who are closed due to snow days have no problem going shopping etc. In my opinion if it is too dangerous for person X to go to work or out then it is too dangerous for them to expect person Y to be there to service their needs!

hahahaha, NOT here. And we prayed for snow, but when I was growing up, I don't remember any snow days, though, either!

They have closed the schools in ND a bit more this year, not due to snow but extremely cold and wind chill weather. We have had air temps down to a minus 25 and lower with a wind chill in the minus 40 and lower. But this state runs a lot of buses to rural areas and we have portable units that some of the kids have to go to between classes due to the oil boom. Today is 8 below, and school is open. But usually when the schools are closed we are under a mandated do not travel order also.

I've lived in MN all my life and school was NEVER closed due to cold weather when I was a kid and it was very cold back then too and I walked to school. When I lived in a rural area it would close for snowstorms because roads were impassable. During the five years I lived in an urban area it never closed for any reason.

What goes on today in terms of school closings is ridiculous. It is however consistent with protecting the poor children from any duress, difficulty, discomfort or disappointment which creates a generation of adults who never learned to cope with anything.

Someone asked if buses really have trouble in cold weather.. I can answer that and its YES..
Batteries drain down ( we replaced batteries on over 20 buses the first time it got cold), air values freeze up, signs and doors freeze shut . First day we went when it was so cold, I was over 30 minutes late.Kids stood outside waiting on me the entire time and wind chills were in single digits. My air value was frozen open and my air pressure wouldn't build up..which meant no brakes. Kids today dont know how to bundle up..Out of 22 middle school kids I had 2 that had on what I would call a winter coat, everyone else had on sweatshirt like jackets.

So staying home in the extreme cold is for the sake and safety of the children and believe me if I dont go to work I dont go anywhere else either

No, my school never closed. This was the 60's in northern Iowa.

I live in Missouri now, and the public schools around here have been closed ALL WEEK so far. And most have already announced they are closed tomorrow, too. Yes, we got some snow (7 inches) and it's cold out (6 degrees), but I think it's ridiculous.

And our state passed a law a few years ago that if a school uses up all its snow days it had built into their calendar, the state will just forgive any extra days. So if the school misses 10 days for weather, and has 7 days built into the calendar for makeup days, the extra 3 days will just be forgotten about and not made up.

Yes, I remember (very few) snow days when I was in grammar school in a NW suburb of Chicago in the late forties and early fifties. Sometimes roads were too bad for kids or staff to get TO the school, or there was fear the coming storm would trap them there. Sometimes a school's heating system couldn't be counted on -- lots of old boilers and radiators. Also, most of my classmates and I *walked* to school or rode our bikes. No busses. Not every household had a spare car to take kids to school.

Now many parents are working 24/7 and there is nobody home to take care of kids. They demand schools stay open --as 'babysitters'. In poor communities, many kids only get fed at school. At the inner city school where our DIL taught, EVERY child qualified for free food. They got breakfasts, lunches and took home a sack. Mondays they were *starving*.

Never for me for cold or snow. Kids occasionally had a snow day, never one for the cold.

6 AM:
and yes, the third time is a charm (yes, this is the third day in a row)!!! LOL, we do have snow.

Of course, I already had my call for no school.

Good thing I got out yesterday... and I don't have to worry about sliding vehicles today. :)

Moni

All 12 years I went to school except for the first two years, my Mother was a cook at my school. She continued for some years after I graduated. Everyday she rode the school bus with us to work as a cook and then back home with us. We were never notified when there would be a school closing. The bus did not show up. This was in the 40's and early 50's.

Sue

Here in central Iowa, I keep hearing folks saying that schoolds didn't close for extreme cold like they do now. Our schools are actually more likely to have a 2 hour delay on very cold days. Funny thing, it doesn't warm up any in those 2 hours. I was thinking about my mom living on a farm here in the early 1900s before they had phones. I hear that on very cold days her dad hitched up the horses to a sleigh and gave the kids a ride to school. Other than that they walked.

Where I grew up, snow never even stuck to the ground, so the school was never closed for snow. But further north in the state, yes, the schools were closed for snow sometimes, in the sixties and seventies. I think it was a good decision. Back then it was much more sensible and cost efficient for schools in the northern part of the state to just stay home rather than keep equipment to plow the roads and everyone to buy show chains or tires.

I remember hearing as a little girl about schools up north closed due to triple digit heat waves and laughing. We never closed our schools due to heat, and triple digit temps were business as usual. Now that I'm older and wiser, I realize those schools were wise to close due to the heat, which was probably as unsafe for them as the snow and ice are for us.

Atlanta has grown bigger and it's probably better that the metro area invests in the equipment and personnel to keep the roads safe even during the snow. But I'm nostalgic enough to hope we always close the schools here when it snows.

I think people are more safety-conscious nowadays. We never used to wear seat belts, put babies in car seats, wear helmets when we biked or snow skied. My mom said when she was a teenager, a fellow 16-year-old student drove the school bus.

So sorry about your enforced holiday. I'd rather have a beautiful spring day off, too.

I grew up in So Cal....I remember closing because of smog.

Of course, some of us are so old that remembering the snow from last week is a stretch!

Jim

Today our school called indoor recess at lunch..it was about 30 with wind chill 25...the problem is..we live where people don't buy their kids winter clothes..

I think kids attempt to wear as little as possible..and many kids have parents that don't pay attention, or even bother getting out of bed..to see what their kids are or are not wearing.

Never! and we walked to school. I don't even think the schools close now. The school buses may stop running but the schools remain open. I am always surprised when listening to the Detroit news how many school closings there are when the weather gets bad.

I grew up in n.y.state,out in the country,about 45 minutes outside the city.We used to get lots of snow,and we also walked to and from school.I don't remember having snow days,and if we did they were few and far between.

When I went to what they call middle school now and high school,we were bused their as the school was in the next town over.We still went to school,we may have been late a few times,as our bus had to take a different route,as our normal route was up a very steep hill,and the buses had trouble making it up in bad weather.

Seems these days They cancel school if more than 10 flakes fall.Jon.
Kathi

I began school in 1942 in a little, one room, country grade school, and walked 2 miles to get there. It never closed for weather; For one thing, many of us did not have a telephone and some did not have a radio. The nearest radio station was in the next county, so there was no way to contact the parents of the student body. We'd gather for school and assume it was closed if the teacher did not arrive.

I grew up in Boston in the 50s and yes we loved no school days. We would listen intently for a loud horn to blast 3 times in a row, that was music to our ears. I went to private school and no buses and my parents didn't drive so we had to walk, it wasn't far. We would have at least 3 to 4 days a winter and sometimes more, the best days lol.