Harford County Public Schools Gets Weather Waiver

HARFORD COUNTY, MD – The last day of school has been set for students in Harford County, administrators announced Monday.

By state law, students must have 180 days of instruction each academic year. Annually, the State Department of Education reviews requests from school systems for exceptions to this requirement due to inclement weather.

Since Harford County Public Schools was granted a waiver for two days by Interim State Superintendent of Schools Jack R. Smith, Ph.D., Harford school officials said Monday that the calendar is now tentatively set as follows:

• The last day for prekindergarten will be Monday, June 13.
• The last day for kindergarten through eleventh grade students will be Wednesday, June 15.
• The last day for teachers and 10-month instructional support staff will be Friday, June 17.

Schools were closed for eight days during the 2015-2016 academic year, according to Harford County Public Schools officials.

To be proactive, the school system had built in 11 days for inclement weather while constructing its calendar.

The school system changed two professional development days (March 21 and 22) and one day of spring break (March 23) to regular school days to compensate for inclement weather, so on those days, students reported for instruction and teachers did not have their professional development days.

Superintendent Barbara Canavan proposed waiving one professional development day from the calendar, a move that officials said the Board of Education approved.

Photo Credit: Morguefile.