MA Coronavirus In-School Rules May Save Salem Snow Days

SALEM, MA — State education rules designed to force districts to resume full-day, in-classroom learning amid the coronavirus health crisis last spring are now poised to bring back the traditional snow day this winter.

With students already in hybrid or full-remote learning during the pandemic, many school districts across the state — including Salem — ditched the traditional snow days in place of a remote learning day in bad weather so they would not have to tack on an extra make-up day at the end of the school year in June.

Faced with the question of whether to continue that policy this year with the remote capability, districts are finding out they may not have a choice because state guidelines released last spring only allow remote learning to count toward required learning hours if it is the result of a coronavirus quarantine.

"In talking with the Department of Ed this week right now there is no allowance for remote days for snow days," Salem Superintendent of Schools Steve Zrike said during his weekly Facebook Live session. "They have not issued any guidance for that at this point. So right now if we were to have an inclement weather day it would have to be a traditional snow day because they are not allowing remote days — only in the event of a classroom closure due to COVID, not for snow days.

Zrike had previously said he planned to survey the district community on their preference for traditional snow days or remote snow days. But, as of now, the results of that survey would be moot.

"I'm debating on whether to even release a survey until I get more direction from the Department of Education," he said. "I just had a conversation with them (Tuesday) about this and right now every district that calls off school because of weather will have to be a traditional snow day."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)