Sorry, kids, it’s going to be a winter of discontent — at home.
Big Apple students can be forced to hunker down in front of their screens — as an alternative of having fun with a snow day outdoors — when the winter weather is at its worst this yr, Schools Chancellor David Banks said Tuesday.
“There are technically no more snow days,” Banks said on Fox 5’s “Good Day Recent York” ahead of the beginning of the 2022-23 school yr Thursday.
“With the brand new technology that we’ve got — that’s one in every of the great things that got here out of COVID — if a snow day comes around, we would like to ensure that our children proceed to learn.”
He added, “So, sorry, kids! No more snow days, but it surely’s gonna be good for you!”
The no-snow-day policy was first implemented in 2020 because the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on Recent York, forcing students into distant learning. It was rolled out again for the 2021-22 school yr.
“On ‘snow days’ or days when school buildings are closed attributable to an emergency, all students and families should plan on participating in distant learning,” a note on the upcoming school yr calendar warns.
An Education Department spokesperson told The Post on Tuesday that they “consider and reassess policies” annually.
Twitter denizens fumed at the thought of nixing the cold-weather pastime.
“NYC removing snow days is essentially the most foul thing (you) can do with the advancement of technology,” one user raged on Tuesday.
“NYC cancelling snow days is a sin,” one other tweeted.
One Twitter user added: “Typical of NYC. I used to hope for snow days.”
The choice to scrap snow days again ahead of this winter comes amid a string of other holidays which have been added to, or renamed on, the varsity calendar in recent times.
There are 13 holidays — not including winter and spring break — that can be marked this yr as they fall on weekdays, including Italian Heritage/Indigenous Peoples’ Day, formerly Columbus Day, and Juneteenth.
Students will only must wait two weeks after school resumes on Sept. 8 before they get some day without work Sept. 26-27 for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.
Under Recent York law, students must attend classes 180 out of twelve months — and the axing of snow days is more likely to help the DOE meet that quota.
But one Big Apple mom of two called for the state-set mandate to be raised to not less than 200 days.
“All of us learned that online learning isn’t similar to having kids in school. The DOE is officially reducing the number of faculty days after we see unprecedented learning gaps,” Danyela Souza Egorov told The Post on Tuesday.
“The Recent York State Education Department mustn’t allow the district to supply lower than 200 in person days for each NYC student.”
While Banks said “recent technology,” not less than partly, was behind the push to eliminate snow days, tech issues and bungled distribution of kit were amongst the most important struggles some faced with distant learning when it was first set in motion.
Low-income kids needed to depend on faulty laptops and iPads from town’s Department of Education amid the pandemic, in line with a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this yr.
A bunch of anonymous parents had claimed their children were left behind after they were forced to make use of the malfunctioning equipment — and that the DOE offered them no technical support.
The rollout of tablets and computers was also a problem inside the first yr of the pandemic, in line with a July 2021 audit by town comptroller’s office that found the DOE was still reviewing 19,425 student requests for equipment.
The DOE didn’t reply to The Post’s query on the way it planned to make sure this yr’s snow-day distant learning would roll out with none glitches.
A United Federation of Teachers union spokesperson said all teachers needed to have a “digital classroom” arrange by a Sept. 30 deadline to make sure students aren’t affected by the sudden switch to distant learning, if required.
“The set-up should include uploading obligatory materials for the primary day of an emergency closure,” the spokesperson said.
“Teachers will use this digital classroom to conduct parent-teacher conferences; conduct synchronous/live instruction on snow days; conduct asynchronous instruction for college students who’re isolating following a positive COVID-19 test and for synchronous instruction if the teacher must isolate/quarantine and is in a position to work remotely.”
