No more traditional snow days for Fayette students. Here’s the plan for severe weather

Fayette County Public Schools will forgo traditional snow days for winter 2024 and instead have non-traditional instruction weather days where students learn from home, a district spokesperson confirmed.

During the 2023-24 school year, Fayette County Public Schools will use non-traditional instruction, or NTI, in place of school closings for severe weather, according to an announcement on the school district’s website.

“This was selected as a way to keep academic success at the forefront and lessen the days students are not receiving academic instruction,” district spokeswoman Dia Davidson-Smith told the Herald-Leader Wednesday.

“We are working to make sure kids don’t have to stay in school well into June and receive the necessary instructional time,” she said.

When classes are canceled, the school buildings are closed, all students have the day off and the time might be made up or added to the instructional calendar.

State law requires school districts to make up every day missed so that the school year contains at least 170 days of teaching and learning and 1,062 instructional hours, the district website said.

NTI allows students to continue learning when weather conditions make it unsafe to attend school and enables the district to potentially avoid extending the school year to make up for cancellations.

During winter, a team of district employees monitors the weather conditions along with meteorologists and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Streets and Roads Division. They consider the roads, precipitation, outdoor temperatures, wind chills, current conditions and the forecast, according to the district website.

Families are asked to check their school’s website and should receive NTI specifics from principals and teachers.

For example, Lizette Rogers, principal of Arlington Elementary school, said in a letter to families posted on Facebook Wednesday that beginning Thursday, all schools will send Chromebooks home with students each day to ensure students are prepared for an NTI weather day.

Families were asked to charge their student’s Chromebook each evening and return it to school the next day along with the charger, Rogers said.

This story was originally published January 3, 2024 at 4:47 PM.