Inclement Weather Plans

Due to inclement weather or other emergency situations, it may be necessary to close schools for the entire day, to open schools late, or to close early. The procedures used in school closings are detailed below. Keep this information in a convenient location for future reference.

Parents are urged to make arrangements now for the care of their children when schedule changes are made (and to provide for the rare situation when it is necessary to close an individual school because of a power failure or other circumstances). Children should know where to go if a parent will not be home.

Decisions on schedule changes are made after careful study of the best information available from many sources including weather services, the highway department, the police, and FCPS transportation staff members who are out checking the roads. While no sources dealing with weather predictions can be infallible, decisions are made with one overriding consideration—the safety of the students who ride buses or walk to school each day.

FCPS has several schedules set up to deal with inclement weather; these are put into effect when conditions threaten the safety of children who are walking or riding school buses to schools. These schedules are:

(1) Keep schools closed. (2) Open two hours late. (3) Close two hours early.

In every case of a schedule change, tune in to cable Channel 21, check www.fcps.edu, or call the FCPS hot line at 800-839-FCPS (3277). To receive this information via e-mail, sign up for the FCPS Keep in Touch e-mail notification system. The news will also be carried by radio and television stations, which are notified as soon as a decision is made. Do not phone the school or one of the stations for this information.

When the decision is made that schools will be closed all day or will open two hours late, the announcement will be made by 5:30 a.m. whenever possible. On some occasions, the school system has been able to make a scheduling decision the day before so that parents, staff members, and students know what will happen the following day. This usually happens when precipitation is already on the ground and the temperatures are such that the precipitation on the ground is frozen or will refreeze.

When schools are closed for the day, the following will apply:

• Extracurricular activities, interscholastic contests, team practices, field trips, adult and community education classes, and recreation programs in schools and on school grounds are canceled.
• School Age Child Care (SACC) centers are closed.

When schools are opened two hours late, the following will apply:

• If it is on Monday, elementary schools (which usually close early on Mondays) will close at their usual Tuesday-through-Friday time.
• Offices will open on time.
• Morning (half-day) kindergarten will be dismissed one hour later than the usual Tuesday-through-Friday time. Afternoon (half-day) kindergarten will begin one hour later than the usual Tuesday-through-Friday time.
• Morning preschool (special education) and Family and Early Childhood Education (Head Start) classes are canceled. Full-day preschool (special education) and Family and Early Childhood Education (Head Start) classes start two hours later than the regular schedule. Afternoon preschool (special education) starts on the regular Tuesday-through-Friday schedule.
• Morning field trips are canceled.
• SACC centers will open by 8 a.m. when possible.
• Adult and community education classes will start on time.

When schools are closed two hours early due to worsening weather conditions during the day, the following will apply:

• The announcement will be made by 10:30 a.m. whenever possible.
• Elementary schools will close two hours earlier than the usual Tuesday-through-Friday time.
• Afternoon (half-day) kindergarten is canceled. Morning (half-day) kindergarten students will be provided lunch at no cost and will be released with other students. Morning kindergarten students who were bused to school will be bused home with other students. Kindergarten students living within the normal walking boundary will not be bused.
• Morning preschool (special education) and Family and Early Childhood Education (Head Start) programs are dismissed at approximately 11 a.m. Full-day preschool (special education) and Family and Early Childhood Education (Head Start) classes are dismissed two hours earlier than the regular schedule. Afternoon preschool (special education) and Family and Early Childhood Education (Head Start) classes are canceled.
• SACC centers will stay open until 6:15 p.m.
• Extracurricular activities, interscholastic contests, team practices, field trips, adult and community education classes, and recreation programs in schools and on school grounds are canceled.

Inclement Weather Effects on Kindergarten Transportation

Two-Hour Late Opening–A.M. kindergarten students report two hours later than their regular schedule, are released approximately one hour later than the usual Tuesday-through-Friday time, and are transported to their midday kindergarten stops. P.M. kindergarten (half-day only) students are picked up at their midday kindergarten stops approximately one hour later than the usual Tuesday-through-Friday time. If a late opening occurs on a Monday, elementary schools will not close early but will observe the usual Tuesday-through-Friday schedule.

Two-Hour Early Closing – A.M. kindergarten students will be given lunch at no cost and released with other students. Those A.M. kindergarten students who rode buses to school in the morning will ride on those same buses to the same stops at which they were picked up. The buses will not stop at the special midday kindergarten bus stop locations. Kindergartners who live within the normal walking boundary will not have transportation and must walk home. If your kindergartner goes to a day care provider who lives in a location to which older students are transported, talk with a school staff member to determine which bus your child should ride on during the days of a two-hour early closing. P.M. kindergarten (half-day only) classes will be canceled. If early closing occurs on a Monday, elementary schools will close two hours earlier than the Tuesday-through-Friday schedule.