Making up snow days may not be as painful as you think

Parents and kids know that while a snow day in January may be fun, those days will have to be made up at the end of the year. Or do they?

"Most districts will build in a few snow days here and there, because they anticipate that there might be some issues," said Nathan Olson with the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. "The districts can make up three days, and then after that they can ask for waivers for any additional days."

Prosser Schools Superintendent Ray Tolcacher says his districts hasn't built any snow days into their calendar for the past couple of years.

"I've been here for 25 years, and we've only ever used maybe one or two of those snow days," Tolcacher said. "This year we've already had to call 4 snow days."

Olson says that while the districts can get waivers to dismiss those snow days rather than make them up, they cannot fudge on the minimum required number of instructional hours for each grade level.

"Every district has to offer the minimum number of instructional hours per year, and it's an average through the district," Olson said. "Those can't be waived-- they have to be done."

But, Olson says districts can get creative in the ways they squeeze in those instructional hours, by canceling early releases, extending the school day by an hour, or changing teacher in-service days to regular instructional days.