How and when schools decide to call a snow day

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Schools districts across the state are starting to prepare for a cancelation on Friday due to the snow storm. They all say they rely on the National Weather Service and local emergency operations to make a decision.

As a mom of four, Amber Martin likes to have a plan. So, she says the sooner Metro Nashville Public Schools can let her know there’s a snow day, the better.

“They wait until the last minute, obviously, to let us know if there’s going to be a delay. So then it’s like, do I have to wake the kids up? Then there’s been times in the past where I woke them up and then they don’t have to go,” Martin said.

MNPS says they aim to give parents as much notice as possible. The goal is to make the decision at least the night before, even though it doesn’t always happen.

“To know the night before. We know the weather’s coming, at least a delay would give us some kind of heads up. We know we’re waking them up later,” Martin said.

Now, her older children are able to watch the youngest, but she says in the past it could cause a bit of chaos.

“When they were all younger, it was pretty hard because then you have to find out the daycares are open, or you have to scramble around to find somebody to watch your kids, or call out of work. Then you have to worry about work, getting there. So it can be a lot,” Martin said.

Each school district WSMV talked with has a slightly different timeline for when they let parents know if they’re going to have school or not.

Cheatham, Wilson and Metro Nashville Public Schools say parents will know of a snow day at the latest by 5:30 a.m. the day of. Everyone’s goal is to let parents know Thursday evening.

Rutherford County Schools wrote in part;

Decisions are made as soon as possible once a reliable forecast is issued. The district strives to make closure announcements the night before, if credible information is available. In the event an early morning decision is necessary, the district will not begin calling parents until 5 a.m.

Robertson County Schools wrote in part;

Unfortunately, we sometimes must make last minute decisions. If morning decisions come, they will be made around 5:30 a.m. This allows our bus drivers time to alter their schedules if changes are made.

Williamson County wrote;

We consider a plethora of information before we make our decision. Our safety team works with Williamson County Emergency Management and the National Weather Service to gather information on road conditions and other important information forecast information those agencies have. In addition, we have a weather system that gives us good information on conditions across the county. Our transportation department also uses spotters to access road conditions across the county. We have a team that then meets and makes a decision based on the information gathered. The bottom line is…can we transport students to and from school safely?

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