New York Snow Day Predictor

New York requires 180 days of session plus 900 hours a year for kindergarten to grade 6 and 990 hours for grades 7 to 12.

The Commissioner can excuse up to 5 days closed for extraordinary weather, but only if the district cannot make them up by using all its scheduled vacation days before the June Regents exams.

Districts are expected to use the extra days built into the calendar first, then scheduled vacation days, before the state will excuse any.

A district that would otherwise close for a storm may stay in session remotely under its emergency remote instruction plan, and that day counts toward the 180 days and the hours; districts are not required to do it.

A day with an unscheduled weather delay or early release still counts as a session day, and up to two of the lost hours can still be counted as instructional hours.

All 677 in the state, by ZIP, with a page of their own for 406, including New York City Public Schools, Buffalo and Yonkers. Every page carries the district’s own snow record and the odds for its next three school mornings.

A typical New York district sees about 6.3 weekday mornings a winter with 2 inches of new snow or more, and 2.3 with 4 inches or more, counted on weekdays from December 1 through March 31 at each district’s nearest NOAA weather station over ten winters. The snowiest districts in the table see several times that.

Three school mornings, as far as the National Weather Service hourly forecast reaches. Weekends and the district’s winter break are skipped, so a Friday storm is read for Monday’s buses.