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Indianapolis, Indiana, 21,863 students in 48 schools

Indianapolis Public Schools Snow Day Predictor

The odds of a closing or a delay on the next three school mornings in Indianapolis, measured against Indianapolis's own big snow morning of 1.9 inches.

The next three school mornings

Will Indianapolis close tomorrow?

Reading the National Weather Service forecast for the overnight and the bus hours in Indianapolis.
The Indianapolis playbook

How Indianapolis calls a snow day

When the call comes

Conditions assessed by 4:45 a.m., recommendation to the superintendent by 5 a.m., goal to inform families before 6 a.m.

“The goal is to inform all families and staff before 6 a.m. to ensure as much time to align work and childcare plans as possible.”
Source

How families hear

By the district website, social media, local TV, text message, phone call and email.

“the IPS website will include an alert at the top of the homepage. We will also post it on our social media so be sure you can access our Facebook page (@IPSSchools) or Twitter feed (@IPSSchools). ... We also offer a free, emergency alert text, call and email service through the District.”
Inclement Weather Policy - Indianapolis Public Schools

A 2 hour delay

On a delay morning every school starts 2 hours late.

“Air temperatures that are forecasted significantly below 0 degrees for 7 a.m. (when our first wave of students are headed to the bus stops) could trigger a two-hour delay.”

The 2026 to 2027 calendar

  • First day August 10, 2026
  • Winter break Dec 18 to Jan 1
  • Last day May 27, 2027
District calendar

The board policy

“If wind chills aren’t expected to improve by 9 a.m. (when a two-hour delay would end), we would consider a cancellation.”
Board policy

Read from Indianapolis’s own pages on October 8, 2026; the district site is myips.org.

Ten winters of school mornings

Indianapolis’s snow record

15.2inches of snow a winter
0.9school mornings a winter with 2 in of new snow or more
0.4with 4 in or more
1.9 ina big snow morning in Indianapolis: the top tenth of snowy school mornings
1.1Nov
2.2Dec
5.4Jan
3.9Feb
2Mar
Average snowfall by month, inches
  • Biggest day 7.7 in on February 16, 2021
  • Snowiest winter 2025 to 2026, 24.4 in
  • 6 in mornings 0.3 a winter
  • 1 in mornings 2.3 a winter

Measured at a NOAA weather station 3.2 miles away. Mornings are the 7 am snow reading on a weekday from December 1 through March 31, over the ten winters from 2016 to 2017 through 2025 to 2026, from NOAA GHCN Daily.

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The Indiana rule

How Indiana counts a lost day

Indiana requires at least 180 student instructional days a school year.

The Indiana rules in the agency’s own words, and every Indiana district

Next door

Districts near Indianapolis

DistrictSnow a winter4 in morningsBuilt in days
Speedway School TownSpeedway17.2 in0.2
Beech Grove City SchoolsBeech Grove15.2 in0.4
Wayne Township Metropolitan School DistrictIndianapolis17.2 in0.22
Perry Township Metropolitan School DistrictIndianapolis15.2 in0.4
Warren Township Metropolitan School DistrictIndianapolis19.9 in0.3
Pike Township Metropolitan School DistrictIndianapolis13.9 in0.61
The schools

48 schools, the 40 largest here

Every school in Indianapolis follows the district’s call: one closing covers them all.

High

  • Arsenal Technical High School
  • Crispus Attucks High School
  • Shortridge High School
  • George Washington High School

Middle

  • HW Longfellow Med/STEM Magnet Midl
  • Northwest Community Middle School
  • Merle Sidener Gifted Academy
  • H L Harshman Middle School
  • Arlington Community Middle School

Elementary

  • IPS/Butler Lab at William Bell 60
  • Edison School of the Arts 47
  • Thomas D Gregg School 15
  • Carl Wilde School 79
  • Rousseau McClellan School 91
  • Clarence Farrington School 61
  • James Russell Lowell School 51
  • Lew Wallace School 107
  • Frederick Douglass School 19
  • Center for Inquiry School 27
  • Center for Inquiry School 70
  • William Penn School 49
  • Charles Warren Fairbanks Sch 105
  • IPS/Butler Lab at Eliza Blaker 55
  • Center for Inquiry School 84
  • Center For Inquiry School 2
  • Daniel Webster School 46
  • Brookside School 54
  • William McKinley School 39
  • George Washington Carver School 87
  • Meredith Nicholson School 96
  • Anna Brochhausen School 88
  • Cold Spring School
  • Eleanor Skillen School 34
  • Washington Irving Neighborhood School
  • Robert Lee Frost School 106
  • Arlington Woods School 99
  • James Whitcomb Riley School 43
  • Jonathan Jennings School 109
  • Christian Park School 82
  • Ernie Pyle School 90
Questions

Indianapolis snow day questions

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More winter

More for Indiana snow days

Snow day predictorClosing and delay odds for any ZIP, with the snowiest districts in the country.Snow depth mapHow much snow is on the ground right now, measured, across the country.First snow datesWhen the first measurable snow usually lands where you live.Frozen pipesThe nights cold enough to freeze a pipe, and what to do before one.Snow plow trackerWhere the plows are during a storm, city by city.Indiana winter forecastThe season ahead for Indiana: snowfall, cold and the first snow.
A residential street under deep snow on a bright blue morning, cars parked along the curb buried into smooth white mounds, one set of tire tracks down the middle
The morning after a big one: cars buried to the mirrors and one set of tracks down the middle. A street like this is a closing, no debate. Photo, Fairfax, Virginia, January 2016: Jarek Tuszyński, CC BY 4.0

The odds are a forecast read, and the superintendent makes the call: the district’s own announcement is the one to follow.