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Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 15,589 students in 34 schools

Cedar Rapids Community School District Snow Day Predictor

The odds of a closing or a delay on the next three school mornings in Cedar Rapids, measured against Cedar Rapids's own big snow morning of 4.2 inches.

The next three school mornings

Will Cedar Rapids close tomorrow?

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

How Cedar Rapids calls a snow day

When the call comes

Usually by 5:30 a.m.

“A decision is usually determined and communicated by 5:30 a.m.”
Source

How families hear

“Announcements of CRCSD weather-related decisions are communicated by the Community Relations Office through multiple CRCSD communications platforms and local media outlets.”
Weather Related Decisions - Cedar Rapids Community Schools

A 2 hour delay

On a delay morning every school starts 2 hours late.

“Typically a late start is a two-hour delay. There will be no morning preschool or zero hour middle school classes.”
Delay schedule

3 built in snow days

On the 2026 to 2027 calendar, listed as “Snow make up dates”.

“Jun. 1-3- Snow make up dates”
Source

Making up a lost day

Made up on June 1 to 3 after the last day.

Make up dates: Jun 1, Jun 2, Jun 3.

“All weather-related cancellations must be made up. Make-up dates are part of the CRCSD calendar.”
Source

The 2026 to 2027 calendar

  • First day August 25, 2026
  • Winter break Dec 23 to Jan 1
  • Last day May 28, 2027
District calendar

Read from Cedar Rapids’s own pages on October 8, 2026; the district site is crschools.us.

Ten winters of school mornings

Cedar Rapids’s snow record

33.5inches of snow a winter
3.6school mornings a winter with 2 in of new snow or more
1.8with 4 in or more
4.2 ina big snow morning in Cedar Rapids: the top tenth of snowy school mornings
7.8school mornings a winter at 0 F or colder

More 4 inch school mornings than 91% of the 323 Iowa districts with a station record.

2.5Nov
5.9Dec
10.4Jan
7.7Feb
4.8Mar
Average snowfall by month, inches
  • Biggest day 10.4 in on January 9, 2024
  • Snowiest winter 2018 to 2019, 49.1 in
  • 6 in mornings 0.5 a winter
  • 1 in mornings 5.4 a winter

Measured at a NOAA weather station 7 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 Iowa rule

How Iowa counts a lost day

Iowa requires at least 180 days or 1,080 hours of instruction, as the board chooses. When a board extends the calendar to make up weather closures, it may excuse seniors who have already met graduation requirements.

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

Next door

Districts near Cedar Rapids

DistrictSnow a winter4 in mornings
Linn-Mar Community School DistrictMarion33.5 in1.8
College Community School DistrictCedar Rapids25 in1.3
Clear Creek-Amana Community School DistrictOxford30.2 in1.4
Iowa City Community School DistrictIowa City22.8 in0.7
Waterloo Community School DistrictWaterloo34.5 in1.4
Western Dubuque County Community School DistrictFarley26.3 in1.1
The schools

34 schools

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

High

  • John F Kennedy High School
  • Thomas Jefferson High School
  • George Washington High School
  • Metro High School

Middle

  • Harding Middle School
  • Taft Middle School
  • Franklin Middle School
  • Roosevelt Creative Corridor Business Academy
  • McKinley STEAM Academy
  • Wilson Middle School
  • Cedar Rapids Virtual Academy Middle

Elementary

  • Viola Gibson Elementary School
  • West Willow Elementary School
  • Maple Grove Elementary
  • Van Buren Elementary School
  • Kenwood Leadership Academy School
  • Hoover Elementary School
  • Grant Wood Elementary School
  • Cedar River Academy at Taylor
  • Hiawatha Elementary School, Hiawatha
  • Johnson STEAM Academy School
  • Pierce Elementary School
  • Grant Elementary School
  • Harrison Elementary School
  • Nixon Elementary School, Hiawatha
  • Wright Elementary School
  • Erskine Elementary School
  • Cleveland Elementary School
  • Arthur Elementary School
  • Garfield Elementary School
  • Madison Elementary School
  • Cedar Rapids Virtual Academy Elementary

Other schools

  • Truman Early Learning Center
  • City View High
Questions

Cedar Rapids snow day questions

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More winter

More for Iowa 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.Iowa winter forecastThe season ahead for Iowa: 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.