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Wichita, Kansas, 46,516 students in 87 schools

Wichita Unified School District 259 Snow Day Predictor

The odds of a closing or a delay on the next three school mornings in Wichita, measured against Wichita's own big snow morning of 4.4 inches.

The next three school mornings

Will Wichita close tomorrow?

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

How Wichita calls a snow day

When the call comes

No later than 5 a.m.; sometimes the night before.

“A decision to cancel school will be made no later than 5 a.m. on the morning of a school day if winter weather conditions are of such a nature that the overall safety of students would be greatly jeopardized”
Source

How families hear

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

“The district alerts parents and staff through automated phone calls and email messages, website updates, social media, and through local news media.”
Weather and Emergency Procedures - Wichita Public Schools

The 2026 to 2027 calendar

  • First day August 13, 2026
  • Winter break Dec 21 to Jan 4
  • Last day May 25, 2027
District calendar

Read from Wichita’s own pages on October 8, 2026; the district site is usd259.org.

Ten winters of school mornings

Wichita’s snow record

12.3inches of snow a winter
2school mornings a winter with 2 in of new snow or more
0.7with 4 in or more
4.4 ina big snow morning in Wichita: the top tenth of snowy school mornings

More 4 inch school mornings than 83% of the 284 Kansas districts with a station record.

1.2Nov
0.6Dec
5Jan
5Feb
0.3Mar
Average snowfall by month, inches
  • Biggest day 8 in on November 26, 2023
  • Snowiest winter 2020 to 2021, 22.1 in
  • 6 in mornings 0.3 a winter
  • 1 in mornings 2.4 a winter

Measured at a NOAA weather station 5.9 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 Kansas rule

How Kansas counts a lost day

Kansas requires 186 school days (181 for seniors), or by board policy 1,116 school hours for grades 1 to 11 (1,086 for seniors, 465 for kindergarten). Once the board's scheduled snow make-up days are used up, extra weather closures count as school days, up to the number of make-up days scheduled or five days, whichever is smaller.

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

Next door

Districts near Wichita

DistrictSnow a winter4 in morningsBuilt in days
Andover Unified School District 385Andover12.3 in0.7
Derby Unified School District 260Derby4.3 in0.14
Haysville Unified School District 261Haysville4.3 in0.1
Valley Center Public Schools Unified School District 262Valley Center10.3 in0.1
Maize Unified School District 266Maize9.6 in0.1
Goddard Unified School District 265Goddard8.8 in0.2
The schools

87 schools, the 40 largest here

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

High

  • East High
  • North High
  • Southeast High
  • South High
  • Heights High
  • Northwest High
  • West High
  • Northeast Magnet High School, Bel Aire

Middle

  • Truesdell Middle School
  • Curtis Middle School
  • Wilbur Middle School
  • Robinson Middle School
  • Mayberry Cultural and Fine Arts Magnet Middle
  • Pleasant Valley Middle School
  • Hamilton Middle School
  • Stucky Middle School
  • Coleman Middle School
  • Allison Traditional Magnet Middle
  • Brooks Magnet Middle School
  • Hadley Middle School
  • Marshall Middle School
  • Mead Middle School
  • Jardine Technology Middle Magnet

Elementary

  • Christa McAuliffe Academy
  • Isely Traditional Magnet Elem, Bel Aire
  • Minneha Core Knowledge Elem
  • Horace Mann Dual Language Magnet
  • Colvin Elem
  • Woodman Elem
  • Dodge Literacy Magnet
  • Kensler Elem
  • Cloud Elem
  • Seltzer Elem
  • Beech Elem
  • Anderson Elem
  • Gordon Parks Academy
  • Allen Elem
  • Washington Accelerated Learning Elem
  • Linwood Elementary

Other schools

  • Education Imagine Academy
Questions

Wichita snow day questions

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More winter

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