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Rochester, New York, 22,164 students in 46 schools

Rochester City School District Snow Day Predictor

The odds of a closing or a delay on the next three school mornings in Rochester, measured against Rochester's own big snow morning of 3.5 inches.

The next three school mornings

Will Rochester close tomorrow?

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

How Rochester calls a snow day

When the call comes

Often late at night or very early in the morning.

“Decisions on school closings are often made late at night or very early in the morning, and weather conditions in Rochester can change drastically before students actually begin traveling to school.”
Source

How families hear

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

“Families and staff of the RCSD also receive direct notification via robocall, email and/or text message using the information on file.”
School Closings

Making up a lost day

The first emergency make-up day is June 25, 2027.

“First Emergency Make-up Day: June 25, 2027”
Source

The 2026 to 2027 calendar

  • First day September 8, 2026
  • Winter break Dec 23 to Jan 1
  • February break Feb 15 to Feb 19
  • Last day June 24, 2027
District calendar

Read from Rochester’s own pages on October 8, 2026; the district site is rcsdk12.org.

Ten winters of school mornings

Rochester’s snow record

87.9inches of snow a winter
10.1school mornings a winter with 2 in of new snow or more
2.8with 4 in or more
3.5 ina big snow morning in Rochester: the top tenth of snowy school mornings
1.2school mornings a winter at 0 F or colder

More 4 inch school mornings than 58% of the 676 New York districts with a station record.

7.3Nov
18.8Dec
26.2Jan
20Feb
13.4Mar
Average snowfall by month, inches
  • Biggest day 16.2 in on March 14, 2017
  • Snowiest winter 2017 to 2018, 120.5 in
  • 6 in mornings 1.3 a winter
  • 1 in mornings 17.7 a winter

Measured at a NOAA weather station 3.9 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 New York rule

How New York counts a lost day

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.

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

Next door

Districts near Rochester

DistrictSnow a winter4 in mornings
Brighton Central School DistrictRochester87.9 in2.8
East Irondequoit Central School DistrictRochester87.9 in2.8
West Irondequoit Central School DistrictRochester87.9 in2.8
Gates-Chili Central School DistrictRochester87.9 in2.8
Greece Central School DistrictRochester87.9 in2.8
Penfield Central School DistrictRochester78.3 in3.2
The schools

46 schools, the 40 largest here

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

High

  • Edison Career and Technology High School
  • School of the Arts
  • Franklin Upper School
  • East Upper High School
  • Joseph C Wilson Magnet High School
  • Northeast College Preparatory High School
  • James Monroe Upper School
  • Rochester Early College International High School
  • School Without Walls

Middle

  • East Lower School
  • Dr. Alice Holloway Young School of Excellence

Elementary

  • School 33-John James Audubon
  • Anna Murray-Douglass Academy
  • School 50-Helen Barrett Montgomery
  • School 17-Enrico Fermi
  • School 28-Henry Hudson
  • School 9-Dr Martin Luther King Jr
  • School 5-John Williams
  • School 45-Mary McLeod Bethune
  • School 22-Lincoln School
  • School 8-Roberto Clemente
  • School 7-Virgil Grissom
  • School 42-Abelard Reynolds
  • School 34-Dr Louis A Cerulli
  • School 35-Pinnacle
  • School 15-Children's School of Rochester (the)
  • School 16-John Walton Spencer
  • Joseph C Wilson Foundation Academy
  • Rise Community School
  • School 39-Andrew J Townson
  • School 54-Flower City Community School
  • School 46-Charles Carroll
  • School 19-Dr Charles T Lunsford
  • Dr Walter Cooper Academy
  • School 23-Francis Parker
  • School 2-Clara Barton
  • School 52-Frank Fowler Dow
  • School 25-Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • School 53 Montessori Academy

Other schools

  • School 58-World of Inquiry School
Questions

Rochester snow day questions

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More winter

More for New York 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.New York winter forecastThe season ahead for New York: 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.