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Box Elder, South Dakota, 2,753 students in 5 schools

Douglas School District 51-1 Snow Day Predictor

The odds of a closing or a delay on the next three school mornings in Douglas, measured against Douglas's own big snow morning of 2.8 inches.

The next three school mornings

Will Douglas close tomorrow?

Reading the National Weather Service forecast for the overnight and the bus hours in Box Elder.
The Douglas playbook

How Douglas calls a snow day

How families hear

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

“Mass Notification through text, phone, and email - Parent Portal”
What to expect during a school emergency (Weather-Related Closures)

A 2 hour delay

On a delay morning every school starts 2 hours late.

“2-Hour Late Start: This allows road and grounds crews adequate time to clear snow and improve road conditions before the start of the school day.”

2 built in snow days

On the 2026 to 2027 calendar, listed as “Inclement Weather Days”.

“May 14, 21 Inclement Weather Days”
Source

Making up a lost day

The board forgives up to six snow days; a 7th and 8th are made up on May 14 and May 21.

“*The DSD Board of Education has approved forgiving up to six snow days during the 2026-2027 school year. If more than six occur, the 7th and 8th days will be made up on May 14 and May 21, 2027, respectively.”
Source

The 2026 to 2027 calendar

  • First day August 19, 2026
  • Winter break Dec 21 to Jan 5
  • Last day May 26, 2027
District calendar

The board policy

“Decisions regarding late starts, early releases, or closures are made following strict protocols based on thorough evaluations.”
Board policy

Read from Douglas’s own pages on October 8, 2026; the district site is dsdk12.net.

Ten winters of school mornings

Douglas’s snow record

50.1inches of snow a winter
3.4school mornings a winter with 2 in of new snow or more
1.4with 4 in or more
2.8 ina big snow morning in Douglas: the top tenth of snowy school mornings
9.6school mornings a winter at 0 F or colder
4.8Nov
7.1Dec
5Jan
10.5Feb
10.1Mar
Average snowfall by month, inches
  • Biggest day 14.5 in on November 30, 2019
  • Snowiest winter 2019 to 2020, 86.9 in
  • 6 in mornings 0.5 a winter
  • 1 in mornings 7.9 a winter

Measured at a NOAA weather station 8.4 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 South Dakota rule

How South Dakota counts a lost day

South Dakota requires at least 437.5 hours for kindergarten, 875 hours for grades 1 to 5 and 962.5 hours for grades 6 to 12; the local board sets the number of days. The Secretary of Education may waive the minimum hours when the Governor or the President declares a state of emergency covering the school; there is no fixed count of forgiven days.

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

Next door

Districts near Douglas

DistrictSnow a winter4 in morningsBuilt in days
Rapid City School District 51-4Rapid City50.1 in1.42
Meade School District 46-1Sturgis45 in1.33
Huron School District 02-2Huron39.5 in1.4
Aberdeen School District 06-1Aberdeen33.2 in1.3
Mitchell School District 17-2Mitchell37.2 in2
Yankton School District 63-3Yankton38 in1.6
The schools

5 schools

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

High

  • Douglas High School - 03

Middle

  • Douglas Middle School - 01

Elementary

  • Patriot Elementary -06
  • Vandenberg Elementary - 02

Other schools

  • Douglas Preschool - 08
Questions

Douglas snow day questions

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More winter

More for South Dakota 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.South Dakota winter forecastThe season ahead for South Dakota: 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.