Is it a traditional snow day or a flexible instruction day?

With some schools opting to use flexible instruction days first and others waiting until traditional snow days are maxed out, many parents around the area are still asking that question when winter weather strikes.

Almost all school districts have applied to the state and received permission to use up to five flexible instruction days, which count toward the 180-day student requirement, per year.

“Our standard procedure is to utilize these days initially,” Matthew Link, Northern Lehigh superintendent, said. “If we exceed the state’s maximum allowance of five, we would then resort to traditional snow days. We try to avoid that so we do not need to shorten holiday breaks or add days to the end of the school year.”

Including Tuesday, however, Northern Lehigh has already used four flexible instruction days, marking the highest usage since the state granted permission to use virtual days for reasons other than COVID-19.

“In the event of another forecast indicating a significant storm, such as a blizzard or substantial ice storm, we would likely begin with a traditional snow day,” Link said of future plans this school year. “This winter has proved to be the snowiest in several years, although not as severe as some memorable storms from the not-so-distant past.”

Palmerton Area School District used its first flexible instruction day of the school year on Tuesday. Prior to that, Palmerton used two traditional snow days that will be made up on Feb. 16 and March 28, which were previously planned off days for students.

According to information distributed at the start of the year, Palmerton officials said “all students receive five flexible instructional day lessons from each of their teachers prior to the start of winter. Students who do not have access to a technology device or internet access at home, or if students lose internet access or power due to inclement weather on a flexible instructional day, can complete the given paper assignments. Completed assignments need to be turned in on the

next school day for attendance to be granted for the student.”

Online conferences are also available for students during Palmerton’s flexible instruction days.

Traditional snow days, of which Tuesday marked the second, are used prior to flexible instruction days in Lehighton Area School District. Lehighton officials, during the summer of 2023, discussed the strategic change surrounding flexible instruction days.

“I think in the past these flexible instruction days have not been very valuable,” Joy Beers, who was board president at the time, said. “There was a lot of confusion about the assignments. If we want to give value to the students, I think we should go back to what we did before in building snow days back into the calendar somewhere.”

Lehighton did just that and will use March 27 as the makeup day for Tuesday’s school cancellation.

When Pleasant Valley builds its school calendar, it does so with the understanding that it will utilize the five remote instruction days first when there is severe weather.

“If we were to ever exhaust all five flexible instruction days, we would pivot to traditional snow days and add days to the end of the school calendar,” Superintendent Dr. James Konrad said. “Although there are values to having traditional snow days, our district realizes that adding days onto the calendar at the end of the school year, not only poses inconveniences for summer vacations for families, students, and staff but it could also delay graduation by up to a week. Our goal is to have as many instructional days as possible prior to Keystone exams and PSSA exams as this will help our students to be successful.”

Tamaqua Area School District is one the few that doesn’t use flexible instruction days, and has only used traditional snow days for the past two years.

“The board, administration, faculty and staff recognize the importance and value of in-person instruction,” said Superintendent Raymond J. Kinder. “While virtual instruction can be effectively utilized by specific students, we believe the overwhelming majority of students benefit greatly from the interaction that only occurs with a knowledgeable teacher in the classroom setting.”

Tamaqua Area did use virtual learning successfully during the pandemic, Kinder said.

Terry Ahner, Kristine Porter and Kelly Monitz Socha contributed to this report.