Winter is off to a brutal start in Minnesota, so much so that some schools have already used their allotted snow days. Long Prairie-Grey Eagle Schools shared this post on Facebook:

Notice for 3rd-6th grade parents: E-learning information
We have used our allocated snow days for this year. If we have any more school closures they will be considered e-learning days.

Keep in mind, we are just getting to the holiday break, and there is still a lot of winter weather left to navigate.

I did some digging to find out how many snow days schools are typically allowed and found a Minnesota state statute on what is required for attendance:

A school board's annual school calendar must include at least 425 hours of instruction for a kindergarten student without a disability, 935 hours of instruction for a student in grades 1 through 6, and 1,020 hours of instruction for a student in grades 7 through 12, not including summer school.

It goes on to say that a school board's annual calendar must include at least 165 days of instruction for a student in grades 1 through 11 unless a four-day week schedule has been approved by the commissioner under section 124D.126.

I also found that a school board's annual school calendar may include plans for up to five days of instruction provided through online instruction due to inclement weather. If this winter weather keeps up, e-learning days might be happening more than students and teachers would like.

Call it a blessing or curse of the pandemic but e-learning days are totally possible now because of how schools had to adapt in 2020. It's nothing like the snow days we had as kids where we got to goof off all day. 

Remember for the latest on school closings and all things weather, download our mobile app and opt in for weather alerts.

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