Is A Fear of Lawsuits Causing Schools to Close Because of Snow?
Justin Bathon on Tuesday, February 3, 2009 at 2:14PM It's snowing here in Lexington today. Not a lot, but a little. So, the local schools decided to call off school an hour early, which means all our classes in the department that are hosted at local schools are cancelled as well. Kentucky has had a pretty rough winter (relatively) so students have missed a lot of school already this year and will have to make some of it up in June.
So, with just a dash of snow, just rhetorically I asked out loud, "why are they cancelling school today?" The immediate reply was "because they are afraid to get sued."
That struck me as a very odd answer - but perhaps there is some truth to it. For me, you close school because the roads are dangerous, parents and students are worried, the school doesn't have power (a real problem in Kentucky this past week), or some other reason that ultimately boils down to "the safety of the kids."
But, today we just had a little snow. No reasonable person would really think any student is in danger, even on an old 2 wheel drive bus. Yet, we cancelled school? Perhaps there is some truth to it?
What's odd, though, is that I think it would be the very rare occasion when a school would actually lose a lawsuit from an injured student if a bus slid off the road. The decision to cancel school is a discretionary decision and in most states such decisions are provided immunity from negligence - so, while the school may be sued for negligence in their decision, it is very unlikely that they would win such a lawsuit. Now, when a school district also owns and operates the busses, there is potential for liability to pay for injuries to students - however, this exists all the time, whether or not there is snow on the ground and with just a dusting of snow the risk is really not all that much greater than an inch of rain. And, schools have insurance for just such an occurence.
What's amazing is that some districts have made a decision to virtually never cancel school; Chicago hasn't cancelled in 10 years and even when they did in 1999 it took 22 inches of snow (Pres. Obama joked about this the other day). They are not flooded with litigation. Universities regularly hold a non-closure policy (The University of Michigan hasn't cancelled classes in 30 years). In fact, I would probably argue creating the expectation of rarely or never cancelling school will probably result in even fewer lawsuits as parents are not faced with uncertainty and the room to question the administration.
The fear of litigation really should not be driving schools to close because even though you may be sued, you are probably not going to lose. Administrators should feel confident in holding classes on days with snow as long as the reasonable safety of the students is not in question. And, I am sort of against erring on the side of caution here as well as missed learning is a substantial detriment to students. By the way, studying the motivation of snow days would make a great dissertation for somebody.
Update: Here is a handy guide for school administrators.
Reader Comments (4)
TN law allows schools to stockpile up to 13 days for inclement weather, professional development, and a couple other things by going up to 30 minutes longer than the required 6.5 hours of school throughout the year. If those days aren't used, the districts lose them. So, they often get used on days that don't appear too inclement.
I reckon KY may have similar incentives. Closing for weather when it isn't too bad seems to be a decision made in the interests of the adults in the system rather than the students (or their parents).
Rich
"If those days aren't used, the districts lose them." - Or the students gain them. I guess it depends on your perspective. As long as the CBA or other contracts employ the teachers for the full amount w/o snow days, a little extra learning time can't hurt. But, I do feel you are right that some decisions are made for the benefits of adults. The teachers around here have been pretty happy with the snow days lately, but we have exceeded the 5 days now, so now they are rooting against snow days.
Does TN also have a 5 day cushion (i.e. 5 days or less don't have to be made-up) like a lot of states, or is the 13 day stockpile the only option?
I am really starting to think I need to do a 50-state study on this because there seems to be some variation.
Excellent post and very timely. I live in New England. We had a forecast of 1-3 inches of snow today and schools closed early. For 1-3 inches of snow - in New England. Outrageous! Worse yet, it didn't even start snowing until 3:30 p.m and the kids were all home by 1. Let's just say that many parents spent the day discussing the very topic of your post....
Justin: the TN law doesn't create a cushion. A local school board could, however, in their calendar. The start and end of school is not set by the state, but by the LEA.