The snow and ice that coated North Carolina from mountains to sea, and kept kids home from school for days, has finally begun melting in most places. But as the state thaws, schools will have to confront the damage the winter weather did to the academic calendar — right?
Perhaps not in the way many of us expect. Since remote learning and work has become the norm in the days after the pandemic, simple joys like snow days are becoming a relic of the past.
Most North Carolina districts impacted by the snow and ice didn’t miss nearly the number of days that they typically would have in the face of such severe weather conditions, opting instead to conduct many of the would-be snow days virtually.
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Guilford County Schools had roughly 8 inches of snow, leading to five straight days of remote learning in January, one true “snow day” on Feb. 2, followed by three days of remote learning, a two-hour delay day and a one-hour delay day. Students largely relished in the daily announcements on social media, but others left comments like, “I never wanted to go to school this bad in my entire life” and “we are ALL failing the first week.”
Coastal Carteret County saw a record 19.5 inches of snow in some areas according to the National Weather Service. The school system issued a two-hour delay in January along with one true snow day and four remote learning days the first week of February due to the winter storms. The monthly Board of Education meeting was canceled altogether.
Gaston County Schools, which received 6 to 12 inches of snow in certain areas, had four days of remote learning, as many days with two-hour delays and two snow days. Pitt County Schools had a two-hour delay, three remote learning days and two snow days.
Despite the Triangle getting caught in the dreaded doughnut hole during much of the snowy weather, Durham Public Schools had three remote learning days and two days of two-hour delays due to January weather and two snow days and a two-hour delay in February. Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools had four remote learning days with three days of two-hour delays peppered throughout.
A Wake County Schools representative said their snow days and subsequent makeup timeline is complicated due to the multitude of calendars in the district, but most schools saw at least four days of remote learning and one full snow day resulting in a required makeup day later in the month.
Not the snow days of past winter events
In winter storms of North Carolina’s past, students and teachers would have simply been out of school when snow and ice caused unsafe conditions, no matter how long that would be for. After an infamous blizzard dumped 20-something inches of snow on the Triangle in 2000, some schools were out for up to two weeks. The 1993 “Storm of the Century” kept schools closed for roughly a week. In 2026, Zoom class reigns supreme.
Whether the quality of education is the same with virtual learning, is a different question.
Ethan Hutt, an associate professor in the Department of Education at UNC-Chapel Hill with expertise in history of education and research experience on student absenteeism, told Carolina Public Press the pandemic taught researchers that remote learning is simply less effective than in-person instruction.
Keeping students focused online is often more difficult. Some students might face issues like unreliable internet access. Many also rely on in-person schooling in other ways, including for the meals they receive and access to trusted adults and professionals. That aspect of in-person schooling was one of the biggest lessons learned during the pandemic, Hutt said.
However, in light of growing concerns around chronic absenteeism across the country, another interesting point of research shows negative impacts on learning are actually lessened when the entire class is out of school or doing remote work versus when just a few students are absent sporadically throughout the year.
So although North Carolina schools have a reputation for overreacting to winter weather, a district’s decision to conduct a remote school day out of an abundance of caution is actually better for learning because it prevents families from having to make the choice to not send their children to school because of their personal concerns over road conditions, for example.
“If you have bad weather and a lot of students are just absent because it’s not a snow day, but not everyone is coming to school, that’s actually more disruptive for student learning than when everybody misses school because of the responsibilities of the teacher to try to manage the class where a few people got an extra day, a few people are behind and they need to catch up,” Hutt said.
“So to the extent that online learning days are replacing days where the school wouldn’t have said anything, and some kids show up and some kids don’t depending on how close they are, how good their transportation is, then keeping everyone on the same plane is probably a good thing.”
Problems for parents
Regarding what some viewed as excessive days off around the holidays, Lance Fusarelli, a professor of educational leadership and policy at NC State University, told CPP in November that disruptions to the academic calendar tend to be more impactful on single-parent households and low-income families.
Parents who work shift-based jobs tend not to get the same benefits, like holiday closures, paid time off and sick days, as those in salaried positions. That can make it difficult for them to take off work to watch their children who are home from school, especially with the unpredictable nature of last-minute school closures due to inclement weather.
“If you’re an hourly employee that’s tough, particularly because you’re generally not making a lot of money anyway, and so you can’t afford not to work,” Fusarelli said.
“If you are a fair-salaried employee, if you’re in a white collar position — middle income, upper middle income — now you’re not losing any money, because generally your employer is giving you that holiday off anyway, so it doesn’t affect you. It’s a challenge for low-income and working class families where not going to work is not an option.”
The same can be true for winter weather, whether they’re true snow days or remote learning, Hutt said. For parents who have office jobs with the flexibility to work from home, remote learning at least ensures students will be occupied throughout the day. But for others, remote learning doesn’t offer much solace compared to regular snow days.
“For a lot of parents whose work is physically in-person, when schools are out of sync with the broader business community or with expectations of work, I think it does create some inequalities,” Hutt said.
Similar issues arise with morning delays and early releases. Though delays are often implemented so icy roads have time to be cleared or salted in order to make transportation safer, they nonetheless create obstacles for working parents which in turn affects attendance and drives inequality.
Nothing can replace in-person learning
While most would say remote learning is better than no learning, for North Carolina natives, some of the best childhood memories stem from getting the news that school was canceled due to imminent snowfall.
Preserving that occasional experience is something worth considering for the betterment of child development and community building, although the effects of missing several days can add up quickly, Hutt said.
“School and achievement is one value that we have for our students, and we want to communicate to students that, generally, school attendance is important, the things that happen at school are important, but that’s one value,” Hutt said.
“We talk about the importance of holistic development of our kids. Neighborhoods are beautiful in North Carolina when it snows, and I think everyone who’s had a snow day or had a day where everyone’s off work, those are opportunities to engage with your neighbors, build a snowman or have a snowball.
“Those are things that we value, especially for children and for community. So I really do think it’s okay to have a snow day here, a snow day there, especially if it means keeping students safe and off the roads.”
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