The decision to cancel school due to snow is not taken lightly, because schools have to complete a certain number of instruction days in a year. It’s usually a combination of school district topography, road conditions, and local snow-clearing systems. For example, where I live, the city school can get buses around in some snow, because the routes are only a few miles and the roads get salted. But the county schools have to send buses over long routes that are treacherous in good weather and are not maintained (often not even paved). Whether an area expects snow has a lot to do with how prepared they are to plow or salt roads. It is not cost-effective to buy and store snowplows and salt where it only snows once in a decade.
Redditor atrubetskoy constructed a map that shows approximately how much snow is required to cancel school in the various parts of the U.S. See it full-size here. Read about the map and some of the data used at The Atlantic.
See more about baby and kids at NeatoBambino
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I have to admit that most of the times I walked up, it was because my car was a POS and didn't work. That's why I lived within walking distance. I could still judge the driving conditions.
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That's fascinating!
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But there is a self-perpetuating difference in funding when you consider that local property taxes make up a big part of school budgets. Wealthy areas have wealthier schools in that way.
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That's why we send buses to get the kids, and make it illegal to NOT send your kids to school. However, you can declare your child home schooled if you really don't want them to go. But attendance is still pretty good in my impoverished area, since kids get a ride, an education, free breakfast and lunch, and parents don't have to pay a babysitter.
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One small town I lived in, the school superintendent would call me to determine whether they should hold school. I was the morning DJ at a radio station on a hill, and I had to be on the air at 5:30 AM. If I made it up the hill with my car, the roads were fine. If not, the school buses would never be able to run their routes. I walked up that hill a lot.
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