As hundreds of thousands of families struggled to get public school students online for remote learning on Tuesday, many parents and kids found themselves longing for the good old days when snow meant no school at all. But the end of snow days may be the result of a basic math problem involving the school calendar.
According to state law, all New York public schools are required to provide a minimum of 180 days of instruction. But new cultural holidays in New York City and union requirements on teachers’ schedules have put a squeeze on the school year.
Instructional days
Mayor Eric Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks were adamant this week that virtual learning was necessary to keep students’ academics on track. But Banks also said that state law required Tuesday to be an instructional day instead of an old-school snow day where students got the day off.
“We are by state law mandated to have at least 180 days of school in order for us to be in compliance and not be subjected to major fines,” he said at a press conference. “And that’s what we have to be extremely careful with. That’s one of the benefits of having the remote day. This is not a day off.”
The city’s public schools are already squeaking by. Students are only in school for 178 days this year, but two teacher training days allow the city to meet the 180-day requirement, the education news site Chalkbeat reported.
Any change to the requirement of 180 instructional days would have to come through legislation.
State Sen. John Liu, who chairs the city’s education committee, said he’d reject any moves to decrease the required number of school days.
“There should not be any reduction in the minimum days,” he said. “We are certainly not at that point. There are 365 days in the year.”
City leaders seem similarly inclined in light of learning loss among students during the pandemic. According to the National Assessment of Education Progress test scores, students scored 5 to 8 points lower in…
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