OLATHE, Kan. — It may be all fun and games with snow days right now, but the more days students in Kansas spend outside sledding, the more days they may have added to the school calendar at the end of the year.
Each school district in Kansas must choose an 186-day or 1,116-hour school year. At the same time, each district sets aside a certain amount of days for snow days.
If they were to go over the allotted days, they would need to either add more days to the end of the school year or add five to 10 minutes to the end of each school day.
For example, the Olathe School District (OSD) has four snow days with three of them already used. Wednesday was supposed to be a half day but was canceled because of snow.
Olathe parent Paige Barrows has two boys in the OSD. She also works from home. While having her kids home from school is manageable while working, it's not easy.
"They're so excited to play and then they'll come back 30 minutes later, and all the kids are upset because their hands are stinging and burning, and everything," Barrows said. "So mom's gotta step in and get them comfortable."
When asked about her thoughts on adding extra days or extra time to the school day, Barrows said it would affect the parents the most.
"Families with several children that are in the schools or at different schools, that can really throw a wrench in their days," Barrows said. "I don't think the kids even really notice."
OSD said they were already scheduled to be off Thursday and Friday, so they're not discussing adding more time to the school year.
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