NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Despite travel conditions and emergency declarations, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday defended the decision not to cancel class for the city’s 1.1 million public school students, by repeatedly reminding parents that he is a public school parent too.

WATCH: De Blasio Gives Winter Storm Update

“I look at this from a number of different perspectives, including that of public school parents,” de Blasio said at a news conference, reiterating several times that he himself is a parent of public school students.

As CBS 2’s Andrea Grymes reported, city schools Chancellor Carmen Farina announced Wednesday night that public schools would remain open Thursday during the storm. Field trips and after-school and PSAL activities were canceled Thursday.

Student attendance amounted to 44.65 percent citywide.

De Blasio, Farina Face Tough Questions On Decision To Keep NYC Public Schools Open During Storm

Speaking to reporters around 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Farina defended the city’s decision to keep schools open.

Web Extra: School Attendance Figures For Thursday, Feb. 13

“The reality is that we make decisions based on what we know at the time,” she said. “Because this storm was so unpredictable, and what we heard last night is not necessarily what we saw this morning.”

She added it had “totally stopped snowing” and has turned into “an absolutely a beautiful day out there right now.”

But to many parents, it was not a beautiful day in the slightest. They found themselves trudging through wind-whipped snow in near-blizzard conditions to get their kids safely to school.

Some viewers were shocked by her comment and expressed their strong opinions on CBS New York’s Facebook page:

Paige Katherine: It is a beautiful day if you are a penguin or a polar bear. I wonder which one Ms. Farina is……

Jc VanderPutten: I think I want to smoke whatever she is smoking. Does she realize what a complete fool she looks like for making that statement. There are cars stuck on parkways. People stuck on trains. Car accidents everywhere. But she thinks it’s a beautiful day! Idiot.

Vera Swensen: No wonder Be Blasio picked Carmen Farina as Chancellor.. She’s an Idiot just like him!!

De Blasio said while there was more snow than originally anticipated, the decision to close schools was “a grey situation.”

@JSchneiderTV Over 500 students absent from my Brooklyn school today (50%). The front of my school at 7:40am pic.twitter.com/cRkd0OQMvn — Bruce Gamsey (@BruceGamsey) February 13, 2014

“We were convinced that kids could get to school this morning and we always emphasize in making these decisions, when you think about 1.1 million kids, so many families depend on their schools as a place for their kids to be during the day, a safe place, a place where they’re not only taught but get nutrition and they are safe from the elements,” he said.

De Blasio said the weather forecast changed over the day, and early on, it did not appear that there would be any major issue for children getting to school.

“We knew, based on the reports of the National Weather Service that we could have as little as 3 inches of snow on ground by time kids walked in the door of our schools. And we could have more; we could have 4 or 5 or more,” he said.

The mayor further defended his decision to keep the when CBS 2’s Grymes questioned him about it.

Grymes: “Do you believe that children’s lives were put at risk by the decision to keep schools open? We’ve seen parents struggling to get their kids on the school bus, especially when you’re telling people to stay off the roads.”

Mayor de Blasio: “By definition, we thought children would get to school safely based on information we had. Again, I want to make 100 percent clear as a parent, and having a chancellor who is a parent and lifelong teacher, we make these decisions with the safety of our children in mind at all times.”

But the United Federation of Teachers did not agree. Union President Michael Mulgrew said the winter storm made it unsafe for students, parents and staff to get to school.