Should schools embrace eDays to make up for weather?

Thomas M. Kostigen | Special for USA TODAY

Extreme weather is prompting school systems to think outside the box to figure out alternatives for students losing too many days in the classroom due to calamities from blizzards to heat waves to floods and more.

But the solution to make up for lost days is sparking anger among some parents. Upset parents in Jefferson County, Ala., say they see no reason for a new requirement that students learn remotely for two "eDays" this school year.

The eDays have been scheduled in advance for Oct. 9 and March 18 to allow "learning to continue without utilizing makeup days, and provides an option for learning when we have extreme weather, flu epidemics, or other unforeseen events," according to a school newsletter.

Parents say the requirement puts an undue burden on them to stay home with their children those days, potentially missing work.

Across the nation, school calendars are routinely hampered by severe weather.

In Massachusetts, schools scrambled this past year to make up for lost days after several winter storms dropped a record amount of snow on the Boston area and other parts of the state. Massachusetts mandates 180 days of instruction, and only five snow days are built into school calendars.

The unprecedented snowfall required more than two weeks of time off for students. Each school district figured out how to best cope with the additional time needed by extending the school year, dropping vacation time or holidays and even holding classes on Saturdays.

But it isn't just snow that keeps students from school. Sweltering heat caused classes to be canceled at schools in New Jersey and Connecticut last month. Across the country, schools in California are discussing ways to avoid that from happening in the Golden State.

Los Angeles public schools have been starting school in August since 2012, but the majority of parents and teachers want classes to begin after Labor Day, mainly to avoid the extreme heat and related air-conditioning expenses. Beginning this year, San Diego ended its year-round school schedule, citing summer heat as one of the reasons.

Technology and advancements in education via e-learning platforms need to be further embraced by school systems, especially if extreme weather and natural disasters continue to become more frequent. Daycare solutions must be addressed so family finances are not adversely affected.

Better weather forecasting can and should help schools prepare and manage schedules. Next year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA will launch the GOES-R weather satellite, which is designed to improve forecasting models.

NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other agencies already have data and resources that pin the likelihood of weather events to certain days of the year. A big data project could pull all that information together and help long-term planners, such as school administrators.

We often hear how much damage extreme weather exacts on society through the economy, property and deaths. But we don't often hear about the loss in education.

The often passed-down tales from parents to children of how far they had to walk through snow, wind, ice and rain to get to school should end with this generation.

We live in a wired world. Kids already talk online, text, play video games, surf, and do things in more innovative, tech-savvy ways than those of us in older generations even know about. Why don't we harness those virtual world skill sets to make up for the physical inadequacies and inconveniences the real world puts in front of us?

Thomas M. Kostigen is the founder of TheClimateSurvivalist.com and a New York Times bestselling author and journalist. He is the National Geographic author of "Extreme Weather Survival Guide: Understand, Prepare, Survive, Recover" and the NG Kids book, "Extreme Weather: Surviving Tornadoes, Tsunamis, Hailstorms, Thundersnow, Hurricanes and More!" Follow him @weathersurvival, or email kostigen@theclimatesurvivalist.com.

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