Inclement Weather Procedures and Information

In the event of inclement weather or other emergency situations, it may be necessary to close schools, delay the start of the school day, or close schools early. The procedures used in school closings are detailed below. Keep this information in a convenient location for future reference.

Parents are urged to make arrangements now for the care of their children in the event of a change in the school schedule. We encourage you to keep your children informed of any plans related to transportation or childcare in the event of a school delay or closure.

Decisions on schedule changes are made after careful consideration of the best information available. Caroline County Public Schools (CCPS) staff members consult with local utilities, fire and transportation safety organizations when appropriate to assist in making the best decision possible. While no source for weather information is completely accurate 100% of the time, decisions are made with one overriding consideration—the safety of the students who ride buses, drive cars, or walk to school each day. In fact, the school system’s greatest concern is students, parents and school staff who must travel to and from school safely during incidents of poor weather conditions.

CCPS has several schedules set up to deal with inclement weather. These are put into effect when conditions threaten the safety of children and CCPS staff who are walking, driving, or riding buses to schools. These schedules are listed here:

1. Closed- all schools are closed for students and teachers and all after school and evening activities are cancelled.
2. Late Opening- all schools operate on a two-hour delay. Bus schedules and the opening of schools to students are delayed by two hours and breakfast is not served.
3. Early Dismissal- all schools close early and all after school and evening activities are cancelled. Times will be announced through our mass communication service and on radio and TV stations, and posted on our website. Middle and high school students will be dismissed first and elementary schools will be dismissed approximately an hour to an hour and a half later.

As soon as a decision is made to implement one of these changes, we post the information on our web site – www.ccps.us, Facebook, and Twitter. Notifications will be made through our mass notification service. Parents: please make sure to update your contact information at your child’s school, if there has been a change in your phone number. Our mass notification system pulls information from our Student Information System. The announcement will also be carried by radio and television stations, which are notified as quickly as possible after a decision is made. Please do not phone individual schools or one of the stations for this information.

We try to make a decision by 5:30 a.m. when schools will be closed all day or will open two hours late. On some occasions, it is not possible to make this time frame as weather can change unexpectedly. On other occasions, the school system may be able to make a scheduling decision the evening before so that parents, staff members, and students know what will happen the following day. This usually happens when precipitation is already on the ground and the temperatures are such that the precipitation on the roads is frozen or will refreeze.

School delays and closings will be sent to the media listed below:

Websites

Free Lance Star – fredericksburg.com
School’s Out – schoolsout.com
Caroline Alert – carolinealert.com

TV stations

WTVR – Channel 6
WRIC – Channel 8
WWBT – Channel 12

Radio stations

WFLS-FM 93.3
WGRQ-FM 95.9
WWUZ-FM 96.9
WYSK-FM 99.3
WNNT-FM 107.5
WFVA-FM 101.5
WGRX-FM 104.5
WRAR-FM 105.5

In the event of more than (3) school closures due to inclement weather or other circumstances, the school division superintendent will determine whether additional changes to the school calendar are needed to make up the loss of instructional time.