Schools closed for students Monday Feb 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.

But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.

Virtual worked much better for my SN kid. It also gave us extra time for tutoring and therapies. Every child is different. Given the low in person test scores, clearly in person isn’t working too for many kids.

As bad as in person is, virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids

What's your evidence of that? And actually you should cite evidence that virtual is worse than doing nothing at all which is the current MCPS status quo.

At this point it should be obvious but you are free to Google it if you don't understand

If it's so obvious to you, why don't you share your evidence. You're the one saying that virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids than having no instruction at all. Are these just your opinions that you're stating as facts?

If public schools only needed to educate the top 50% of students, they'd have a much easier problem on their hands. But no matter how convenient it would be for you, they can't just ignore the other students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.

But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.

I'm not employed by MCPS--I'm just a parent who reads more than you, despite your negative opinions on things you've never read. If you knew anything about virtual learning plans, you would know they are drawn up by professional paid staff, not parents.

I have written my BoE members to ask why MCPS didn't have a virtual learning plan approved by MSDE as other Maryland districts did, that would have allowed them to offer the option of virtual learning, like thousands of schools across the countries did last week.

They don't seem to think virtual is a good idea either. If you want to see it happen, you're going to need to come up with a proposal. You're obviously not going tomorrow be responsible for implementing it, or even fleshing it out, but you haven't been able to come up with anything for accommodating young kids or students with special needs. Nothing at all.

How can you be surprised we're not doing it if you can't come up with a way to do it?

Are you a new MCPS staff member? I had two children in K-2 when COVID started and I'm very familiar with how young students were accommodated. There was virtual live instruction, packets emailed or delivered. This isn't something that MCPS is unfamiliar with. This is what MCPS did for a year plus.

This is what thousands of students did last week in school districts around the country. You just sound like you don't know anything about virtual learning except that you don't like it.

They did it for for years. A year for Covid, and a three year voluntary program.

+1 It's ridiculous to say that the only way a virtual learning plan will happen is if parents write it for MCPS because Central Office isn't capable of thinking of how to differentiate learning for little kids or kids with special needs. MCPS has years of experience implementing virtual learning at a large scale (not perfectly, it's true, but we're talking about a second best option for weeks like last week where schools couldn't open at all.) Thousands of schools had virtual learning going on last week, some for Maryland school districts that MSDE approved already.

It's fine to say you want MCPS to try to come up with a plan. But then it would premature to prejudge the plan as adequate for all students before the plan is even proposed. You've offered no solutions to major problems with virtual instruction for certain groups of students. Because you obviously just want to ignore them.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:There are very few school districts that are completely closed tomorrow or not doing virtual learning. MCPS should be ashamed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/02/01/school-delays-dc-maryland-virginia-snow-storm/

Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed

Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?

If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.

BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.

Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?

Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?

McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..

Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.

That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.

You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.

You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".

Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.

And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.

We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.

You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.

That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.

You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.

I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.

We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.

So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.

But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.

Of course parents want make up days. Why wouldn't we want them? It's our kids losing out on the education we pay for with our taxes. It's the teachers who prefer to have them as additional holidays.
-Why wait til March 20? Why not February 17? I would bet there are fewer students travelling for Presidents day than for spring break.
-April 15 is a Wednesday off in the middle of the week. Most parents hate that.
-June 18 is a useless day. It's too late in the school year to offer meaningful instruction and teachers use it as an excuse to just show videos for a half day. I would much rather have a virtual learning day than that.

I don't want them made up. We have other activities planned. (and not travel, school related). Stop blaming teachers. We could have had school this past week via assignments or virtual. We had one teacher send out assignments via email so clearly it can be done. That teacher put a lot of effort into it.

here aren't a lot of choices here. You either:
1) Open schools in less than optimal weather conditions (cue the people screaming that we don't care if their child dies slipping on ice and falling into traffic.)
2) Develop a functional virtual learning plan that is contingency for bad weather weeks like this one and use it (Except that MCPS never made a virtual learrning plan that the State of Maryland required, unlike other school districts, and apparently people on this forum say it will take them months to make one up.)
3) Do make up days, recognizing that people have made plans thinking that school is out.
4) Shortchange kids of the 180 days of education required by law and apply to the state of Maryland to get a waiver to miss several days of instruction this year.

I prefer #3, and that BOE requires that MCPS develop #2 starting now, so we don't have this same conversation next year.

#1--having grown up in a colder weather state--the level of incompetence MCPS shows around weather issues astonishes me.

+1. Not just incompetence but the projection of helplessness. We can't react like a southern state while being positioned in the mid-Atlantic.

[Anonymous]

This is why we can’t have nice things. So many crazy parents on here insisting that if virtual instruction isn’t perfect, we cannot consider it. Y’all are nuts. In-person school is not perfect either - so much wasted time on regular school days. And instead of spending so much time on this listserve, spend an hour working with your child. One hour of one to one focused attention is worth 3-4 hours of school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.

But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.

Virtual worked much better for my SN kid. It also gave us extra time for tutoring and therapies. Every child is different. Given the low in person test scores, clearly in person isn’t working too for many kids.

As bad as in person is, virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids

What's your evidence of that? And actually you should cite evidence that virtual is worse than doing nothing at all which is the current MCPS status quo.

At this point it should be obvious but you are free to Google it if you don't understand

If it's so obvious to you, why don't you share your evidence. You're the one saying that virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids than having no instruction at all. Are these just your opinions that you're stating as facts?

The idea is that once the snow days are used, they need to be replaced with in person learning days. Yes, remote days are better than nothing. But “nothing” is not what is being advocated for

Last year, the three snow days that MCPs failed to budget for were added as end June half days where MCPS encouraged students not to come in and said no instruction would be done. That is nothing.

+1 Last year MCPS shortchanged kids on their education with those June days where most teachers just showed videos. This year we have even more snow days and February is just starting.

Meanwhile, half of MCPS kids can’t read or do math at grade level and some say it’s fine to lose the instructional time and just ask Maryland to waive the number of required days.

The argument shouldn't be "Are virtual days a perfect replacement for in person learning?". We know they're not. They are, however, better than the BS half days the school added at the end of last year, and probably will add again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why we can’t have nice things. So many crazy parents on here insisting that if virtual instruction isn’t perfect, we cannot consider it. Y’all are nuts. In-person school is not perfect either - so much wasted time on regular school days. And instead of spending so much time on this listserve, spend an hour working with your child. One hour of one to one focused attention is worth 3-4 hours of school

"Virtual works fine for my [likely middle out high school kid] so screw everyone else."

Again, if you want virtual, come up with a remediation plan for everyone else and make sure MCPS resources it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.

But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.

Virtual worked much better for my SN kid. It also gave us extra time for tutoring and therapies. Every child is different. Given the low in person test scores, clearly in person isn’t working too for many kids.

As bad as in person is, virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids

What's your evidence of that? And actually you should cite evidence that virtual is worse than doing nothing at all which is the current MCPS status quo.

At this point it should be obvious but you are free to Google it if you don't understand

If it's so obvious to you, why don't you share your evidence. You're the one saying that virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids than having no instruction at all. Are these just your opinions that you're stating as facts?

The idea is that once the snow days are used, they need to be replaced with in person learning days. Yes, remote days are better than nothing. But “nothing” is not what is being advocated for

Last year, the three snow days that MCPs failed to budget for were added as end June half days where MCPS encouraged students not to come in and said no instruction would be done. That is nothing.

+1 Last year MCPS shortchanged kids on their education with those June days where most teachers just showed videos. This year we have even more snow days and February is just starting.

Meanwhile, half of MCPS kids can’t read or do math at grade level and some say it’s fine to lose the instructional time and just ask Maryland to waive the number of required days.

The argument shouldn't be "Are virtual days a perfect replacement for in person learning?". We know they're not. They are, however, better than the BS half days the school added at the end of last year, and probably will add again.

Why are you comparing an idealized notion of virtual against the worst possible implementation off make days. You should instead compare it to using the contingency days already on the calendar.

And even if it would somehow be better for some students, you still be need to plan for how to deal with everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are very few school districts that are completely closed tomorrow or not doing virtual learning. MCPS should be ashamed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/02/01/school-delays-dc-maryland-virginia-snow-storm/

Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed

Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?

If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.

BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.

Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?

Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?

McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..

Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.

That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.

You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.

You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".

Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.

And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.

We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.

You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.

That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.

You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.

I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.

We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.

So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.

But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.

Of course parents want make up days. Why wouldn't we want them? It's our kids losing out on the education we pay for with our taxes. It's the teachers who prefer to have them as additional holidays.
-Why wait til March 20? Why not February 17? I would bet there are fewer students travelling for Presidents day than for spring break.
-April 15 is a Wednesday off in the middle of the week. Most parents hate that.
-June 18 is a useless day. It's too late in the school year to offer meaningful instruction and teachers use it as an excuse to just show videos for a half day. I would much rather have a virtual learning day than that.

I don't want them made up. We have other activities planned. (and not travel, school related). Stop blaming teachers. We could have had school this past week via assignments or virtual. We had one teacher send out assignments via email so clearly it can be done. That teacher put a lot of effort into it.

here aren't a lot of choices here. You either:
1) Open schools in less than optimal weather conditions (cue the people screaming that we don't care if their child dies slipping on ice and falling into traffic.)
2) Develop a functional virtual learning plan that is contingency for bad weather weeks like this one and use it (Except that MCPS never made a virtual learrning plan that the State of Maryland required, unlike other school districts, and apparently people on this forum say it will take them months to make one up.)
3) Do make up days, recognizing that people have made plans thinking that school is out.
4) Shortchange kids of the 180 days of education required by law and apply to the state of Maryland to get a waiver to miss several days of instruction this year.

I prefer #3, and that BOE requires that MCPS develop #2 starting now, so we don't have this same conversation next year.

#1--having grown up in a colder weather state--the level of incompetence MCPS shows around weather issues astonishes me.

+1. Not just incompetence but the projection of helplessness. We can't react like a southern state while being positioned in the mid-Atlantic.

Yes, Taylor and the CO need to go. Hire a team from a northern state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are very few school districts that are completely closed tomorrow or not doing virtual learning. MCPS should be ashamed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/02/01/school-delays-dc-maryland-virginia-snow-storm/

Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed

Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?

If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.

BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.

Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?

Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?

McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..

Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.

That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.

You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.

You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".

Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.

And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.

We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.

You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.

That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.

You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.

I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.

We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.

So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.

But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.

Of course parents want make up days. Why wouldn't we want them? It's our kids losing out on the education we pay for with our taxes. It's the teachers who prefer to have them as additional holidays.
-Why wait til March 20? Why not February 17? I would bet there are fewer students travelling for Presidents day than for spring break.
-April 15 is a Wednesday off in the middle of the week. Most parents hate that.
-June 18 is a useless day. It's too late in the school year to offer meaningful instruction and teachers use it as an excuse to just show videos for a half day. I would much rather have a virtual learning day than that.

I don't want them made up. We have other activities planned. (and not travel, school related). Stop blaming teachers. We could have had school this past week via assignments or virtual. We had one teacher send out assignments via email so clearly it can be done. That teacher put a lot of effort into it.

here aren't a lot of choices here. You either:
1) Open schools in less than optimal weather conditions (cue the people screaming that we don't care if their child dies slipping on ice and falling into traffic.)
2) Develop a functional virtual learning plan that is contingency for bad weather weeks like this one and use it (Except that MCPS never made a virtual learrning plan that the State of Maryland required, unlike other school districts, and apparently people on this forum say it will take them months to make one up.)
3) Do make up days, recognizing that people have made plans thinking that school is out.
4) Shortchange kids of the 180 days of education required by law and apply to the state of Maryland to get a waiver to miss several days of instruction this year.

I prefer #3, and that BOE requires that MCPS develop #2 starting now, so we don't have this same conversation next year.

#1--having grown up in a colder weather state--the level of incompetence MCPS shows around weather issues astonishes me.

+1. Not just incompetence but the projection of helplessness. We can't react like a southern state while being positioned in the mid-Atlantic.

Yes, Taylor and the CO need to go. Hire a team from a northern state.

I don’t agree with pinning this on MCPS. So much of this is on MoCo as a county. The school district only has so much control. And PG county is now closed today as well. We are not out of line with peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.

But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.

Virtual worked much better for my SN kid. It also gave us extra time for tutoring and therapies. Every child is different. Given the low in person test scores, clearly in person isn’t working too for many kids.

As bad as in person is, virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids

What's your evidence of that? And actually you should cite evidence that virtual is worse than doing nothing at all which is the current MCPS status quo.

At this point it should be obvious but you are free to Google it if you don't understand

If it's so obvious to you, why don't you share your evidence. You're the one saying that virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids than having no instruction at all. Are these just your opinions that you're stating as facts?

The idea is that once the snow days are used, they need to be replaced with in person learning days. Yes, remote days are better than nothing. But “nothing” is not what is being advocated for

Last year, the three snow days that MCPs failed to budget for were added as end June half days where MCPS encouraged students not to come in and said no instruction would be done. That is nothing.

+1 Last year MCPS shortchanged kids on their education with those June days where most teachers just showed videos. This year we have even more snow days and February is just starting.

Meanwhile, half of MCPS kids can’t read or do math at grade level and some say it’s fine to lose the instructional time and just ask Maryland to waive the number of required days.

The argument shouldn't be "Are virtual days a perfect replacement for in person learning?". We know they're not. They are, however, better than the BS half days the school added at the end of last year, and probably will add again.

Why are you comparing an idealized notion of virtual against the worst possible implementation off make days. You should instead compare it to using the contingency days already on the calendar.

And even if it would somehow be better for some students, you still be need to plan for how to deal with everyone else.

A) We have taken too many snow days for the 2 contingency days in the calendar; and B) the county has already shown us how they treat added contingency days at the end of the year. I'm not idealizing virtual learning, I'm just saying it's better than half days at the end of the year when half the kids aren't there and teachers aren't doing anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.

But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.

Virtual worked much better for my SN kid. It also gave us extra time for tutoring and therapies. Every child is different. Given the low in person test scores, clearly in person isn’t working too for many kids.

As bad as in person is, virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids

What's your evidence of that? And actually you should cite evidence that virtual is worse than doing nothing at all which is the current MCPS status quo.

At this point it should be obvious but you are free to Google it if you don't understand

If it's so obvious to you, why don't you share your evidence. You're the one saying that virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids than having no instruction at all. Are these just your opinions that you're stating as facts?

If public schools only needed to educate the top 50% of students, they'd have a much easier problem on their hands. But no matter how convenient it would be for you, they can't just ignore the other students.

You mean what’s happening now with the large numbers of kids failing testing and the inequities between the schools.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.

But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.

Virtual worked much better for my SN kid. It also gave us extra time for tutoring and therapies. Every child is different. Given the low in person test scores, clearly in person isn’t working too for many kids.

As bad as in person is, virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids

What's your evidence of that? And actually you should cite evidence that virtual is worse than doing nothing at all which is the current MCPS status quo.

At this point it should be obvious but you are free to Google it if you don't understand

If it's so obvious to you, why don't you share your evidence. You're the one saying that virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids than having no instruction at all. Are these just your opinions that you're stating as facts?

The idea is that once the snow days are used, they need to be replaced with in person learning days. Yes, remote days are better than nothing. But “nothing” is not what is being advocated for

Last year, the three snow days that MCPs failed to budget for were added as end June half days where MCPS encouraged students not to come in and said no instruction would be done. That is nothing.

+1 Last year MCPS shortchanged kids on their education with those June days where most teachers just showed videos. This year we have even more snow days and February is just starting.

Meanwhile, half of MCPS kids can’t read or do math at grade level and some say it’s fine to lose the instructional time and just ask Maryland to waive the number of required days.

The argument shouldn't be "Are virtual days a perfect replacement for in person learning?". We know they're not. They are, however, better than the BS half days the school added at the end of last year, and probably will add again.

Why are you comparing an idealized notion of virtual against the worst possible implementation off make days. You should instead compare it to using the contingency days already on the calendar.

And even if it would somehow be better for some students, you still be need to plan for how to deal with everyone else.

It’s not true virtual learning and only a short period. People who cannot handle their needs need to put them in child care and think through parenting.

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Anonymous wrote:There are very few school districts that are completely closed tomorrow or not doing virtual learning. MCPS should be ashamed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/02/01/school-delays-dc-maryland-virginia-snow-storm/

Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed

Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?

If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.

BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.

Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?

Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?

McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..

Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.

That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.

You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.

You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".

Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.

And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.

We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.

You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.

That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.

You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.

I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.

We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.

So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.

But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.

Of course parents want make up days. Why wouldn't we want them? It's our kids losing out on the education we pay for with our taxes. It's the teachers who prefer to have them as additional holidays.
-Why wait til March 20? Why not February 17? I would bet there are fewer students travelling for Presidents day than for spring break.
-April 15 is a Wednesday off in the middle of the week. Most parents hate that.
-June 18 is a useless day. It's too late in the school year to offer meaningful instruction and teachers use it as an excuse to just show videos for a half day. I would much rather have a virtual learning day than that.

I don't want them made up. We have other activities planned. (and not travel, school related). Stop blaming teachers. We could have had school this past week via assignments or virtual. We had one teacher send out assignments via email so clearly it can be done. That teacher put a lot of effort into it.

here aren't a lot of choices here. You either:
1) Open schools in less than optimal weather conditions (cue the people screaming that we don't care if their child dies slipping on ice and falling into traffic.)
2) Develop a functional virtual learning plan that is contingency for bad weather weeks like this one and use it (Except that MCPS never made a virtual learrning plan that the State of Maryland required, unlike other school districts, and apparently people on this forum say it will take them months to make one up.)
3) Do make up days, recognizing that people have made plans thinking that school is out.
4) Shortchange kids of the 180 days of education required by law and apply to the state of Maryland to get a waiver to miss several days of instruction this year.

I prefer #3, and that BOE requires that MCPS develop #2 starting now, so we don't have this same conversation next year.

#1--having grown up in a colder weather state--the level of incompetence MCPS shows around weather issues astonishes me.

+1. Not just incompetence but the projection of helplessness. We can't react like a southern state while being positioned in the mid-Atlantic.

Yes, Taylor and the CO need to go. Hire a team from a northern state.

I don’t agree with pinning this on MCPS. So much of this is on MoCo as a county. The school district only has so much control. And PG county is now closed today as well. We are not out of line with peers.

Many things reopened in MoCo last Tuesday. Pretty much everything else on Wednesday. MCPS is the outlier in the county. The county sufficiently cleared roads and most major sidewalks. People have been out and about for nearly a week, including kids. But MCPS has unnecessary and unreasonable expectations, with no plan to achieve them.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is why we can’t have nice things. So many crazy parents on here insisting that if virtual instruction isn’t perfect, we cannot consider it. Y’all are nuts. In-person school is not perfect either - so much wasted time on regular school days. And instead of spending so much time on this listserve, spend an hour working with your child. One hour of one to one focused attention is worth 3-4 hours of school

"Virtual works fine for my [likely middle out high school kid] so screw everyone else."

Again, if you want virtual, come up with a remediation plan for everyone else and make sure MCPS resources it.

Those of our kids not getting an education are the ones out of luck especially those with major tests coming up. MCPS has the resources.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.

But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.

Virtual worked much better for my SN kid. It also gave us extra time for tutoring and therapies. Every child is different. Given the low in person test scores, clearly in person isn’t working too for many kids.

As bad as in person is, virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids

What's your evidence of that? And actually you should cite evidence that virtual is worse than doing nothing at all which is the current MCPS status quo.

At this point it should be obvious but you are free to Google it if you don't understand

If it's so obvious to you, why don't you share your evidence. You're the one saying that virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids than having no instruction at all. Are these just your opinions that you're stating as facts?

The idea is that once the snow days are used, they need to be replaced with in person learning days. Yes, remote days are better than nothing. But “nothing” is not what is being advocated for

Last year, the three snow days that MCPs failed to budget for were added as end June half days where MCPS encouraged students not to come in and said no instruction would be done. That is nothing.

+1 Last year MCPS shortchanged kids on their education with those June days where most teachers just showed videos. This year we have even more snow days and February is just starting.

Meanwhile, half of MCPS kids can’t read or do math at grade level and some say it’s fine to lose the instructional time and just ask Maryland to waive the number of required days.

The argument shouldn't be "Are virtual days a perfect replacement for in person learning?". We know they're not. They are, however, better than the BS half days the school added at the end of last year, and probably will add again.

Why are you comparing an idealized notion of virtual against the worst possible implementation off make days. You should instead compare it to using the contingency days already on the calendar.

And even if it would somehow be better for some students, you still be need to plan for how to deal with everyone else.

A) We have taken too many snow days for the 2 contingency days in the calendar; and B) the county has already shown us how they treat added contingency days at the end of the year. I'm not idealizing virtual learning, I'm just saying it's better than half days at the end of the year when half the kids aren't there and teachers aren't doing anything.

+1 During COVID, after the lengthy "getting ready" period, virtual instruction was actually...fine? It was fine. It wasn't perfect, but in some classes it was actually better than in-person because the kids who didn't want to be there just turned up for attendance, turned off their cameras, and played video games. So we know that MCPS is capable of doing virtual well, because we have seen it done well, or well enough.

We have also seen how MCPS treats make-up days at the end of the year. Teachers are demotivated, kids are restless, and half of the class is missing because their parents made plans in January thinking school would be out already.

We don't have to compare imaginary things. We can compare two things many of us have seen with our own eyes.