Anonymous wrote:Several reasons.
1) Staffing: A large percentage of preschool and daycare teachers have kids relative to other professions, and daycare salaries don't allow for things like nannies or snow day camps, so absenteeism would be high. But daycare and preschools aren't businesses that can run on a barebones staff because of legal requirements about ratios.
2) Liability: If a school opens and a teacher or parent or child is injured en route there is some liability. Of they can demonstrate that they followed an "authority" it makes a difference
3) Costs: TV and radio stations charge for announcing. Plus even if you pay to announce it is easy for your announcement to get buried. Closing with a public district is an easy way to get the word out and it is free.
This. I would also add that a school district (or OPM) has more resources for evaluating whether or not to close. An individual daycare owner basically just has the weather report and what they know about their neighborhood conditions. In a sense, they are just piggybacking on the school system's resources.
Also, in addition to having kids who aren't in school, daycare/preschool teachers may live further out, where road conditions are worse, or may depend on public transportation that isn't running normally, and may not be able to make it into work.