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FCPS Emergency Announcement Due to inclement weather or other emergency situations, it may be necessary to close schools for the entire day, to open schools late, or to close early. Parents are urged to make arrangements now for the care of their children when schedule changes are made (and to provide for the rare situation when it is necessary to close an individual school because of a power failure or other circumstances). Children should know where to go if a parent will not be home.
Decisions on schedule changes are made after careful study of the best information available from many sources including weather services, the highway department, the police, and FCPS transportation staff members who are out checking the roads. FCPS will make every effort to decide, before 5 a.m., whether to close or delay schools before and will begin communicating the decision once it is made. The 5 a.m. decision time is a goal. Weather conditions can deteriorate after 5 a.m., which means that it may not be possible for FCPS to meet that goal.
While no sources dealing with weather predictions can be infallible, decisions are made with one overriding consideration—the safety of all students—those who ride buses and those who walk to school each day. FCPS has several schedules set up to deal with inclement weather; these are put into effect when conditions threaten the safety of children who are walking or riding school buses to schools. These schedules are: (1) Keep schools closed. (2) Open two hours late. (3) Close two hours early. In every case of a schedule change: · Tune in to local radio and television stations (including cable Channel 21, a channel programmed by FCPS), which are notified as soon as a decision is made. · Check www.fcps.edu. · Call the FCPS hot line at 800-839-FCPS (3277). |
