May and what would normally be the final month of the school year is quickly approaching, but some school districts will find the year stretching into June to make up for snow days. Children are required to complete 180 school days. Carol Greta, the lawyer for the Iowa Department of Education, says there are a lot of variables in determining which days have to be made up.
Greta says schools have to make up any day that was canceled entirely, but if they had a late start or early out, they don’t have to make those up. Greta says there are several ways to make up the days that were missed. She says schools can add days onto the end of the calendar, including weekend days, or add time onto the existing school days.
"Anything they do that will give students instruction that students were not originally supposed to have, they can use those hours to try and make up days," Greta says. Greta says there’s a set amount of hours that adds up to one school day, as a school day is defined as five and half hours of instruction that is exclusive of lunch.
Greta says the Education Department has had a lot of calls about the issue this year and there is information about all the requirements on-line. She says they have a frequently asked questions area on their website and in the March school leaders update, there’s a lot of those questions which are answered.