Inclement Weather and Emergency Closings

Guilford County Schools is dedicated to promoting the safety and wellbeing of students and staff. In the event of inclement weather, the district has thorough plans for determining if schools should be in session or if a delay, early dismissal or closure should be issued. While following these plans and evaluating local weather reports and road closures, we use our best judgment in the interest of student and staff safety.

GCS follows Board of Education Policy 5050/7550 and Regulation 5050/7550-R when determining inclement-weather plans.

Please click on the following frequently asked questions to learn more about how the decision is made to close or delay school and other activities.

How does GCS make inclement weather decisions?

The safety of students, staff and families is always our top priority.

With more than 80,000 people to consider, GCS relies on several sources of information to keep everyone safe.

Making the call to close or delay school is a complex process influenced by several factors:

The regional branch of the National Weather Service in Raleigh;

Local government plans; and

On-the-ground surveys of potentially impacted areas.

Whenever possible, GCS strives to make decisions the evening before anticipated bad weather, giving families time to plan. However, given the unpredictable weather patterns of our state and region, oftentimes, final decisions cannot be made until the early hours of the morning. If that’s the case, here’s what happens:

A team consisting of representatives from transportation, operations, emergency management and communications convenes around 3 a.m. to receive up-to-date weather information and evaluate conditions.

The transportation team surveys all areas of the county that are prone to hazardous road conditions.

Emergency management and operations consult with law enforcement, and city and county leaders to learn of their overnight response and daytime plans.

A decision is made and communicated through phone calls, emails, texts, social media, local news outlets and the district website.

It’s important to remember that Guilford County Schools consists of multiple municipalities. Staff and students, including young drivers, commute across the county to get to work and school. With their safety in mind, if one area of the county is impassable, all the county is deemed impassable and schools will either be delayed or closed.

Unfortunately, the nature of predicting the exact impact of the weather in advance is uncertain. There is no perfect call, and we are always learning to make the very best decisions to protect student safety as well as maximizing instructional time when it is safe to proceed with school.

Here are a few answers to commonly asked questions that may be helpful this winter.

Why didn't GCS just hold school remotely when the weather was uncertain?

North Carolina state law allows districts to transition to remote learning for five (5) days each school year. In addition to limitations on the amount of remote instruction time that may be scheduled, our teams carefully assess weather forecasts to determine if remote learning is feasible. In cases where widespread power outages are predicted, remote learning may not be a feasible option.

Why Didn’t I Receive a Notification?

GCS works hard to ensure all families receive timely messages, but technical issues can sometimes arise. Common reasons include:

Blocked district phone numbers: Ensure you haven’t blocked 336-370-8100 by calling 1-855-502-7867 and texting START to 60680.

Outdated contact information: Parents, check with your school’s data manager. Employees, update your preferences via Employee Self Service.

If you are a parent or student and have never received district communications, try these options:

For phone calls: Dial 1-855-502-7867 and opt-in

For non-emergency texts: Text START to 60680

For emergency texts: Text START to 54968

If you’re still not receiving messages, contact your school or for technology assistance, submit a technology services ticket.

What About After-School Activities?

Will make-up days be scheduled?

State law requires that school districts have a plan to make-up days missed due to emergency conditions. GCS plans to use a combination of remote learning and reduced instructional hours. State law permits up to five (5) remote days for emergencies. In addition, in GCS, our full 180-day (1080-hour) school calendar exceeds the minimum number of instructional hours in North Carolina (1025 hours). This provides a total of 14 days of flexibility (5 remote days + 9 days of reduced instructional hours) built into the calendar before the Board would need to consider any adjustments to the calendar.

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