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I've had both- the first one didn't make anything up because it was attached to a private school that didn't need to make up snow days. The second was attached to a public school, which is required to make it up. Currently, they are at one run by the YMCA, which doesn't make up the days.

Our daycare doesn't do make-up days, but they also RARELY close. I think they maybe close 1-2 times over the entire winter. I don't know how the teachers are handled - I don't know if they are paid or not.

@Amorini: we live in a place where there is not really weather that would cause closures. So I guess I would see if thinking about these days like holidays where daycare is closed affects how you feel? We pay a monthly rate regardless of holiday closures. So I pay the same for January even though they are closed for MLK day as I do for February when there are no closures. Last year they were closed for Presidents Day but my work was open so I took PTO for that day.

I feel like it all evens out in the end. But I would be frustrated about unplanned days off.

ETA: a daycare is like lots of other small businesses where there are a lot of fixed costs apart from salaries, so things like licenses, electricity, are things where your money goes.

Snow days are not given back. Since my kids are part time, if one of their scheduled days falls on a scheduled daycare closing (like Christmas and Boxing Day) they will let us send them on a different day in the week.

Also I don't understand how K-12 schools get extra days off and then you don't have to make them up? When I was growing up in Connecticut, every single snow day, we had to make it up. The school year was set at 180 days, that's also what the teachers contract was. There are no extra built in days that we could then use up, because again, the number was set.

Here in AZ we don't get days off for weather, and the one day in the past 8 years where we got it an emergency day off due to flooding, our district had to apply for special permission to the state to not have to make up the day (so did a ton of other schools.)

Our daycare also does not do makeup days, but also rarely closes (and we live in PA so we get bad weather). We'll have the occasional delayed opening or early closure if road conditions are icy or particularly poor, but in the past two and a half years I have only experienced one or two complete closures. I also still pay a full month's tuition even when there is a holiday that they are closed for (this only really irks me in December because they close for the week between Christmas and New Years but I still pay for the entire month).

@Adira: Oh that's interesting, because when our district goes past the allotted days, they start docking the spring vacation. They can't go past a certain day in June.

In Chicago, we don’t close for snow but we have closed for dangerously cold temperatures and there was no make-up, reimbursement, etc. The parents at the center did complain a lot (they don’t cancel work when the weather is too cold!) and the daycare changed its policy and remained open the next time(s) the temperatures dropped that low again. I’d probably try to get as many other fellow parents to complain so at least you can change the policies going forward.

ETA: The initial policy was to close when the local school system closed but we argued that our daycare babies weren’t standing outside for 30 minutes waiting for buses so the policy just didn’t work.

@looch: Well, I don't know for certain how our current district does it, since my kids are still in daycare, but that's how my school handled it growing up.

@DesertDreams88: I'm not sure we ever had the case where we didn't have at LEAST the number of closures the school anticipated, but if we did, I think school would've ended early. Like "Woohoo! We didn't have as many snow days as we thought, so school's last day is now May 29th!" kind of thing. I should ask my teacher friend how it's currently handled in our district.

@looch: @DesertDreams88: Okay, did a little research. Here's the info from last year:

"The last day of school for preschool is Monday, June 12, 2017 (instead of June 9).
The last day of school for grades K-12 is Wednesday, June 14 (instead of June 13). The district has had five snow days which are built into the calendar. Three delayed openings have resulted in a loss of cumulative instructional time that has resulted one additional school day."

@Adira: We have the same thing...but if there are more than 5 snow days, which has happened in the past, then days that were vacation days, like in April break, are now school days.

We have 181 contracted days in the school year. The reason why we don't go past a certain day in June is because a lot of the schools don't have A/C and it's too hot to be in those buildings.

@looch: Oh, I see. I'm pretty sure our schools have A/C?? I honestly don't remember growing up, though I remember having to go to school until June 26th one year!

This is a very hot topic for my. Our daycare's policy is that there is no make up days for sick, snow days, or holidays. They follow the public school on closings for snow days. Although the public school has to make up those days our daycare does not. I feel it is unfair to close according to the public school unless you have makeup days like the public school. The public school in my town will close for several days after a snow storm because of buses. The storm will be long gone and the school will still close because part of our town is in the mountains and the roads are not cleared yet for accessibility for buses. Well guess what, our daycare does not bus. Parents drop off. I am all for closing for snow, but not for days after because public school buses can't access the mountain roads yet... I work in the medical field and basically my work does not close for anything. I have to take vacation days which are very frowned upon. I also had to take vacation days for MLK day and Presidents day. Guess what, the public schools are in session those days to make up, why can't our daycare????

When daycare has to close for weather, we pay the same and they are supposed to pay the teachers the same. Our daycare is open every weekday except holidays, no spring breaks or anything, so there is no opportunity to make up days.

They usually follow the public schools for closings, but lately our schools have been closing a lot for weather when I'm not sure they really need to. They've already been closed 4 days this year! Our daycare has been great at trying to help out working parents by staying open when they can. For instance, our public transportation hasn't been running the last 2 days, so our director has been driving around to pick the teachers up and bring them to school and also take them home, just so working parents can send the kids in and not take more time off. We really appreciate that extra effort.

We go to a private daycare, not affiliated with a public or private school, and they do not do make up days. When they're closed due to inclement weather, they're closed and we must pay for it regardless.

Most of the time this doesn't bother me. However, we have had a couple things recently which were kind of annoying. Several weeks ago the school closed due to the heat breaking. A friend of mine who's daughter goes there told me she just informed the director that they were reducing their tuition by $X because they weren't going to pay for the school to be closed in that situation.

And then a couple weeks ago the school was closed due to a snow storm (fine) but then they posted on their Facebook page that they might be closed the following day due to the sub zero temps and I was WTF. This is a suburban daycare, no one walks, no one takes a bus, everyone drives. And the parking lot is right in front of the door. It's literally a 5 second walk in. I couldn't understand why they'd be closed or how it affected safety. Ultimately they just decided to open late. Which I still don't get, but 🤷‍♀️.

I don’t think my daycare does make up days and they’ve never closed since we have been there due to weather even after getting major storms (although we weren’t there when they go 7 feet during Snowvember—I’m sure they closed then).. 8 snow days sounds crazy! I think they just call in extra staff willing to travel if someone isn’t able to make it in. We’re not in the north country or anything but we are in a snowbelt in WNY and have had our fare share of days dropping the girls off in really bad conditions because we’re expected to be at work. I don’t even think they have a weather closing phone call chain. They definitely don’t close when schools do, and parents are able accordingto capacity have school agers stay there all day during snow days (they do before and after care with bus pick up and drop off).

We have had 2 snow days where daycare was closed this year and yesterday they had a delayed opening due to icy roads. They have not offered any make up days and I am ok with it since it is a rare occurrence and they are usually quick to reopen even if the schools in the area are closed. If it happened more frequently I might have more of an issue with it.

My kids are in 2 different schools but neither of them offer any sort of makeup time or reduction in tuition if they close. I'm hoping that is because they pay the teachers all the same. It is very frustrating because they follow the public school schedule and close if they close. It bothers me because our public schools typically close for reasons that have nothing to do with my kids - like bus stops that are not accessible due to snow banks or schools that didn't get shoveled out.

I’m so over snow days too. My kids go to half day preschool at a local church. They follow the local school calendar. The local schools make up. We do not. Local schools are decided based upon the WHOLE county. Our county is one of the biggest spans the entire Metro city area and closes for every little thing or mention of snow or ice. (We live in the South).

Since September, we’ve had 9 school days closed! Three were for possible “hurricane” like weather and the aftermath of it. Two were for actual snow (okay that was fine), one was for college football and the “threat of ice” (no kidding), and we had three days off this week bc some remote parts of the county was iced over. I’m pretty sure we haven’t gone a full week since like November. I know my teachers are paid hourly and they sent gettting paid...so not sure where the tuition is going.