In a winter walloped by a near-record snowfall, students in the north zone that includes Orillia and Midland have had 16 snow days since December, including Friday.
Because Simcoe County student busing is broken up into four zones — north, south, central and west — the number of snow days, or bus cancellation days, is different depending on where a student lives.
The west area, including Collingwood, has had 13 snow days, the central zone, which includes Barrie, has had 10 days when buses have been cancelled, and the south zone, which includes Alliston, has had nine.
Thursday marked the first time this school year that all the public and Catholic schools across the county were closed due to the winter storm that blanketed the region in snow.
Kyah and Kaydence Thompson, grade 7 and 8 students, respectively, at Warminster Elementary School, said they have lost a lot of instructional time this winter. Due to a recent move to Cumberland Beach, their parents drive them to school daily.
"We are in the same boat with the buses. If the roads are bad, we can't drive back and forth," said Kaydence.
"We have to do school work online."
The online set-up is not a live class, she explained, noting there are assignments and due dates, which can be the next day.
"If you don't do it, it goes into the 'missing' file," Kaydence said.
"It's kind of hard because some of the assignments require help from teachers, so you can't do that when it's always a snow day," said Kyah.
When they are driven to school on a bus cancellation day, there aren't many other students there in their grades due to it being a rural school where most students are bused in, said their father, Troy Thompson.
"If there's only three kids in our class, we go to the Grade 2 class and do school work on our Chromebooks," said Kaydence.
Kyah said teachers will typically combine grades, so a class could be made up of grade 5, 6 and 7 students.
Both girls said they are not being taught a regular lesson on a day when buses are cancelled.
"It's kind of like a fun day. We play games the whole day because nobody comes," said Kyah.
Sarah Kekewich, manager of communications and strategic priorities for the Simcoe County District School Board (SCDSB), said schools remain open for student learning when buses are cancelled, except for the rare exception like Thursday, when the schools closed.
"School staff is expected to plan for such emergencies in order to transition students who are unable to attend due to inclement weather to their online platforms (Google Classroom and/or SCDSBhub [Brightspace by D2L]) and continue with academic programming," she said.
"Students who walk to school are encouraged to attend on inclement weather days, where possible."
Because of the rash of snow days, the SCDSB altered the school schedule during exam time in January for students in the north and west zones.
"This was to ensure that students had the opportunity to complete their culminating tasks and attend the feedback and recovery days." Kekewich said.
Pauline Stevenson, manager of communications and strategic initiatives for the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board, said the winter is having an impact on staff, students and families.
"Any sort of disruption to learning and change to schedules can be challenging to navigate," she said.
"At the same time, the school year calendar in Ontario allows for 194 days of learning as a minimum. This is more than many other provinces and countries. For example, Quebec has 180 days. Students are still learning and achieving the curriculum expectations."
Catholic schools are open for student learning when buses are cancelled, Stevenson noted.
"Even though no new learning is introduced, students who do attend benefit from small group instruction. These days can provide students with an excellent opportunity for review and reinforcement of previously learned material," she said.
Teachers adapt their strategies in order to meet the curriculum expectations for students, she said.
"They can prioritize their planning and make adjustments to their schedules so that the most important topics are covered," Stevenson said.
There are no plans to alter the school year due to the loss of classroom time because of the weather, she told OrilliaMatters.
"Historically, we have had disruptions with similar or longer periods of days missed for a variety of reasons and we leave the school year calendar intact," she said.
Parents can help their children, even if they are working, by encouraging them to read books, play card games, colour and do crafts, which all support learning, Stevenson advised.
"We encourage students and families to do what makes sense and is comfortable for them," she said. "Safe indoor and outdoor play supports creativity, which is where children do lots of learning. Older students can review notes, complete unfinished assignments, practise math problems and read as well."
School bus cancellations are determined by the Simcoe County Student Transportation Consortium. Officials did not respond to phone and email requests for comment in time for publication of this article.
Stevenson said the 2021-22 school year had more bus cancellation days, but she said she wasn't aware of the number.