As a sign of the times, the New York City Department of Education (DOE)  has decided to permanently eliminate the snow day. The New York City school system unveiled their upcoming 2021-2022 school year calendar and made official the new snow day ban. The DOE said in remarks today, “On “Snow days” or days when school buildings are closed due to an emergency, all students and families should plan on participating in remote learning.”

“Over the years, the DOE introduced additional holiday observances as part of the school calendar, and has contractual obligations which limit the number of possible school days. The pandemic has also created the ability to switch seamlessly to remote learning, and DOE central and schools have distributed hundreds of thousands of devices to ensure that learning can continue remotely during school closures,” said Sarah Casasnovas in a DOE statement. Casasnovas serves as Associate Press Secretary for the New York City Department of Education.

“We know nothing replaces in-person instruction, and we currently have more students learning in our schools than any other city or system. Our goal for the fall is to have all of our children safely return to full-time in-person learning on September 13th, and we look forward to sharing more information over the spring and summer,” Casasnovas said.

In addition to announcing the first day of school will be on September 13, other holidays were announced too. Juneteenth was added as a holiday while Columbus Day has been changed to Indigenous Peoples Day. Election Day won’t be a holiday, but instruction will be held virtually that day.