Snow disruptions can present complications for parents, guardians

Snow days are beginning to add up, as well as the pressure on local parents/guardians and families in St. Joseph.

While Wednesday’s snowfall appears likely to land on the lower end of the spectrum, several inches of snow and frigid temperatures could cause additional disruptions for schools, as well as families trying to balance making arrangements for childcare and work.

For many parents/guardians who don’t have children old enough to watch after themselves during a snow day, affordable options can be limited, especially for newer or low-income families with fewer resources and financial flexibility.

“There’s always going to be those challenges for families. Any time you have a change of your normal routine, it can kind of, you know, throw a wrench into things and often that attaches money,” said Lea Parker, director of Youth and Children’s Services with InterServ.

Parker oversees InterServ’s Northside and Southside before and afterschool programs.

Parker explained, while a large number of local families are able to develop a backup plan in those situations, several often find themselves choosing between missing work to watch their kids or finding a costly childcare service.

Disruptions from the latest winter storm are magnified for parents who had to burn valuable PTO or miss work during January’s historic blizzard, one that led to widespread travel delays, cancellations and three snow days for local schools.

Parker suggests that parents have proactive discussions with their employers to figure out what options are available to accommodate tricky snow situations.

“Some employers will give you that that snow day kind of thing. Others will will require that you take PTO to cover a snow day. Some will allow them to work from home,” Parker said. “So it really is up to the parents to kind of work with their employer and find out what their policies are.”

With InterServ’s free before and afterschool programs helping between 25 and 50 kids a day, Parker added that every break goes a long way for parents with tight budgets.

“A lot of our families wouldn’t be able to afford a before and after school program. They’re not cheap. it used to be relatively inexpensive … but they’re not anymore,” Parker said. “It keeps them from having to apply that money to child care and they can apply that money to basic needs.”

InterServ had to make the difficult call on Wednesday to cancel programming due to the risk for significant snowfall accumulations and to ensure staff safety. If cold weather is the only impediment come Thursday, the organization is likely to be back open.

Parker explained that the challenge with snow days is when kids are home alone, especially consecutively with cancelled school days, and making sure they’re staying engaged academically.

“If the kids aren’t with us and programing or the parent is at home with them, there’s always that possibility of the kids just, you know, they’re not going to do the AMI packets,” Parker said.