With school doors closed for only the 9th time in over 30 years, the mayor says closing them followed careful consideration.
But it is not just a care-free snow day for thousands of students, scheduled to take the all-important state regents exams, which determine whether are able to graduate.
"I love a snow day any other day of the year, but today it was really just...it really just crushed me 'cause I had been preparing for it for so long...I've been preparing for it for two years now to take the chemistry regents," said Brandi Frye.
In New York City, students had their regents exams cancelled in a variety of subjects. In history and government there were 46,000, geometry, 22,000, chemistry, science and reading were cancelled for 9,000 kids each and physics did not happen for 1,800.
"It is a problem for the state, we'll work with them, we'll work it out, we'll get to it later today; our first thing is safety and the practicality of running a school system," said Bloomberg.
The test has been rescheduled for June when other Regents exams are scheduled to be taken, so it is not clear if the state will schedule the ones that were cancelled today for before then.
The State Education Department announced today that seniors who were scheduled to take Regents exams may use passing course grades (per local policy) to meet the requirements for a local diploma.
This option is being allowed only for the small number of seniors for whom passing grades on Regents exams not available this week due to inclement weather would represent their only outstanding requirement for January 2011 graduation.
Education Commissioner David Steiner said, "We hold a Regents Diploma as the goal for all; however, this is the fairest course of action for the seniors affected this week. I urge all the affected students to come back in June to earn the scores they need for a Regents diploma."
