School closures in the Southeast stretch into 2nd week after latest
winter storm
[February 03, 2026]
By MAKIYA SEMINERA
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — School systems across the Southeast are dealing
with weather-related school closures for the second week in a row,
leading some to try remote learning while many prepare to add more
school days to make up for lost instructional time.
A series of winter storms has left tens of thousands of people without
electricity and made some roads too icy for travel, complicating efforts
to reopen schools from Mississippi to Maryland. Some cities, including
Nashville, Tennessee, still had unresolved outages from a storm a week
earlier when another hit this weekend, accompanied by frigid
temperatures. Nearly 75,000 customers were without power in Mississippi
and Tennessee as of Monday afternoon, according to the outage tracking
website poweroutage.us.
In Belzoni, Mississippi, Chiquitta Fields has stayed in a hotel with her
four children and 1-year-old grandchild the past week because their home
lost power during the previous storm. She's shelled out about $700 just
to stay at the hotel — a necessity because her granddaughter needs to be
on oxygen.
The financial burden has been especially stressful because Fields, 41,
has been unable to work the past week in her job as an assistant
elementary teacher. Her kids haven't been exempt from that pressure
either, Fields said.
“It's been stressful for them, with the moving back and forth from one
place and to another,” she said. “Children don't adjust well when you do
all that.”
As her family's situation suggests, the decision to close schools for
weather doesn't go without complications for children's learning.
Absenteeism from severe weather can take a steep toll on children's
learning, according to a report from the Northwest Evaluation
Association, a not-for-profit education research firm. Missing a day of
school from a weather-related closure translates to almost four days of
lost learning time due to other exacerbating factors in a student's
personal life, the firm said. Those added challenges can range from
disruptions to housing to poor mental health.
Where are schools closed?
Public school systems in and around some of the biggest southeastern
cities — Atlanta, Charlotte, Memphis and Raleigh — are part of the wave
of school closures this week. Other major Southern cities, such as
Louisville, operated on a two-hour delay Monday after missing school
last week.
In North Carolina, much of the state's public school districts remained
closed Monday, with some extending their closures to at least Tuesday.
In Mississippi, one of the hardest-hit states in the latest storm, some
school districts in the northern part of the state canceled classes
through the rest of this week.
Power outages have also heavily contributed to school closures in cities
such as Nashville. At the peak of outages, 71 schools had no power or
partial service, according to a Metro Nashville Public Schools news
release. All of the schools had their power restored by Monday
afternoon.
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Tennessee National Guard Specialist Taylor Osteen, left, holds a
chainsaw as he takes a break from cutting trees from a road Friday,
Jan. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Several major Southeastern universities were forced to close their
campuses or cancel classes at least through Monday, including Ole
Miss, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North
Carolina State University, the University of South Carolina and the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
How are schools making up for lost instructional time?
Some schools attempted a version of remote learning, but those
efforts have been limited by power outages affecting students'
ability to work from home. In some cases, though, parents said their
districts seemed well prepared to implement remote learning.
Olivia White's children stayed home a couple days last week and then
again Monday after Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools canceled classes.
She found her kids' remote schoolwork manageable, adding that the
school system seemed understanding of how families may choose to
spend their time on a snow day. In White's case, her kids spent some
time outside building a snow fort and throwing snowballs at each
other.
In Memphis-Shelby County Schools, Tennessee's largest public school
system, schools will be closed for at least seven straight days come
Tuesday. Despite the closures, the school system said it is
providing daily instructional resources and learning packets for
students to access at home while they remain out of the classroom.
Learning packets covered a variety of school subjects such as
language arts, literacy, mathematics and social studies, depending
on what grade a student is in. The at-home materials also include
mental health activities for students broken up by age group — such
as coloring for preschoolers or journal writing for high schoolers —
to address what may be a distressing time for kids stuck at home.
Other school systems have opted for a more traditional snow day,
telling students they have no schoolwork and should go out and enjoy
the weather.
Regardless of how districts implement closures, many are considering
whether to add more school days to make up for the lost
instructional time. Metro Nashville Public Schools told parents in
an email that the district plans to convert a teacher professional
development on Presidents’ Day to a regular school day.
___
Sophie Bates in Belzoni, Mississippi; Erik Verduzco in Charlotte,
North Carolina; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Travis Loller in
Nashville, Tennessee; and Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina,
contributed to this report.
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