Education is important and every missed day of school represents lost learning opportunities. However, the Boise School District’s primary concern is for the safety of all students, including students riding buses and walking or biking to school. If students cannot safely travel to school or if schools are not able to operate safely because of citywide dangerous weather conditions, school may be canceled. We do our best to make a decision by 5:30 a.m. to ensure timely communication.
We will not cancel school on days with normal winter conditions. Light snowfall, cold mornings, or areas of ice are not sufficiently dangerous to force the closure of schools. With proper precautions including appropriate clothing, road deicing, and careful driving, students can travel to and from school safely.
The Boise School District covers over 450 square miles of Ada County. We recognize that conditions vary throughout the District, even from street to street, in some cases. Conditions may be extremely dangerous in one area, while perfectly safe everywhere else. If parents believe it is too dangerous for their children to travel to school they have the option to keep their children home. If school is canceled, it will be canceled for the entire District, including Boise Online School.
The most frequent dangerous weather conditions facing Boise schools are:
SNOW: Snow levels within the City of Boise are typically light or moderate. However, there is always the potential for heavy snowfall to make traveling by vehicle or on foot dangerous. Historically, most snowfall only results in slow traffic and minor accidents throughout the City. Normal snowfalls would not result in school closures.
COLD: Frigid temperatures are more serious than snow when making school closure decisions. On bitterly cold days our concern is for students walking to school. Extremely cold weather also impairs our ability to get busses running, which causes delays in pickup routes, delays which are much more dangerous to riders because of the low temperatures.
ICE: Ice is our most dangerous winter weather condition. Freezing rain and/or refreezing of melted snow make our roads, streets, and sidewalks extremely treacherous for pedestrians, and vehicles. Icy conditions may force us to close, even if it appears that no other dangerous conditions exist.
Representatives from transportation agencies, the weather bureau, the highway district, city and county law enforcement agencies, and school administrators, including the Superintendent, check the roads and monitor information throughout the night and early morning hours. We confer early in the morning to reach a decision.
If school will be closed, we will communicate in a number of ways to spread the word. In addition to notifying local radio and television news stations, we will send text & email messages to parents/guardians & staff, send an emergency alert via the District’s mobile app, post closure information at www.boiseschools.org, on each school’s website, and on our social media channels (X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Threads & Instagram). Parents/guardians can sign up to receive emergency text messages by texting “Y” or “YES” to the number 67587. Non-parents (e.g., other family members, staff, news media, etc.) can also receive emergency text alerts via the Boise School District's mobile app (available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store) or via Remind. For more information, please visit our Inclement Weather Procedures on our Emergency webpage and on our Stay Informed webpage. 
