Receive School Closing/Delay Announcements Without the TV

During winter, many parents, students, and teachers habitually focus on their televisions waiting to see if their county will have a two-hour delay or be closed the next school day. West Virginia offers a few great resources that are easy and free to receive these announcements without having to touch your television.

The West Virginia Department of Education will often have school closings and delays posted on the Internet before they are ever sent to television and radio stations. You can check out the closings page of the West Virginia Department of Education by visiting http://wvde.state.wv.us/closings/county/all/.

For those of you who have an addiction to checking your email, click here to visit a subscription page where you can sign up to receive emails from the West Virginia Department of Education as soon as they post school closings or delays for your county.

Of course, you will not always have access to the Internet. A great service is in place for you to sign up to receive messages of closings and delays via text message and phone call. (There is also an email option.) Click here to check out the Web site. One main difference that you will notice when using this site is that you will sign up by school, not county. Some schools have not been activated and will not send you alerts. When this happens, simply find a school within the same county that is using the service. This will only work, however, if closing or delaying the start of your school day is a part of a county-wide decision.

For an example, Shady Spring High School is an unregistered school. I signed up to receive alerts for Shady Spring Junior High School and received a call that announced a two-hour delay shortly after.

As always, use your own discretion when using any of these services and cross check your sources.