School failure in North Rhine -Westphalia: Schnechaos forces teachers to take new measures!

School failure in North Rhine -Westphalia: Schnechaos forces teachers to take new measures!

Massive Snowfall caused considerable traffic disruptions on January 9, 2025 in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and raised questions about the school organization. The start of school after the Christmas holidays took place on January 7, 2025, which faced many students and parents with the sudden weather. As Ruhr24 , the undersolved decrease offers specific regulations for dealing with such extreme weather events. The decree determines how in such situations it will be done and which information channels must be used.

The information on the weather situation comes from the German Weather Service (DWD), which also publishes the weather warnings. Such warnings trigger a registration chain: The DWD warns that the central registration authority of the district governments is informed, and finally regional coordination groups storm (RKU) decide on possibly necessary school closures. In the case of nationwide school closings, the school ministry is consulted. Ideally, parents should be informed about a school failure by 6 p.m.

decisions in extreme weather conditions

In cases of extreme weather conditions, parents have the opportunity to decide for themselves whether the way to school is reasonable for their children. This applies in particular if there is no arrangement for the rest of the lesson, which is determined, among other things, in the decree. The following also applies here: A school failure for such reasons is considered excused. In addition, schools can use digital platforms to provide tasks, but this is not recognized as distance lessons in the classic sense, as in the information of the School Ministry

The decree that was issued on October 10, 2022 has the goal of ensuring a uniform handling of dangerous weather conditions. In the event of a storm that affects all of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Ministry of School and Education can order the rest of the lessons nationwide. In such cases, students have to participate in distance lessons or do tasks. The decision as to whether the lessons rest is in the hands of the district governments of the crisis management teams, which are based on the recommendations of the DWD.

The responsibility of schools and teachers

It is up to the school management to arrange distance lessons if this is possible. As far as possible, teachers should carry out their service or carry out lessons from another location. For pupils who do not receive the message about the rest of the lesson in good time, an supervision at school must be ensured so that there are no gaps in the educational offer.

For the five district governments in NRW-Düsseldorf, Arnsberg, Detmold, Cologne and Münster-there are clear guidelines that are defined as part of the storm decree and the regulations of the school ministry. In the future, these regulations will be evaluated by July 31, 2030 in order to check their efficiency and application. This ensures the protection of the pupils and the handling of school failures in extreme weather situations.