West Virginia grants Cabell County waiver for missed school days due to severe weather

CABELL COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS) — The West Virginia Department of Education has granted eight school districts in the state, one of which is Cabell County, with a waiver from the required 180 days that students must attend because of winter storms and flooding earlier in the year.

"So the waiver we requested was for days for students when we were placed on state of emergency due to the flooding and snows," Tim Hardesty, Cabell County Schools superintendent, said. "So those actually were granted for four days. So that will cap four days at the end of the school year that students won't have to make up."

Director of Communications for Cabell County Schools Ashley Stephens said with this waiver being granted it helps students and families move forward with their summer plans and jobs without having to worry about the headache of rescheduling.

She also said it helps prevent students from becoming more burnt out so close to the finish line.

"We love having kids in school, so whether we have more days with them at the end of the year or not that's never a bad thing," Stephens said. "But we do know that we all have an end date in mind and we're working really hard to reach that and so when that gets extended it can become difficult for students."

Hardesty said another upside to this is it provides the county with more time to train its staff at the end of the school year.

"One of the things we didn't want to see is sporadic education taking place where a lot of students were absent due to one factor or another," Hardesty said. "We also wanted to utilize those days as best we could. And so what we have planned is some very intensive staff development for all of our employees."

With the waiver Cabell County Schools is exempt from making up four days that were missed because of bad weather, and its final day for students will be May 28.