On Saturday, January 24, 2026, a historically destructive Winter Storm Fern began its descent into Kentucky. As weather predictions had warned, snowfall and sleet continued through Sunday, rendering many roads impassable. In the days since, temperatures across the state have remained at record lows, extending the consequences of the crisis. So far, 16 weather-related deaths have been reported, and many school districts have called off in-person class for the entire week. 

To get a broader understanding of how the storm has impacted Kentucky’s schools and communities, we hosted a roundtable conversation with the New Edu team. The transcript can be read below. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you describe the impact of the winter weather on your district and community?

Abby, Manual High School: There's about two feet [of snow], and we'd been out of school all week. Monday and Tuesday were normal snow days, and then Wednesday, today, and [Friday] are going to be our NTI online sort of situation. 

Innaree, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School: We also have been out for the whole week, and today, actually, was the second day I went outside. The ice got way worse, and I slipped down my hill. We had NTI days the whole week, and Friday's a snow day. Since I [do] dual credit, I was surprised that my college and my program didn't have school. We had all 5 days canceled. 

Anvi, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School: We only had 4 NTI days that the school could use up, so today was the last one, and then tomorrow's a snow day. When I go outside, my road is super icy, and I live on a hill, so it's scary going down. The main roads are mostly clean, so that's good. I think it's just the ones that are more into the housing areas, and that's why they had to cancel more. The ice is not melting.

Hattie, Rowan County Senior High School: We've had a full week of NTI days thus far. We haven't had any traditional snow days. I think it has impacted our district a lot, and also the college campus, Morehead State University—they've called off the entire week, which is very, very unusual. We have a lot of small businesses closing down. I know for just a lot of people at my school, it's kind of a scary situation. There have been some power outages. I know a lot of people whose vehicles have broken down or won't start, so there's a likelihood that we'll be out a lot next week as well.

Katie, Manual High School: We've had NTI all this week, except for Monday and Tuesdays, which were snow days, but my sister goes to private school, and her first in-person day back was today. At her school, they don't have a bus system. Her school's pretty small, and they all have to  drive themselves to school. I think a lot of the reason why JCPS is out is because of  roads and stuff. A lot of the roads are clear, but it's just one lane that's clear, which isn't wide enough for buses to go through. I think the reason why she's in school and we're out of school right now is just because of buses not being able to fit through the road, and bus safety.

How has your district handled the weather?

Riess, Ballard High School: Monday and Tuesday were snow days, and they called those on Sunday, I believe, and just [called] two at a time. Then they called Wednesday and Thursday together, too. It’s a good chunk of time in advance. For tomorrow, they gave us another NTI day, which I know a lot of my friends and I were stressing about, because we were like, are they gonna call it? We have projects due tomorrow, do I actually have to do them? But I think they've done a pretty good job of communicating about what's going on. Our principal was saying that a lot of the big roads are cleared and everything, but there hasn't been a lot of work done in the school parking lots and specifically car rider lines and stuff. That's still pretty snowy, apparently. 

Finn, Boyle County High School: So in the Boyle County Public School District, it's kind of rural. My district has been pretty good about communicating. The only qualm is that they call them kind of later. They’ve kept students and parents updated about, oh, this decision-making is happening currently, but they've been kind of late about letting students know. They've been calling them one at a time, except yesterday, they let us know that we'd have snow days for today, and Friday. I do enjoy a good snow day, but my district makes it a very big point to not use as many NTI days as we could, which pushes back, of course, the graduation date.

Anvi, Dunbar High School: In my school, we basically have 2 hours of office hours, and so I asked a teacher once, hey, do you think we're gonna be here for the rest of the week? They were like, no. I guess some teachers were kind of expecting the week to go by. But FCPS is only allowed to have 4 NTI days because they had a budget shortfall in September. NTI days cost more than school days, because they still have to pay the staff labor, but they don't get federal reimbursement for student breakfast and lunch. So I think now they're going to be more reluctant on calling snow days, because they don't want to push back the year even further.

If you were superintendent of your district, would you do things the same way that they've done so far, or would you make any changes?

Charlie, Danville High School: We've had NTI all this week. I think if I was the superintendent, I would give maybe Monday, or maybe Friday, as a snow day, because I think that's really nice. I know we have 10 NTI days that we can use, and he said that we're going to use all the NTI days before we start doing snow days, which feels kind of mean, but I don't know.
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Hattie, Rowan County Senior High School: I think for the most part, my district has done a pretty good job communicating about snow days. But I kind of wish that they would take into account  power outages and stuff like that more when they're making decisions on whether it will be NTI or a full snow day. Because I think some people throughout the district might not have had Wi-Fi or might not have had power, and I think that's a struggle trying to get your online work done. So, I think that they should read a little more into that when they're making decisions, and give snow days when it feels necessary, if enough of the people in the district are struggling with that.

Can you describe what your NTI work has looked like?  

Abby, Manual High School: I get personally very frustrated because we have a new NTI rule that says that if you don't get the work done for that class by 3pm, you're counted absent for the day. We have a block schedule, so it's really only homework for  4 classes, but some teachers take lots of liberties with the workload and assign 3 assignments. The pressure is definitely on, and I just usually don't start it until, like 10 or 11 a.m. For me, I feel like the workload is a bit much, especially in comparison to years past, and the weird deadline that's super strict.

Aryan, Dunbar High School: So for a bunch of my classes,  it's usually a lot of homework.  Then I usually have to get that work done by 3PM, otherwise they're going to count us absent for that day. So, usually it's a lot of pressure, and, like, it's very time-consuming, too. And honestly kind of irritating, because doing all of that work in the same time period, and they're not there to help you either. Usually by the time they respond to the emails, you already have to complete the assignment, or it's too late. 

‍Anvi, Dunbar High School: The way that FCPS does it is that we get assigned work based on our A day or B day, and then we're expected to have it done 3 days after we come back to school, so that's actually really nice. If we’re back on Monday, then all NTI work would be due Wednesday. I think that's nice for people who have power outages during the time. But AP teachers are allowed to let us get a new curriculum and basically make us learn on our own. The teachers that are having classes are required to give us reviews because they don't want us to go and have new content when we haven't gotten instruction for it.

Shaivi, Manual High School: I'm in the MST [Math, Science, Technology] magnet at Manual. We move really fast in our core classes, like math and science. I feel like with NTI days, we've just gotten new content that we haven't been taught. They just assign videos or other instructions that we have to learn by ourselves. By the time, especially if we try to email them, or we comment on classwork, they email back really late. None of my teachers have given us office hours, which I think is super irritating, especially since you're giving us new content to learn by ourselves, and by the 3PM deadline.

Riess, Ballard High School: I think that's really interesting because I go to Ballard, which is in the same district as Shaivi and Abby's school, but we don't have that deadline. I think it's strange that it's not across the whole district; it's just a school-specific thing, I guess. At Ballard, it's just depending on the teacher; the teacher sets the policy for whatever it is. Some of my classes, mainly my APs, don't assign as much work. [In] my AP Lang class, I have 3 assignments every day, one that's longer, one that's kind of busy work, and another random thing, and it's just a lot for that one class, but it's due at midnight. I know my AP Psych is just ‘watch this video and keep studying for your tests whenever we get back,’ so I don't have anything to do for that class. So [in] half of mine the teacher doesn't care, and the other half…it's a lot, so… it's just kind of, like, weird how different everything is. None of my other teachers have made anything due at 3pm. It's either when we come back in person, or by midnight if it's online. So, I think it's interesting how different everything is across the same district.

Katie, Manual High School: Maybe this is just me, but moving the deadline up to 3PM hasn't really motivated me to wake up at 7 or 8am to get all of my work done to the best of my ability. I feel like ever since they added in the deadline of 3pm, the work that I've been turning in has been [of] lesser quality. I haven't really been learning as deeply as I am in school when I have an hour and a half for each subject. I end up just spending maybe 30 minutes on each assignment, if I can. Moving the deadline to 3PM hasn't really been helpful at all with the quality of my learning.

‍Grace, Elizabethtown High School: My work, I feel like it's just busy work. It doesn't relate to the topics that we're learning in class right now,  and I just get it done in 2 hours.

‍Hattie, Rowan County Senior High School:  I feel like we have a lot of busy work; we have a lot of things that are just ‘watch this Edpuzzle,’ or even being assigned things that were from a few units ago that are a review of something really easy that we don't really need to be building off of anymore. At our school, we don't have the 3 o'clock deadline, and something I appreciate is that our teachers have been very understanding about turning work in late and having excuses if your internet was down. For schools that do have that 3 o'clock deadline, it can be really stressful if you are having technical difficulties, or if you need help and want to reach out, it sometimes takes time to get a response, especially if teachers are on Zoom meetings throughout the day for certain class periods. I think there should be a lot more flexibility for schools like that. At my school, where we don't have that deadline, it's a lot less stressful, and you feel like you can reach out to your teacher any time of the day, and you can get help where it's needed. You have the time to commit to each thing and not rush through it. 

Gabby, Elizabethtown High School: It is mainly just busy work. You can complete it in under 30 minutes, and it really puts the lesson plans at a halt. Because for AP Bio, for example, we were supposed to have a quiz Monday, and now we're behind a whole week, and our lesson plan has been planned out the whole year leading up to the AP exam. Our teachers have to give us busy work, and they have to plan it out before [for] whenever we need NTI day. It just feels useless, and we're not really gaining anything.

Maggie, Manual High School: The 3pm rule…it kills me. I'm not going to get up at 7am to finish that work. There's no point in me completing all the work a few hours earlier.  I could still be getting it done, and just do it. When you're in a class at school, like, you're not penalized if you don't get a certain assignment done by the end of class. If it's something that takes a longer amount of time, teachers will be understanding, and they'll give you more time. I know that it's impacted people, and people have had  attendance stuff messed up and been given zeros–it impacts their grade when it’s such a pointless rule.

Have you had internet or technology issues?

Anvi, Dunbar High School: My teacher actually had internet issues, and so when he posted the first assignment, it was on Tuesday, and he was like, “I'm actually borrowing, like, internet from my neighbor's house.” I don't think the district is providing direct access. I think a lot of people are just on their own to find the internet. I think the power outages have been affecting people. I don't have that many friends that it's affected, but I think a lot of people in certain areas of Lexington, definitely the icier places, probably did.

‍Shaivi, Manual High School: I haven't really experienced any technological issues. I know that a lot of my teachers actually gave us work last week, or  beforehand, which I think was really smart. It depends on how much snow there is, but if the district, maybe even thinks that they're going to have snow days or NTI days, I think it'd be smart for them to give teachers a heads up, just so they could prepare before, in case of power outages, just to  have some work done beforehand, or give the students something to do in case of power outages.

Innaree, Dunbar High School: That’s what I really love about some counties. They give you kind of a heads up on  if you're gonna have school that week. One school had a whole packet, like a real handwritten packet to give to students, and let them submit them when school starts back up, so they don't have to submit anything online. And that's a really, really good idea for other counties, too.

Lottie, Pikeville High School: Well, I'm in Pikeville, which is about as eastern Kentucky as you can get. We were worried way before about power outages. We didn't have that many actually happen, but I think people got really scared thinking back on last year's big flood, because that took power out for like a week and a half. We didn't have school for  like 3 weeks; spring breaks got moved or canceled. A lot of people really struggled with either getting food, or their house completely didn't have power. I was helping at a food pantry a few days prior to the storm; it had started snowing a little bit. And a lot of people who work at the food pantry now used to be homeless or struggled. So everybody was kind of sharing things about lighting hand sanitizer on fire, or putting pots a certain way, and, like, lighting a candle under it to spread heat. I thought it was interesting to see how different people worked with each other, trying to figure out how they used last year's flood and the snow that came after that, trying to prepare this time and be more ready for it.

What effect does being out of school have on mental health or productivity? 

‍Abby, Manual High School: I just find it so hard to motivate myself to do  much of anything when I'm left with zero structure in my house. That’s definitely hard, and then I get nothing done, and I kind of just feel bad about myself. But then, I also got deathly ill. So, I'm kind of tired of laying around, I guess. I really think I do need structure in my life, and when it's this unplanned for  an entire week, it kind of gets to me. 

Shaivi, Manual High School: I feel like there's a lot of different sides to this, because I do get stressed really easily with NTI work and our deadline. But I think I like having NTI days, just because I get to wake up later than I usually do, because I wake up at 5:30 or 6am. I use these days as a refresher. I feel like it's really easy  to catch up on things. If I wake up really early, I feel like I'm not as focused throughout the day; my brain's kind of off. So I used NTI days and snow days as days to, like, just catch up on missed content, or kind of review things that I might have missed in school. I do want to go back to school just to see my friends, but, other than that, I kind of like that NTI days give me a day to catch up.

Anvi, Dunbar High School: I definitely like the sleeping in part of the NTI days, but then it's low-key giving the COVID days. I literally can't see my friends, because if I step outside my house, I'm going to slip. I talk to my friends over FaceTime and stuff, [but] there's a lot of acquaintances that I have that I don't really see unless I'm in school, so I definitely miss those people, and talking to teachers.

Riess, Ballard High School: I just feel like I'm kind of living in purgatory right now. Every day has felt the same, and it's driving me crazy. Like, I've just been in my room doing work constantly, but still somehow so behind on everything. It’s become really overwhelming, because my teachers just keep assigning work in addition to the work that's already assigned.  I thought it would be great to be home and everything. But my sister's been sick all week, and so I felt super alone just in this house, because it's just, my dad on calls the whole day, my brother, rotting in the basement  far away from me, and my sister just MIA. And my mom's at work all day, so I'm just here alone, dealing with my work, and just getting slowly more and more overwhelmed. Mentally, it's been a very draining week. Having those two snow days to start, I think, threw me off, because I kind of forgot about school and the work I already had assigned. 

‍Hattie, Rowan County High School: I kind of see both sides of this. I definitely agree  that it is  kind of draining to do the same thing every day, and  it's easy to get off track or get distracted when you're in this environment. But it’s nice to have time to catch up on work, and obviously not have to wake up super early. I'm not sure if this is  a statewide policy, or if it's just a policy in Rowan County. But teachers have to have Zoom meetings open for each class period. So if you have questions about a certain class, you can log on. And I think that's really helpful. Even if I just wanted to chat with someone, and check in, or talk about how my work was going, talk about if I was struggling with something, I think it's really helpful to have those teachers there, on these Zoom calls and available. I think NTI definitely has advantages and disadvantages. 

Tara, Randall K. Cooper High School: In my area, I've heard most people have enjoyed the break, I think, honestly, myself included. So, I'm in Boone County, so we don't do NTI days at all; we're fully snow days only. I think we have 3 built-in snow days, [and] after that we have to make up the days. We actually went back to school today, but on  a 2-hour delay system, and that's what we're going to be doing tomorrow as well. So, from what I've heard, most people have liked the break, but at the same time, you're kind of stuck inside, so it's not really like you can go anywhere or do anything because everything's icy outside, which I think has negatively impacted people as well.

‍Maggie, Manual High School: I've also been feeling the isolation starting to really, really get me. I can't get out of my neighborhood right now just because of the roads. I have literally not seen any of my friends in person since last Saturday, so I'm…going a little bit insane. But, it's okay, it's fine, I've really been getting to know my inner truth and my inner self, which is beautiful. I will say, though, I know a lot of people are talking about [it being] very nice to be able to sleep and be able to just take some more time for yourself. I really agree with that. It is one of my core beliefs that going to school honestly destroys your body. I think that it's terrible for you. I wake up at 5:45am every day. I drink 300 milligrams of caffeine first thing in the morning. I have to wait hours between eating breakfast and lunch, and then the lunch sucks. And then I get home and I have to stay up until 11pm every night doing homework. It is very, very nice to be able to sleep in and take more time to be doing stuff. I've been getting to do my yoga, which has been really nice. I don't usually have time for yoga. I get to read books; never get to read books anymore, because of freaking school. So I feel very, like, very self-care vibes, which is nice. But it is… it is definitely difficult to be away from everyone I know.

Photo: Maggie Stone