January has started with truly winter weather, and thermometers in many places in Latvia are showing serious minus temperatures. In such weather, parents and children may have a perfectly logical question — at what temperature can one skip school and what factors need to be considered?
The portal tv3.lv sought clarification from the Education Quality Service to obtain an up-to-date answer.
What is important for parents of schoolchildren and preschoolers to know?
According to the Cabinet of Ministers' regulations, the order is as follows: – if the air temperature is below -20 °C, children under 12 years old may not attend school; – if the temperature is below -25 °C, teenagers aged 13 and older are not required to go to school.
Meanwhile, parents of preschoolers decide on a case-by-case basis whether going to kindergarten would harm their child's health on that particular day. However, if the temperature drops below -10 °C, children under three years old **are not taken outside for walks.
The school must be informed about the absence
Since the air temperature can vary between the child's place of residence and the school itself, and, for example, due to heavy snowfall, it may be difficult or impossible to reach the school, parents should make their own decision regarding school attendance in each case.
It is important: parents need to inform the educational institution (including kindergarten) about the reason for their child's absence, and the school, considering the circumstances, decides whether to consider the absence justified.
Schools must also comply with the rules: if changes in the educational process are planned due to weather conditions, students and their parents must be informed in advance. At the same time, schools are required to remain open and ensure the engagement and safety of those children who do come.
This week, it is unlikely that you will miss school due to the cold
So will there be frost in the near future that will serve as a legal reason not to go to school? tv3.lv contacted the weather forecast host of the program "900 seconds," Mārtiņš Bergšteins.
He reported that in the second half of the week, daytime temperatures are expected to range from 0°…-6 °C in the west of the country to -6°…-14 °C in the rest of Latvia. At night, temperatures will mainly be -6°…-15 °C, and with clear skies, it may drop to -17°…-20 °C in some places.
"Such frost will likely be more localized and primarily observed in rural areas, so there will probably not be a legal reason to skip school due to the cold, at least this week," explained Mārtiņš Bergšteins.
-30 °C next week? It is too early to say
It was previously reported that after January 20, a strong frost from Siberia might come to Latvia, and temperatures could drop to -30 °C.
Mārtiņš Bergšteins confirms that it may become colder in Latvia in the second half of next week than it is now, but emphasizes:
"Forecasts will still be refined, and it is too early to name specific temperature values. Current forecasts indicate that stable frosts and winter weather in Latvia will persist at least until the end of January.
