Kentucky and Indiana Schools That Will Close for Solar Eclipse

I'll look across a current school calendar and sort of take a mental note at the days off that exist now that didn't when I was in school. Back then, it was pretty much Christmas break, summer vacation, fall break, and the other federal holidays.

Since my time, MLK Day has become a national holiday, and school systems have added fall break and an extra day to the Thanksgiving break. Oh, and Solar Eclipse Day.

Yes, I'm kind of kidding. There IS no official Solar Eclipse Day, and you certainly can't add one to a school calendar. But for a handful of Kentucky and Indiana county school systems, there WILL be a Solar Eclipse Day this April. (Naturally, I took the liberty of capitalizing the unofficial holiday.) What you may not realize is that closing certain schools for solar eclipses is nothing new. It happened seven years ago. Remember THAT total solar eclipse?

I'm guessing, based on these lists, that only the schools in the path of totality will excuse students on April 8th, the day of the eclipse.

In Kentucky, Bullitt, Hardin, Jefferson, Spencer, and Oldham Counties will be closed. In southern Indiana, it's a little bit different. Clark County schools will be closed; Crawford County and Madison Consolidated schools will have eLearning Days; and Jackson County will have an asynchronous eLearning Day. Floyd County IN classes will be in session but will release students two hours learning for an asynchronous eLearning Day.

From that NASA map above, it looks like my neck of the woods will go dark a little after 2 PM. In 2017, I was not in the path of totality and still marveled at what I was seeing. I cannot wait for this one.