Kids are missing a lot of school up here in Oxford. Never seemed to do that back in the day when I was teaching. I suspect it is another of those litigation things--one kids falls on the ice and the district gets sued. There has also been a lot of "weather report" closings: they close because the prediction is bad but it never materializes. Next thing we'll be hearing that Spring Break will be cancelled or school will go on into July. They created a stir here when there was talk of staying open for MLK Day to make up for lost time. Don't know as they did but it was floated. BTW, by 10 am it was 33 and nothing falling out of the sky--about an inch of heavy, wet snow on the ground from overnight is all, added to the 14 or so inches that was already there.
ETA: To be fair, in most rural NYS schools the decision to close is dependent on what the local highway department head has to say--if he/she says that we can't clean the roads for the buses then the CSO has to close. IMHO this is happening more since the highway depts. have limited resources so they are opting as to cut down on the number of plowing/sanding runs. Not that I know for sure but I'll bet I'm close to being right. I do know that right now it is nearly noon, the plow hasn't been by here yet and it is a school bus route--usually they clear this road before 7:30.