Like most schools in the area, the Maryland School for the Blind was closed for five days after snow that turned into sleet and ice blanketed the state.

But reopening was far more complex for the Northeast Baltimore campus, where over 200 students with visual disabilities, some of whom use wheelchairs or canes to get around, go to school.

Snow is especially hard to navigate for people with low vision, said Superintendent and CEO Robert Hair. The blanket of white can be disorienting.

To make the 96-acre campus safe, facilities staff had to clear thousands of feet of sidewalk, a four-day task that only got harder as fluffy snow quickly turned into sheets of ice.

“It didn’t just clear easily with the regular snow blowers and stuff. You had to really dig and move it,” said Hair. “Keeping everything safe is a real challenge for everybody on a normal snow day, but this snow was just terrible.”

The Maryland School for the Blind is a publicly funded nonpublic school, a group of programs that primarily teach kids with special needs. Those schools aren’t allowed to go virtual when bad weather hits, Hair said.

He said that makes sense for his students: They learn with Braille and rely on physical and occupational therapy, which teachers can’t utilize over Zoom.

But even once the campus was traversable again, it couldn’t reopen until the surrounding county school systems were ready. That’s because when school districts close, yellow buses don’t run, so blind students can’t get rides. Hair also had to consider that students using wheelchairs face increased danger, as snow banks can make it impossible for buses to find the level ground necessary to let those students on and off safely.

Kids at other specialized schools faced similar predicaments. Program Director Martha Schneider said staff at The Harbour School’s Owings Mills campus, which primarily enrolls autistic students and those with learning disabilities, are now juggling schedules to make sure they can see students for services they missed, like speech and language therapy.

The hardest part about extended closures, Schneider said, is that kids who already struggle with self-regulation couldn’t check in with their teachers or follow their routines.

“When you have a week like this, a week where none of us predicted a full week off, it’s much more difficult for the kids,” said Schneider.

While students were excited to get back to class Monday, a two-hour delay meant that their schedule wasn’t normal, either, Schneider said. And more changes could be on the way.

The Maryland School for the Blind has burned through its five allotted snow days. If schools close for any future storms, Hair will have to extend the school year or have kids come in on days they were supposed to have off, such as lPresident’s Day. He could also ask the state for a waiver to allow a shorter school year than the mandated 180 days, but he doesn’t want the kids to miss out on any more learning.

“Hopefully, we don’t have any more snow days,” Hair said. “But it’s early.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.