For most of the week, school districts faced a decision: To move school online or to cancel altogether with snow in the forecast and ice on the roads.
Administrators consider the few days built in to the school calendar, availability of technology and the state cap that says a maximum of five days per year can be designated for remote work.
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Wake County, the state's largest system, opted this week for snow days over remote learning, a decision that will see some students making up lost days on a Saturday or sacrificing a day of spring break.
Durham chose the opposite path, sending lessons home to be completed while students were out of the classroom.
Ashleigh Ratchford was trying Thursday to keep her cookie business on track while supervising a fourth grader making her way through a paper packet of assignments. For her, it was a juggling act.
"If they had the teachers actually teaching on the days that they were home, remote learning the way they did during the pandemic, that would be better than just what they're doing now," she said.
While some Wake parents told WRAL News they worried about learning loss while kids are off, Ratchford wonders if much learning is actually happening when students work remotely.
"It's like busy work," she said, and it only takes a fraction of the time of a typical school day.
"It's a little too easy," daughter Denver admitted. "So we're not really learning anything."
Concerns about the quality of virtual learning were part of what prompted the Wake Schools' policy to prioritize making up days in person rather than doing remote learning on snow days.
Jenny Coldre, a Durham mom of three and a former teacher appreciates the remote days.
She agrees with Ratchford that the elementary school packets aren't the best, but for her high schooler, she says remote learning is going great.
"It's so easy for my high schooler to just log in," she said. "He knew exactly what to do."
She sympathizes with districts that have to make the tough call.