How cold does it have to be for schools to close? What to know

As a cold front passes through the Chicago area, school district administrators across the region are weighing whether or not to close buildings and cancel classes amid the extreme weather.

While most school administrations say they place a strong emphasis on keeping buildings open, the safety and welfare of students and staff can force schools to close during extreme weather.

The threshold for when weather is wintry enough to close schools isn't decided by a particular degree of temperatures or amount of snowfall, instead, several factors typically go into the decision making process on if a school will close.

The Glenview School District 34, for example, said severity of weather, timing of weather events, ability of buses and cars to travel safely and operable condition of their build