Emergency Weather- Related Information
During adverse weather conditions, the decision to cancel school, delay the opening of school, or dismiss school early is primarily informed by the need to ensure the safety of students and staff. The final decision will ultimately be made by the Superintendent of Schools. Conditions are assessed between 4:00-4:30am unless weather conditions the previous evening warrant a cancellation. A decision will be based upon information from a variety of sources, such as the weather service, the police and public works department.
If schools must be cancelled due to weather-related emergencies, the decision will be made no later than 5:30 a.m. You can expect the announcement of the cancellation within a half hour on radio and TV stations, as well as on our website https://www.darienps.org.
SchoolMessenger is a service which provides e-mail, voice, and text communication to the community.
You will be contacted by SchoolMessenger by e-mail and phone using the information provided by you in your Aspen account. However to receive text messaging from SchoolMessenger, you must opt in for this service.
In order to participate in this service you must indicate your willingness to receive text messages to your phone. The process is simple and only takes a few seconds to complete:
Simply text any one of the following words to the number 67587: subscribe, opt in, yes
You’ll know you were successful if you receive the following reply message: "You are registered to receive approx 3 msgs/mo. Txt STOP to quit, HELP for help."
You’ll want to repeat the opt-in process for any wireless numbers that you wish to include.
In addition to performing the opt-in process above you’ll want to insure that the district has your wireless number(s) in our Aspen student information database.
Please log onto Aspen and update your information by clicking on the blue "Click here to update Parent Information and Permission Signoff"
To opt out of all text messages from SchoolMessenger, reply with STOP to the opt-in message.
Please note, although the district does not charge you for this service, it does not pay for text message charges that may be incurred by you for sending or receiving text messages. Check with your wireless carrier for possible charges.
Do not call your school or the central office, as our phone lines cannot handle excessive volume. Your best source of information is the media and websites. Since a decision to cancel is rarely made the night before, the most common time to learn of my decision is after 5:45 a.m.
When school is cancelled, no activities will be held in the buildings and all school- related and extracurricular events will be cancelled. A decision to close schools for the day, once made, will not change.
If schools are delayed due to weather, the decision also will be made by 5:30am. The decision to have a TWO HOUR delayed opening is based upon the available information that travel and weather conditions are expected to sufficiently improve to open schools. However, parents should continue listening to designated radio and TV stations following the announcement of a delayed opening. If travel conditions do not improve or if they worsen, the delayed opening may be changed to a full day closing. Any such change will be communicated via the media and website sources.
If weather forecasts and conditions indicate that an early dismissal would be in the best interest of our students and staff, we will communicate such a decision via radio, TV, our website, and School Messenger. These sources will provide more information than can be gained through a call to the schools or central office. An early dismissal decision will be made no later than one hour prior to the dismissal. Again, media announcements will occur within a half hour. It is critical that parents have an emergency plan in place for child care should children be dismissed early from school.
Please note that there are two early dismissal times for weather- related emergencies depending on the timing of the arrival of inclement weather:
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In the event of a Morning Emergency Dismissal due to inclement weather, all students, including kindergartners, will be dismissed according to the following schedule:
Schools Timing DHS 10:30am MMS 10:30am Hindley, Royle, Tokeneke 11:00am Holmes, Ox Ridge 11:30am ELP (8:30 Start) 10:30am ELP (9:30 Start) Closed
All students will have the same bus stops as they had in the morning. No lunches will be served at school on those days, but elementary students will have a snack prior to dismissal.
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In the event of an Afternoon Emergency Dismissal due to inclement weather, all students, including kindergartners, will also have the same bus stops as they had in the morning. Lunch, however, will be served to all students. Please note that this early afternoon emergency closing time is the same time schedule as when we have regularly scheduled early dismissals for conference days and before certain holidays. Also note that, regardless of whether we have an emergency closing or a scheduled early dismissal, kindergarten students will be dismissed along with all the other students in grades 1-5. The afternoon emergency dismissal times are:
| Schools | Timing |
| ELP | 12:00pm |
| DHS | 12:18pm |
| MMS | 12:25pm |
| Hindley, Royle, Tokeneke | 12:55pm |
| Holmes, Ox Ridge | 1:30pm |
In the final analysis, parents make the decision whether they will send their children to school on those days when inclement weather is not sufficiently serious to close or delay opening the schools. Rest assured that we will do our very best to make timely, rational decisions, based upon the best weather and travel information available at the time. Your understanding and cooperation is always appreciated when these decisions are made
| TV / Radio Stations | Programming |
| WEBE (Bridgeport) | 108 FM |
| STAR 99.9 (Bridgeport) | 99.9 FM |
| WICC (Bridgeport) | 600 AM |
| WLAD (Danbury) | 800 AM |
| WGCH (Greenwich) | 1490 AM |
| WTIC (Hartford) | 96.5 FM / 1080 AM |
| Cablevision TV | TV Channel 12 |
| WTNH TV | TV Channel 8 |
| Local News | TV Channel 3 |
| WVIT Connecticut | TV Channel 30 |
| WTIC FOX 61 | TV Channel 5 |
The school system itself, except for a major emergency or extraordinary road conditions, will remain open until the usual closing time. For everyone's safety, we suggest that you allow your child to be transported home on his/her regular school bus.
Delayed Opening Announcement (decision made by 5:30am)
During the year there may be times when reports will indicate that the weather will clear and the traffic conditions will improve in a short period of time. Based on these reports, the Superintendent will delay the opening of schools for two hours. The schedule would be as follows.
| Schools | Regular Opening | Delayed Opening |
| DHS | 7:40am | 9:40am |
| MMS | 7:55am | 9:55am |
| Hindley, Royle, Tokeneke | 8:25am | 10:25am |
| Holmes, Ox Ridge | 9:00am | 11:00am |
| ELP (8:30am Start) | 8:30am | 10:40am |
| ELP (9:30am Start) | 9:30am | 11:40am |
The announcement over the radio, television and cablevision stations will state that the Darien Public Schools will start two hours later than usual. However, please keep listening to the radio/media as a delayed opening may change to a closing, if the situation gets worse.