Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI) days are a method for teaching when schools cannot be in person, due to weather or emergencies. NTI days have recently replaced snow days and become more and more common across many states in the US.
As of this year, several teachers and legislators have pushed to reduce or eliminate NTI days, and to go back to snow days and add them on to the end of the year.
Many students and peers are upset about the workload that comes with these days that are unrelated to things they are doing in class.They say the work is “busy work”, and the teachers only assign it to say they gave us an assignment for the day.
In 2025, House Bill 737 was introduced in Kentucky to eliminate NTI days altogether. Students, parents, and teachers think it’s not smart, but think that the learning that’s happening on those days should be relevant and more planned out.
In Kentucky, Education commissioner Robbie Fletcher expressed the intent to allow NTI days. With allowing students to do work online, this will be useful to them because it will not be added to the end of the school year.
Eliminating NTI days forces students and teachers to stay longer into summer break and cuts into everyone’s fun. The “make-up” days added are to make up for the ones missed but seem to be wasting everyone’s time.
