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DALLAS - Students in Fort Worth and a handful of other school districts went back to class for the first time since the winter storm on Thursday. But most students in North Texas had one more day off.
Is there school today?
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Fort Worth ISD students return to school
Fort Worth, Arlington, and Mesquite ISDs are among the few North Texas districts reopening today following the winter storm.
What we know:
Dallas, Keller, Frisco, Garland, Lewisville, Plano, Richardson, and Northwest ISDs kept kids home for another day because of the winter weather.
Mansfield and Terrell ISD also announced early Thursday morning that they would remain closed after initially announcing they would reopen.
Mansfield ISD said it was unable to get its buses safely out of the transportation facility. Terrell said many of the roads and overpasses in its outlying areas are still covered in ice, making it impossible to provide a safe bus service.
Fort Worth, Arlington, Carroll, and Mesquite ISDs were among the districts that reopened.
What they're saying:
Evelyn Martinez said the drive to Glen Park Elementary School wasn’t too bad, but there were some icy spots on the sidewalks as she was walking her 4-year-old daughter to class.
"It’s a little bit scary because I believe there is black ice still. So, it was a little bit scary," she said.
Martinez and her daughter were both happy that Fort Worth ISD decided to reopen.
"I think we all were," she said. "We were excited to get out of the house finally. We were getting bored."
Brothers Casey and Corbin would have preferred another snow day. They were enjoying playing in the ice and snow.
"I was mad," Casey said.
"I mean, I do want to go to school because I haven’t been here for a long time," Corbin admitted.
They didn’t have any trouble driving in, but Corbin said he almost slipped trying to run out to the car.
"I almost slipped because I was running and there was a bunch of ice," he said.
Dig deeper:
Fort Worth ISD's 200 bus drivers arrived at work two hours early to get their buses warmed up for students. Nathan Graf, the district’s transportation director, also came in early to personally thank all of them.
"Thanking them for coming in to help pick up our kids, letting them know that if there’s a sketchy area on their route and it looks like they can’t navigate it, to call in to dispatch so that way we can figure out an alternative route for them. And we’re reiterating that it’s all about their safety and it’s all about students’ safety," he said.
Fort Worth ISD is one of the few districts that has an app that lets parents track the bus leaving the lot, picking up a student, and dropping them off.
"You get an alert that your child got on the bus, and where they got on as well. You actually know where it's at and what time it's going to get there," Graf said.
Is there school tomorrow?
FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth has a complete list of closed North Texas schools, daycares, churches and businesses because of snow, ice, storm damage or severe weather.
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School closings and delays will be reported here from across North Texas as they happen. School closings are reported by FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth when relayed to us by the school systems such as Dallas ISD, Fort Worth ISD, Frisco ISD, Arlington ISD, Garland ISD, Plano ISD, Lewisville ISD, Mesquite ISD, Richardson ISD, Mansfield ISD, Keller ISD, Irving ISD, Denton ISD, Northwest ISD, Grand Prairie ISD, Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, Prosper ISD and other public, charter and private schools across the North Texas area.
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The Source: Information in this article was provided to FOX 4 by organizations across North Texas.