Local school district administrators have had plenty of late nights and early mornings deciding whether classes will be affected due to bad weather.

When snow days start to mount, as they often do in Pennsylvania, districts can be faced with a time crunch squeezing in the required 180 school days.The Pennsylvania House Education Committee recently passed legislation that would give districts flexibility in making up days.Districts could approve a school year with a minimum of 900 hours of instruction at the elementary level and 990 hours at the secondary level in lieu of 180 days. They could also schedule school on one Saturday per month to help reach the 180-day benchmark.While the law would provide relief, local superintendents aren't sure they would utilize it."I'm concerned about what attendance would look like on a Saturday," said Lehighton Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver."A lot of people have obligations on the weekend and many of our extracurricular activities take place on a Saturday. Not to mention a lot of students have part-time jobs that they use to help save up for college."The law does provide excused absences for students who "receive a program of advanced instruction, participate in academic or skills competition, engage in leadership development activities, or participate in a religious activity or function."Attendance, however, is a big part of a district's score for the state's school performance profile and it remains unclear how Saturday classes would factor in to that."That is a huge concern to me," Cleaver said. "I think there is a lot of homework that needs to be done on this."Jim Thorpe Superintendent Brian Gasper agreed, saying it wouldn't be an easy idea to sell."Going to school on a Saturday would be such a cultural change from what we are all used to," he said.Snow isn't the only thing that can cause a school closure. Unforeseen emergency situations do happen and it's part of the reason State Rep. Michael Peifer introduced the legislation."As everyone is regrettably aware, on Sept. 12, 2014, two state police troopers were attacked in a cowardly ambush that left one trooper dead and the other in critical condition," Peifer said."The ensuing manhunt for the suspect lasted 48 days and resulted in the closure of schools in the Pocono Mountain School District and the Wallenpaupack Area School District for a number of days due to the proximity of the manhunt."My legislation provides the Secretary of Education with the authority to issue weather related, safety related, and health related emergency declarations on a school district, county or statewide basis. Districts could then satisfy the 180-day requirement through one of these measures."The legislation clarifies that no school entity shall receive less subsidy payments or reimbursements than it would otherwise be entitled to receive by the decision to use the options provided under an emergency declaration.It isn't the first time the idea has surfaced. Last year, the bill was introduced in the Senate and passed by an overwhelming margin. When it went to the House, however, it was packed with other education reform including changes to the process by which districts get reimbursed by the state for large construction projects. After passing the House, the Senate never voted on the package.Back on its own and out of committee, the bill will go before the full House.It is yet to be scheduled for a vote.Lehighton and Jim Thorpe school districts had six snow days as of Thursday.Both included five makeup days in the 2014-15 school calendar, meaning at this point students would only lose one day of their summer vacation.Even last year, when snow days piled up in the area, classes were only extended by about a week at the end of the year, Cleaver said.Jim Thorpe's final day of school last year was June 12."That's really not too bad," Gasper said. "We've never been affected so badly that we have gone until June 30 or something like that. Usually when you get into those dates, it is because of a strike or some other event."