The snow is piling up outside. Parents are refreshing their feeds and watching the local news for school closure announcements.
Somewhere, a district administrator is already thinking about everything that needs to happen next.
Canceling absences. Notifying substitutes. Adjusting timesheets. Updating multiple systems. Hoping nothing falls through the cracks.
For students, a snow day might mean sleeping in, hot chocolate and sledding. For parents, it might mean scrambling for childcare with this unanticipated day off school.
But for you, the person who helps keep a school district running, you already have a plan and aren’t scrambling for what needs to happen next. Because you know with Red Rover, you’re just a few clicks away from having it all handled.
Red Rover's calendar event feature lets you enter a single event (like a snow day) and automatically updates absences, substitute assignments, and timesheet expectations all at once. No toggling between systems. No duplicate data entry. No crossed wires.
When you create a calendar event in Red Rover, the system immediately shows you exactly what will happen: how many employees are affected, which absences will be canceled, and which substitute assignments will be updated. You see the full picture before you hit save.
That's workforce management that actually works the way you need it to.
Here's where things get interesting. Snow days aren't always full closures. Sometimes it's a two-hour delay. Sometimes it's an early dismissal. And those partial-day modifications create real headaches for administrators, especially when your systems can't handle anything other than "school open" or "school closed."
Some absence management providers offer a school closing calendar, but it's limited to full-day closures. If you need to adjust for a delayed start or early release, you're back to manual updates.
Red Rover handles modified schedule days with ease. Enter a two-hour delay, and the system automatically updates absences already scheduled for that day to reflect the new times. Substitutes assigned to those absences get notified of their updated expected arrival. And employee schedules adjust so timesheet expectations match reality.
One entry. Everything aligned.
Not every calendar event applies to every employee. A snow day might cancel classes for teachers but not affect maintenance staff who still need to clear parking lots and sidewalks.
Red Rover lets you apply calendar events to specific contract groups. You can set an event that affects your 187-day teachers without touching your 12-month maintenance employees. That precision means you're not creating exceptions or cleaning up errors after the fact.
Calendar events aren't just for emergencies. Red Rover's calendar also supports in-service days, which allow absences to be entered but automatically changes them to "no sub needed." Teachers can still log their absences, but you're not scrambling to fill positions that don't require coverage.
While winter weather is top of mind right now, this same functionality applies to any district-wide disruption. Hurricanes, flooding, fog, power outages, or whatever else forces an unexpected closure or schedule change. Some districts call these calamity days, and the principle is the same: when the unexpected happens, your workforce management system should make life easier, not harder.
Red Rover's calendar event feature is built for the real way districts operate, with complexity, nuance, and the understanding that plans change fast.
Because when the forecast shifts, the last thing you need is a system that can't keep up. And, with Red Rover, a weather day doesn't create chaos; it activates a plan.
Want to see how Red Rover handles snow days, delays, and schedule changes in real time? Request a demo and we'll walk you through it.