With the possibility of snow in the forecast for Thursday, local school districts are spreading the word to parents on how they can get updates on school closures and delays.

Bowling Green Independent School District officials are encouraging parents to use SchoolMessenger, which can update parents via text message or email.

“It’s a quick way to send messages to our entire school district,” said Leslie McCoy, the district’s director of communications. “That’s very helpful in those early mornings when we’re trying to get those messages out as quickly as possible.”

Weather forecasts are calling for possible light snow accumulation Thursday in the area.

District officials typically assess conditions and decide whether to close or delay schools by 5:45 a.m. that day. Jon Lawson, the district’s director of pupil personnel, said the decision most often comes down to safety.

“The safety of our students and staff has to be first,” he said.

SchoolMessenger updates parents with an email and text once a decision is made.

Parents can make sure they stay in the loop by logging into their Infinite Campus account to update their contact information or they can email bgparentportalhelp@bgreen.kyschools.us to request an account. After including their phone number, parents can receive text message updates from SchoolMessenger by texting “subscribe” to 68453 from their mobile phone.

“This is an opportunity for parents to update it as a reminder,” McCoy said.

The district also posts information on its website and social media pages along with notifying local radio and TV stations. It refrains from making early morning calls, however.

The district has set aside Feb. 10, March 9 and 10 and May 24, 25 and 26 as make-up days, Lawson said.

On average, students only miss about 1.5 days a year because of weather, Lawson said. That’s part of the reason why the district hasn’t implemented nontraditional instruction days that allow kids to continue their school work during winter weather school closures.

Parents of students in Warren County Public Schools can receive similar updates through a service called AlertNow. The service pulls contact information from Infinite Campus to send emails and texts to parents.

“If they’re not already signed up, they can speak to their school and they will make sure that that information is entered,” said Morgan Watson, the district’s chief communication officer.

Decision about school delays or closures are usually made before 5:30 a.m.

“As soon as the decision is made, that information is sent to parents,” Watson said.

The school district doesn’t make use of nontraditional instruction days. During its next scheduled meeting Jan. 19, the district’s board of education will hear a presentation about nontraditional instruction days.

“They’ve asked us to collect information for them before moving forward,” Watson said of the board members. She added that the presentation is purely informative and that the board won’t be deciding at the meeting about whether to implement them.

— Follow education reporter Aaron Mudd on Twitter @BGDN_edbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.