The state Board of Education decided Thursday to allow the Fort Smith and Van Buren school districts a waiver of the 178-day minimum classroom instruction day requirement, allowing them to have a slightly shorter school year after flooding.
The decision allows the Fort Smith and Van Buren school districts to have a shorter school year without having to make up any days.
Fort Smith's district, which is in the state's second-largest city, received a waiver of three days. Van Buren got one day, the last day of class for the year.
Students and staff members were affected by the flooding, which caused schools to close.
Thousands of residents along the Arkansas-Oklahoma border have been affected by widespread flooding along the swollen Arkansas River since May 29. The Fort Smith and Van Buren areas were the earliest parts of Arkansas to be affected by the overflowing Arkansas River.
Powerful storms that dropped more than 20 inches of rain on parts of the region in late May overwhelmed the Keystone Lake reservoir, which drains a watershed of about 22,000 square miles in Oklahoma and Kansas, sending waters into Arkansas.
Metro on 06/14/2019