Columbia School Closings Today — Live Status & Delays (Missouri)

Are Columbia schools closed today? Check live status below — updated every 10 minutes.

Live status monitored for Columbia Public Schools, Southern Boone County R-I, Hallsville R-IV and Centralia R-VI.

Columbia Public Schools (CPS) is Missouri’s fourth-largest district, so closure and delay decisions get made early to give roughly 18,000 students and their families time to plan. The district’s official site, cpsk12.org, posts the day’s status directly on the homepage and through its District Messages page, and the same information goes out via automated text, phone, and email alerts to every family on file with the district’s registrar. CPS also runs its own cable channel, CPS-TV, which simulcasts closure announcements alongside local coverage.

For fastest confirmation, most Columbia-area families check local TV rather than waiting on district emails: KOMU 8’s closings page (NBC), ABC 17 News KMIZ’s closings and delays page, and KRCG 13’s closings page (CBS) all pull district-reported statuses as soon as they’re issued, typically by 6:00 a.m. on a snow or ice morning, though CPS says it will notify TV and radio stations as early as possible once a decision is made — sometimes the evening before if the weather threat is clear in advance. Smaller neighboring districts like Southern Boone, Hallsville, and Centralia generally follow the same TV-station-plus-district-website pattern, though each also posts directly to its own site and local Facebook page.

• Winter ice storms: A thin glaze of ice on rural Boone County roads is the single most common trigger for closures and delays — county and gravel roads ice over well before city streets do.
• Heavy snow accumulation: Several inches of snow overnight can make bus routes across Southern Boone, Hallsville, and Centralia’s spread-out rural boundaries unsafe even when Columbia’s main roads are clear.
• Dangerous wind chill: Missouri winters regularly bring sub-zero wind chills that push districts toward late starts or closures to limit students’ exposure while waiting for buses.
• Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes: Mid-Missouri sits in an active severe-weather corridor each spring; tornado warnings or damaging straight-line winds during school hours can trigger early dismissals.
• Flash flooding: Heavy rainfall can flood low-lying roads and creek crossings in the district’s more rural areas, occasionally closing specific bus routes even when schools stay open district-wide.

Frequently Asked Questions

How early does Columbia Public Schools announce school closures?

Columbia Public Schools aims to make a decision and notify families as early as possible, ideally the evening before when a storm’s timing is predictable, or by early morning (typically before 6:00 a.m.) when conditions have to be assessed overnight. Notifications go out via the district’s messaging system, cpsk12.org, CPS-TV, and local TV and radio.

Do all Columbia-area schools close at the same time, or does it vary by building?

Columbia Public Schools makes one district-wide decision that applies to all CPS schools at once — it does not usually close individual buildings separately. Southern Boone, Hallsville, and Centralia each make their own separate, independent decisions for their own district, so it’s possible for CPS to be open while a smaller neighboring rural district closes or delays (or vice versa) due to differences in local road conditions.

Why do Columbia schools sometimes close when it isn’t snowing much in town?

Closure decisions weigh county and rural road conditions, not just what’s happening in central Columbia. Ice, wind chill, and road conditions on the outskirts of Boone County — where buses travel gravel and hilly rural roads to reach Southern Boone, Hallsville, and Centralia students — often look very different from conditions downtown, so a storm that seems mild in the city can still force a delay or closure districtwide.

Which local TV stations report Columbia school closings?

KOMU 8 (NBC), ABC 17 News KMIZ, and KRCG 13 (CBS) are the main mid-Missouri television stations that report school closures and delays for Columbia and the surrounding Boone County area. This page automatically monitors all three alongside each district’s official website.

How often is this page updated?

Status checks run automatically every 15 minutes, or every 5 minutes during active winter storm or severe weather alerts, so the information above should reflect the most recent confirmed status from each district and TV station source.

What should I do if my child’s bus route is affected but the district hasn’t closed?

Because Southern Boone, Hallsville, and Centralia cover large rural areas, districts sometimes cancel or delay specific bus routes without closing school entirely. Check your district’s own transportation page or messaging system for route-specific alerts in addition to the districtwide status shown here.

Columbia Public Schools — School Roster

High Schools

• Battle High School
• Douglass High School
• Hickman High School
• Rock Bridge High School

Middle Schools

• Gentry Middle School
• Jefferson Middle School
• John Warner Middle School
• Lange Middle School
• Oakland Middle School
• Smithton Middle School
• West Middle School

Elementary Schools

• Alpha Hart Lewis Elementary School
• Benton STEM Elementary School
• Beulah Ralph Elementary School
• Blue Ridge Elementary School
• Cedar Ridge Elementary School
• Derby Ridge Elementary School
• Eagle Bluffs Elementary School
• Eliot Battle Elementary School
• Fairview Elementary School
• Grant Elementary School
• Locust Street Expressive Arts Elementary School
• Midway Heights Elementary School
• Mill Creek Elementary School
• New Haven Elementary School
• Parkade Elementary School
• Paxton Keeley Elementary School
• Ridgeway Elementary School
• Rock Bridge Elementary School
• Russell Boulevard Elementary School
• Shepard Boulevard Elementary School
• Two Mile Prairie Elementary School
• West Boulevard Elementary School

CPS also operates the Columbia Area Career Center and two K-12 day programs (Bethel Center, Roseta Learning Center) not listed above. Full current roster: cpsk12.org.