Madison School Closings Today — Live Status & Delays (Wisconsin)

Are Madison school closings today? Check live status below — updated every 10 minutes.

Live status monitored for Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD), Sun Prairie Area School District (SPASD), Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District (MCPASD), Verona Area School District (VASD), and Monona Grove School District (MGSD).

How Madison School Closings Are Announced

Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD), the largest district serving the city, posts closure and delay decisions on its official website at madison.k12.wi.us and pushes the same information to families through ParentSquare, the district’s primary family-notification platform. Because MMSD covers a large, mostly urban footprint stretching from the isthmus to the far east and west sides, the district generally aims to make a closure or delay call by early morning — before the first Tier-1 elementary buses run — rather than the night before, since overnight plowing and road conditions across the city can change significantly between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Local TV coverage adds a second layer of confirmation once a decision is made. WKOW 27 (ABC), NBC15 WMTV, and WISC-TV (Channel3000, CBS) all maintain running school-closings lists during active winter weather and typically pull directly from district announcements rather than reporting independently, so district site and TV listings should align — a mismatch usually means one side hasn’t refreshed yet, not that the schools are actually split on the decision.

Weather Risks That Can Close Madison Schools

• Heavy snowfall: A significant overnight snow event can outpace plow crews before the morning bell, especially on the narrower residential streets many elementary bus routes rely on.
• Blizzard conditions: Combined snow and high wind that cuts visibility to near zero is one of the more common reasons for a full-day closure rather than just a delay.
• Dangerous wind chill / extreme cold: Wind chills well below zero can make waiting at an outdoor bus stop genuinely unsafe for young children long before the roads themselves are the problem.
• Ice storms: Freezing rain that glazes roads, sidewalks, and bus-stop approaches is one of the harder conditions to clear quickly, since salt and plows are far less effective on ice than on snow.
• Spring severe thunderstorms: Late-spring storm systems can bring damaging wind or hail that affects afternoon dismissal and after-school activities even when morning classes proceed normally.
• Tornado warnings: An active tornado warning during school hours can trigger shelter-in-place procedures and, in rare cases, delayed dismissal until the warning clears.

Frequently Asked Questions

How early does Madison Metropolitan School District announce school closures?

MMSD generally aims to announce a closure, delay, or early dismissal as early as possible on the morning of an event — often before 6 a.m. — since winter storm severity in south-central Wisconsin can shift significantly overnight. The district posts the decision to its website and ParentSquare at the same time.

What’s the difference between a “closure” and a “delay” for Madison schools?

A closure means school is cancelled districtwide for the day. A delay (most commonly a two-hour delay) pushes back the start of the school day — and bus pickup times shift with it — to allow extra time for road crews to clear snow or ice, while keeping the rest of the school day on its normal schedule.

Do all Madison-area schools close at the same time, or by individual school?

MMSD makes closure and delay decisions districtwide rather than school by school, so if MMSD closes, all of its schools are affected together. However, this page also monitors four separate neighboring districts (Sun Prairie, Middleton-Cross Plains, Verona, and Monona Grove) that each make their own independent decisions — so it’s common for MMSD to be open while a neighboring district is closed or delayed, or vice versa, since a storm can hit unevenly across Dane County.

Which Madison TV stations report school closings?

WKOW 27 (ABC), NBC15 WMTV, and WISC-TV (Channel3000, CBS) are the primary local stations reporting Madison-area school closings during winter weather events. This page automatically monitors all three alongside official district websites.

How often is this page updated?

Status checks run automatically every 15 minutes, or every 5 minutes during active winter storm alerts, so the information here should closely track what districts and TV stations are reporting in real time.

Why do Madison schools sometimes stay open when neighboring districts close?

Dane County’s five monitored districts here — MMSD, Sun Prairie, Middleton-Cross Plains, Verona, and Monona Grove — each run their own transportation departments, bus routes, and superintendent sign-off process. A storm that hits harder on the county’s northeast side (Sun Prairie) or leaves rural bus routes on the west side (Middleton-Cross Plains) impassable doesn’t necessarily affect Madison’s more urban, plow-priority core streets the same way, which is why the districts don’t always make the same call on the same morning.

Madison Metropolitan School District — School Roster

High Schools

• Capital High School
• East High School
• La Follette High School
• Memorial High School
• Shabazz City High School
• West High School

Middle Schools

• Badger Rock Middle School
• Black Hawk Middle School
• Cherokee Heights Middle School
• Ezekiel Gillespie Middle School
• Hamilton Middle School
• O’Keeffe Middle School
• Sennett Middle School
• Sherman Middle School
• Spring Harbor Middle School
• Toki Middle School
• Whitehorse Middle School
• Wright Middle School

Elementary Schools

• Anana Elementary School
• Chávez Elementary School
• Crestwood Elementary School
• Elvehjem Elementary School
• Emerson Elementary School
• Franklin Elementary School
• Gompers Elementary School
• Hawthorne Elementary School
• Henderson Elementary School
• Huegel Elementary School
• Kennedy Elementary School
• Lake View Elementary School
• Lapham Elementary School
• Leopold Elementary School
• Lincoln Elementary School
• Lindbergh Elementary School
• Lori Mann Carey Elementary School
• Lowell Elementary School
• Marquette Elementary School
• Mendota Elementary School
• Midvale Elementary School
• Muir Elementary School
• Nuestro Mundo Community School
• Olson Elementary School
• Orchard Ridge Elementary School
• Randall Elementary School
• Sandburg Elementary School
• Schenk Elementary School
• Shorewood Hills Elementary School
• Stephens Elementary School
• Thoreau Elementary School
• Van Hise Elementary School