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Fairfax County Public Schools will open two hours late on Thursday and Friday as snow and ice continue to obstruct sidewalks and bus stops across the county.

Superintendent Michelle Reid told families that extending the delayed starts through Feb. 6 was the safest option for students and staff. The schedule allows students to travel during daylight while navigating conditions that vary across Fairfax County’s more than 400 square miles.

Morning preschool and special education classes will be canceled. Full-day preschool, special education, and Early Head Start and pre-K classes will begin two hours late.

Morning field trips and transportation to morning high school academy classes are also canceled. Transportation will remain available for academy classes beginning after 12:45 p.m.

Adult High School and GED courses will start two hours late, while homebound instruction will begin at 10 a.m.

Administrative offices, afternoon preschool and adult education classes will follow their regular schedules. School Age Child Care and Beyond the Bell centers will open at 8 a.m.

Classes resumed Tuesday with a two-hour delay after students spent a full week out of school following Winter Storm Fern. The Jan. 25 storm brought as much as 8.5 inches of snow and ice to Fairfax County. Jan. 29 and 30 were already scheduled as student holidays for staff development and planning.

FCPS initially hoped to reopen at the beginning of this week. However, snow and ice still covering sidewalks and bus stops prompted officials to keep schools closed Monday, Feb. 2, despite cleanup work by thousands of school employees and coordination with Fairfax County and the Virginia Department of Transportation.

The school system plans to return to its normal schedule next week, with another update expected Sunday afternoon, Feb. 8.

Responsibility for snow removal in Fairfax County is divided among VDOT, the local governments in Fairfax City, Vienna and Herndon, and individual property owners. Members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors offered mixed assessments of state and county cleanup efforts while acknowledging that prolonged extreme cold made the frozen accumulation especially difficult to remove.

Alexandria City Public Schools, meanwhile, announced that it would resume its regular schedule for the remainder of the week.