Overview
- North Rhine-Westphalia’s order for Monday, January 12, suspends in-person classes statewide and requires schools to offer limited on-site supervision for pupils who still arrive.
- The DWD kept high-level glatteis warnings in force, with icy conditions slowing traffic and prompting early accidents on routes including the A4 and A45, and alerts lasting until about 8 a.m. in the west and 1 p.m. in East Westphalia.
- Schools moved instruction online using platforms such as Teams and Moodle, reassigned work according to timetables, postponed tests where necessary, and reported occasional platform overloads during preparation.
- Transport operators cut school reinforcement runs and prioritized core lines, winter services worked through the night, and several cities signaled service limits including restricted daycare operations, canceled health-office appointments in Wuppertal, and morning closures at some banks in Bottrop.
- Education Minister Dorothee Feller stressed it is not a day off and that students must complete assigned work, while FDP leader Henning Höne criticized the blanket approach and urged milder measures.