Classes in the Cape Girardeau School District will be dismissed early for the rest of the week due to the continuing heat wave.

School officials made the decision Tuesday in declaring a weather emergency.

Elementary classes will dismiss at noon. Secondary classes will dismiss at 11:20 a.m. A cold lunch will be available to all elementary and seventh-grade students before being dismissed.

Classes had dismissed early on Monday and Tuesday, but those decisions were made in the morning after classes had begun, causing some confusion for parents.

The decisions made at 10 a.m. Monday and Tuesday for an 11:20 and noon dismissal sent some parents scrambling to pick up their children and find alternate day care.

Superintendent Neyland Clark explained that the decision to cancel classes because of inclement weather is always something of a balancing act.

The state sets the minimum number of days children must attend school and rules for declaring weather emergencies.

State regulations allow schools to count early dismissals for bad weather as full school days and to receive full funding.

But the Missouri attorney general's office says that schools should make decisions to shorten school days on a day-to-day basis because weather forecasts are imprecise.

At the same time, the attorney general says: "In the case of unusually hot or cold weather, forecasts are more reliable and decisions to shorten the school day can be made a day or two in advance."

"We will try to adhere to a day-to-day decision," Clark said, "but where we have a fairly reliable forecast we'll go ahead and make a decision."

The forecast for the remainder of the week calls for high temperatures in the mid-90s and increasing humidity.

A chance of rain over the weekend could cool things off before the start of next week.

"We are trying to adhere to the attorney general's rulings," Clark said.

The decision to dismiss school early because of warm weather typically is made at 10 a.m. Whenever the heat index, a combination of temperature and humidity, exceeds 100 degrees in classrooms, school is dismissed early.

Room temperatures are taken in three buildings: L.J. Schultz, Alma Schrader and Washington. Temperatures are reported to the head nurse, who contacts the consulting physician for the school district. The final decision is based on the recommendation of the physician.