The one-two punch of last weekend's rare October snowstorm and Hurricane Irene is putting a scheduling squeeze on many Northeastern school districts, parents and students.

Some hard-hit areas remained without power Thursday for a fifth day in Connecticut, forcing many schools to cancel all week's classes.

Those lost days come in addition to others in early September after Irene's remnants knocked out electricity in much of the region.

Schools in Connecticut and some other states must have at least 180 days of classes and finish by June 30 under state laws.

That's forcing some districts to review their schedules and consider trimming vacations to compensate for some of the lost days.

The outages also are scrambling schedules for teens filling out college applications and preparing for SAT exams.

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