Michigan Count Day falls on Yom Kippur this year, Judaism's holiest day.

Any other year, Count Day would be a day where millions of dollars would be hanging in the balance for Michigan school districts, but this time around is different thanks to the pandemic.

The pandemic has forced changes to school count day in Michigan. Wednesday is arguably one of the more important days on the academic calendar because “Count Day” determines how much funding a district is getting based on the number of students they have. Because of the pandemic, many school districts have students split up, some attending in person, some virtual, and some absent. Normally, the math looks like this: 90% of the October count is added to 10% of the previous year’s February count. The Novi superintendent said they’ve lost about 50 students to private or online schools, which means losing about $442,000 in per-pupil funding.