(CNN) -- School administrators carefully watched weather forecasts Thursday night with some schools in the South opting to play it safe and cancel class or close early on Friday. Forecasters at the National Weather Service are predicting 1 to 4 inches of snow for areas in the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic regions on Friday with the Carolinas and Tennessee Valley getting freezing rain beginning early in the morning. Schools in Raleigh, North Carolina, will close early, a spokesman with Wake County schools said. "We're going to make sure we put a plan in place so that the buses are rolling while it's still safe and the students are back home before weather becomes an issue," he told CNN affiliate WRAL.
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NEW: Schools in the South take cautious approach to predictions of freezing rain
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Forecasters predict possible ice accumulations Friday in Georgia and four other states
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National Weather Service forecasters say they expect the cold to last through the week
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Authorities say exposure to subfreezing temperatures left at least three people dead
Dozens of school systems in Tennessee and some in northern @placeholder said they would be closed.