Is your county's school reopening a mess like mine?

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

In Tennessee’s case, the current rules are that any virtual days won’t count towards the minimum number of days required for the school year. Our district has 10 “snow” days. Right now, if they had to close due to covid, they have to use those snow days. Virtual replacement is not an allowed option by the state.

Which means if they go over their snow days, they’ll be canceling breaks and/or extending the school year. Pre-covid, the district would easily hit 8/9/10 days for calling off for ice, flooding, and- surprise!- the flu. Yeah, before covid, this district would close because sickness was widespread... and this wasn’t a one-off. This was every year. For multiple days each year.

So yeah. Wouldn’t be surprised if the school year got extended this year.

A good point and something others surely have to be encountering. My governor last year removed the state's requirement for number of hours OR days (depending on the district's choice) but that was not extended into this year. This means a minimum number of hours or days are required (also depends on the age of the child). Snow days are something everyone is used to around here, and extending the school year or what seems more common these days to shorten breaks or remove them is par for the course should they be needed. Although I don't know how they will handle things this year.

So far according to the information within my metro no outbreak has occurred in the several weeks that school has been in session. Oh there's cases for sure, chunks of students and staff out on quarantine but so far none tied to school transmission. There's def. not going to be a hybrid, remote, in-person flip flop gating criteria (for all that it was worth), up in the air stuff or at least it would appear. It's early yet on that one but there's not a desire to have a repeat of last year.

Interestingly I can't say that entire districts around my area have closed down for illness in the past, I've heard of this school or that school closing down but even that was rare enough.

 

[LovesTimone]

I can't say a whole lot about it within DIS rules other than it is very "on brand" for my area. There's an organized parent group fighting to get the district to ban staff members from masking on the grounds that a teacher wearing a mask is communicating his/her opinions about masking, vaccination and the pandemic in an inappropriate way - they compare it to a teacher wearing a candidate shirt during an election season or hanging a BLM flag in the classroom. And they were most of the speakers at this week's meeting.

To be honest, the way the board is handling this whole thing has me seriously second-guessing sending my kid back into their mess next year, when we planned to transition her to public school, because the fact that the board has capitulated to mob rule by the least educated/most misinformed doesn't give me a lot of confidence in how they're likely to handle other issues that arise in the future.

I will say from past experience's dealing with the school board, you can not win! It doesn't matter what you do still you can not win.. It's not just covid and masking... its everything. As well then you have the school policies which is another whole ball of string, that that unravel when it suits them. The amount of red tape and nonsense was baffling at times.

It's not mob rule... it's money from the state that rules...

If you are second-guessing now, you should listen....

 

[leahgoogle]

In Tennessee’s case, the current rules are that any virtual days won’t count towards the minimum number of days required for the school year. Our district has 10 “snow” days. Right now, if they had to close due to covid, they have to use those snow days. Virtual replacement is not an allowed option by the state.

Which means if they go over their snow days, they’ll be canceling breaks and/or extending the school year. Pre-covid, the district would easily hit 8/9/10 days for calling off for ice, flooding, and- surprise!- the flu. Yeah, before covid, this district would close because sickness was widespread... and this wasn’t a one-off. This was every year. For multiple days each year.

So yeah. Wouldn’t be surprised if the school year got extended this year.

I can't believe virtual days don't count towards the minimum number of days required for the school year. That doesn't seem fair. In Indiana, our virtual days do and we only have 3 "snow" days built in.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I can't believe virtual days don't count towards the minimum number of days required for the school year. That doesn't seem fair. In Indiana, our virtual days do and we only have 3 "snow" days built in.

When you still have many students that don't have internet access at home across your state..it begins to make more sense.

 

[leahgoogle]

When you still have many students that don't have internet access at home across your state..it begins to make more sense.

Our school opens a lab where students can go and use computers. The library does too. Kids that absolutely don't have any way to access internet get the assignments the next school day and have three days to complete the assignments. It's a giant pain for teachers though!

 

[luvsvacation]

My son is a senior. He started back on Monday. Masks are optional and he said hardly anyone is wearing one. He said only one of his teachers wears one. They have gone back to normal lunches this year also. Last year they were full time in person all year but mask were mandatory and lunches were staggered. This year things are pretty much back to “normal”. He is happy with it and so am I. Those who want to wear mask can.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Our school opens a lab where students can go and use computers. The library does too. Kids that absolutely don't have any way to access internet get the assignments the next school day and have three days to complete the assignments. It's a giant pain for teachers though!

What good is having a school with a lab for students to use when there's a covid outbreak that caused the school to go virtual? If the school has enough staff and students out to make them go virtual then the last place those kids should be is in the school building around other kids. Under normal circumstances sure many schools have computer labs you're totally right though not all are available for long enough to do school assignments.

A lot of places don't have the same access. Even in my area the school district was renting out hot spots to students last year and we live in the wealthiest county in the state. My governor last year put a plan in place to get broadband internet to more places throughout the state..broadband, consider how slow that can be but it's better than nothing. Even the libraries..our libraries in my county get a budget of $20+million a year just for one system..certainty not the case all over the state where libraries may be fewer and farther between and have less amenities or even open much. Library locations close down too due to exposure. How will students get to those libraries when the parent is working and the kid is sent home for virtual learning due to covid? And who will be supervising them? Snow days suck they do from a parental standpoint but trying to ensure your kid is actually doing school lessons during that time was a lot of stress to a lot of parents and quite frankly a good portion just couldn't simply attend--a lot of statistics on that. Unfortunately at least in my state minorities ended up missing a significant portion of school days when the schools were under virtual learning and there were a variety of reasons for that. By missing school days I mean they just didn't log into their school system or turn in assignments in greater numbers.

What happened last year was a hodgepodge of things that no one knew how they would turn out. It was never a permanent fix. A lot of areas just don't have the capacity to continue doing what they were never designed to do. It's one reason why the school district my house is in created their own online school so parents whose kids did better that way or whose parents who were very concerned about in-person had an option that was still connected to the school, however they advised what it was like last year wasn't going to happen, it was going to be actual school going on.

What the PP mentioned was going remote for several weeks. But even in your comment it was the kid who doesn't have internet access gets the assignment the next day, well when is that when it comes to covid? And does that put the student behind? What about where the other students are at, does that mean the student who got their assignment late and has 3 days to complete is now a good portion behind the other students? Sounds like it would be a pain for the teachers though.

I can understand why other areas do things a certain way but I also understand why virtual isn't treated the same as in-person in other areas. For many the quality of education, the type of education, the means to even get that education all of which can be internet access, teachers to teach the lesson, website issues, assistance a student needed, etc just isn't as workable for them. I mean we have a lot of online schools out there that were designed for this sort of thing. If you didn't have reliable internet, transportation to get to one, supervision while doing school work and your student didn't do well online learning you probably wouldn't enroll them in that. It's really whatever an area can handle. I do think at least in my state it was good when a while back the added flexibility of doing a minimum number of hours instead of just straight days helped (this was all long before the pandemic was around). To make up snow days at least in my area schools may add minutes or hours to the day for X number of days. On the surface that may not seem like much but it's probably better than abandoning certain lessons if there's too many snow days. I seem to remember it helping in some of my classes and not being much of a bonus in other classes. Years back they added in admin days where the students were off but the teachers and others were in, they rely on those days too so students would just go to school instead of being off school. I don't know how TN treats required in-person instruction time on that though.

 

[leahgoogle]

What good is having a school with a lab for students to use when there's a covid outbreak that caused the school to go virtual? If the school has enough staff and students out to make them go virtual then the last place those kids should be is in the school building around other kids. Under normal circumstances sure many schools have computer labs you're totally right though not all are available for long enough to do school assignments.

A lot of places don't have the same access. Even in my area the school district was renting out hot spots to students last year and we live in the wealthiest county in the state. My governor last year put a plan in place to get broadband internet to more places throughout the state..broadband, consider how slow that can be but it's better than nothing. Even the libraries..our libraries in my county get a budget of $20+million a year just for one system..certainty not the case all over the state where libraries may be fewer and farther between and have less amenities or even open much. Library locations close down too due to exposure. How will students get to those libraries when the parent is working and the kid is sent home for virtual learning due to covid? And who will be supervising them? Snow days suck they do from a parental standpoint but trying to ensure your kid is actually doing school lessons during that time was a lot of stress to a lot of parents and quite frankly a good portion just couldn't simply attend--a lot of statistics on that. Unfortunately at least in my state minorities ended up missing a significant portion of school days when the schools were under virtual learning and there were a variety of reasons for that. By missing school days I mean they just didn't log into their school system or turn in assignments in greater numbers.

What happened last year was a hodgepodge of things that no one knew how they would turn out. It was never a permanent fix. A lot of areas just don't have the capacity to continue doing what they were never designed to do. It's one reason why the school district my house is in created their own online school so parents whose kids did better that way or whose parents who were very concerned about in-person had an option that was still connected to the school, however they advised what it was like last year wasn't going to happen, it was going to be actual school going on.

What the PP mentioned was going remote for several weeks. But even in your comment it was the kid who doesn't have internet access gets the assignment the next day, well when is that when it comes to covid? And does that put the student behind? What about where the other students are at, does that mean the student who got their assignment late and has 3 days to complete is now a good portion behind the other students? Sounds like it would be a pain for the teachers though.

I can understand why other areas do things a certain way but I also understand why virtual isn't treated the same as in-person in other areas. For many the quality of education, the type of education, the means to even get that education all of which can be internet access, teachers to teach the lesson, website issues, assistance a student needed, etc just isn't as workable for them. I mean we have a lot of online schools out there that were designed for this sort of thing. If you didn't have reliable internet, transportation to get to one, supervision while doing school work and your student didn't do well online learning you probably wouldn't enroll them in that. It's really whatever an area can handle. I do think at least in my state it was good when a while back the added flexibility of doing a minimum number of hours instead of just straight days helped (this was all long before the pandemic was around). To make up snow days at least in my area schools may add minutes or hours to the day for X number of days. On the surface that may not seem like much but it's probably better than abandoning certain lessons if there's too many snow days. I seem to remember it helping in some of my classes and not being much of a bonus in other classes. Years back they added in admin days where the students were off but the teachers and others were in, they rely on those days too so students would just go to school instead of being off school. I don't know how TN treats required in-person instruction time on that though.

Sorry, I should have clarified. I was speaking to virtual learning for snow-days, not covid. Obviously, the kids weren't going to the school during the covid shut down. For us, that was only March 2020-May 2020. Our school never went virtual last school year.

ETA: We never went virtual because of covid. We did our make-up weather days as virtual learning.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Not worrying about the current plans for DGD’s schooling. At this moment it will be in school learning in September but if it changes we’ll deal with it using last year‘s blueprint.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Sorry, I should have clarified. I was speaking to virtual learning for snow-days, not covid. Obviously, the kids weren't going to the school during the covid shut down. For us, that was only March 2020-May 2020. Our school never went virtual last school year.

Ah yeah what the conversation was about was this school year the schools using snow days when there's covid issues instead of going virtual (that was why a poster asked why they don't just go virtual for a few weeks so they don't burn through the allotted snow days). Virtual days weren't really a thing en masse I don't believe before the pandemic, you just were either in school or not.

If your school didn't go virtual last year you may not be aware of all the issues that occurred even if you knew this person or that person. There were a lot of threads about it and a lot of news stories. There were successes in that some students excelled but as a whole it was a mess for most of the country and a lot wasn't really known until the school year ended back in May/June (of 2021). I'm not faulting any school for doing remote, in-person or hybrid. But I can understand why virtual learning may not be considered enough of a substitute for in-person learning such that it will not count as an actual instructional day.

 

[wenrob]

When you still have many students that don't have internet access at home across your state..it begins to make more sense.

All students are given Chromebooks here and if they don’t have internet they are given hotspots. They also have portable hotspot stations (like a bus) that can be utilized.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

All students are given Chromebooks here and if they don’t have internet they are given hotspots. They also have portable hotspot stations (like a bus) that can be utilized.

Is every student in the state given a Chromebook and hotspot if needed?

 

[wenrob]

Is every student in the state given a Chromebook and hotspot if needed?

I don’t know about the state but my county/district, yes.

 

[brockash]

When you still have many students that don't have internet access at home across your state..it begins to make more sense.

I worked in TN the last few years. MANY districts signed out laptops to each student and signed out mobile hot spots for those that needed it. I don't think 0 virtual days counting right now is the right answer... obviously the vast majority need to be in school, butid there's a few days or a week here or there that due to safety needs to be not in person school; then I think right now they should count. Obviously not ideal, but extending the school year or putting ppl. at risk is also not ideal and if we weren't able to get anything beneficial out of the last year and a half...that's really sad.

Shoot there were many districts doing remote school during some days that students couldn't come in due to weather before COVID was even a thing...now they can't???? That's moving backwards.

 

[brockash]

Is every student in the state given a Chromebook and hotspot if needed?

I don’t know about the state but my county/district, yes.

I worked in TN and we did too. Every single student K-12 was also given a laptop and hotspots if they needed

 

[leahgoogle]

Ah yeah what the conversation was about was this school year the schools using snow days when there's covid issues instead of going virtual (that was why a poster asked why they don't just go virtual for a few weeks so they don't burn through the allotted snow days). Virtual days weren't really a thing en masse I don't believe before the pandemic, you just were either in school or not.

If your school didn't go virtual last year you may not be aware of all the issues that occurred even if you knew this person or that person. There were a lot of threads about it and a lot of news stories. There were successes in that some students excelled but as a whole it was a mess for most of the country and a lot wasn't really known until the school year ended back in May/June (of 2021). I'm not faulting any school for doing remote, in-person or hybrid. But I can understand why virtual learning may not be considered enough of a substitute for in-person learning such that it will not count as an actual instructional day.

It depends where you live. Virtual days were definitely a thing en masse for a lot of the county based on the news stories. I am quite aware of issues that occurred. I am not a fan of virtual learning, actually. My kids do much better in school. I think last year a lot of the time spent at home virtually learning was "forgiven" because of covid. Presently, I can see not counting extended virtual learning as instructional days. My thought process is that a day here or there could be counted especially if the kids that can't get the work done are given extra time to do it. To clarify, this is just a day here or there. I am not arguing about extended virtual learning. It really just depends on the part of the country you are in. I am glad that if we do go virtual a day for weather it is counted as a normal instruction day. This was my message to the previous poster. I wasn't suppose to be about extended virtual learning because of covid.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I don’t know about the state but my county/district, yes.

Yeah one of the districts here gives iPads (before the pandemic but they really didn't care as much about internet access) and another district (the one my house is in) gave hotspots (only due to the pandemic). What we were talking about was at the state level minimum instruction time required and if virtual would count towards that. The school districts that can help out I know many of them are but there's a lot that just can't.

In my state my governor is using CARES Act money (I believe $50 million throughout the state) for expansion of broadband internet access but infrastructure takes time, the funds are allowing this to be sped up a bit.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I worked in TN and yes every single student K-12 was also given a laptop and hotspots if they needed it.

That's amazing, where did the funding come from for that? I'm reading stories that there were districts throughout that weren't given the laptops and internet connectivity. Are you sure that every student actually got them? And that it was at the state level and not county or school district level?

 

[Kestryl]

Interestingly I can't say that entire districts around my area have closed down for illness in the past, I've heard of this school or that school closing down but even that was rare enough.

Yeah, I can’t claim to know about every school ever, but this is the first I’ve heard of an entire district closing down multiple days every year because of widespread absences due to yearly illness. Like, definitely heard about this school closing for norovirus, this school closed because too many teachers have the flu... but an entire district with 60,000 students closing every year? C’mon. That just means you have structural and society hygiene issues.

When you still have many students that don't have internet access at home across your state..it begins to make more sense.

Yes, this is true, but... there was a big push pre-covid to get students 1:1, each with a laptop and internet access. Part of the reason for that was for occasional use Of virtual learning- say, flooding that causes travel issues but doesn’t widespread knock out power, students who have to be out for periods of time due to medical issues, etc. There was a specific case about how flooding a few years ago closed school for a few days, and one elementary school in particular stayed closed for longer because the school itself flooded, and how great virtual days would have been.

And now it’s been a full tilt in the opposite direction. If the area floods, a virtual day is no longer an option. Students are out sick with covid (or whatever) and my husband is actually forbidden to provide instruction to them via Teams Meetings during his tutoring hours after school because... why? What’s the point of having this tech and paying for software if you can’t use it?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I worked in TN the last few years. MANY districts signed out laptops to each student and signed out mobile hot spots for those that needed it. I don't think 0 virtual days counting right now is the right answer... obviously the vast majority need to be in school, butid there's a few days or a week here or there that due to safety needs to be not in person school; then I think right now they should count. Obviously not ideal, but extending the school year or putting ppl. at risk is also not ideal and if we weren't able to get anything beneficial out of the last year and a half...that's really sad.

Shoot there were many districts doing remote school during some days that students couldn't come in due to weather before COVID was even a thing...now they can't???? That's moving backwards.

I think the intent was to make it as equal as possible especially after the upheaval and behindness that our students across the country have experienced. To make a snow day means all students are out. Virtual puts some students in the position of not being able to do their school work (and for more than just internet/computer issues) or not learn as well. I think an area does what they can do best for their area but my entire point was I can understand how there's a "this is not equal" to in-person instruction which was the conversation.