|
 |
Education Dive
4 crucial pieces of guidance as districts prepare coronavirus response
As COVID-19 spreads, states and districts already affected by the
outbreak share tips around continuing learning and district services
during closures.
Naaz Modan
March 6, 2020
Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first
advised schools to prepare for increased employee and student
absenteeism last week, many schools and districts on the West Coast and
in a handful of states nationwide impacted by the coronavirus have
temporarily shuttered buildings due to outbreaks.
Washington and California have been hit hardest so far, with the CDC
reporting 39 and 36 cases, respectively, as of Thursday. “There’s a lot
of anxiety from parents,” Washington State Superintendent of Public
Instruction Chris Reykdal said, “and that has translated to a
presumption of risk and has led to schools closing.”
The state's Northshore School District announced a district-wide
closure Wednesday for up to two weeks, one of the first Washington
districts to do so. Schools that remain open in Washington, California
and other affected areas have ramped up cleaning efforts, put in place
hygiene and quarantine protocols, and are closely monitoring
absenteeism rates while also preparing for worst-case scenarios.
Here’s what Education Dive has learned far about how districts are navigating coronavirus.
Focus on equity and access with e-learning
As the number of cases climb, districts are grappling with decisions
around closure and their options to mitigate school year disruptions
with e-learning.
Many large districts have the infrastructure in place for a transition
to online learning should the virus spread to their areas.
Superintendent of Florida’s Miami-Dade County Public Schools Alberto
Carvalho, for example, said his district has an excess of 1:1 devices
ready to be deployed if needed, and Superintendent Austin Beutner said
Los Angeles Unified School District is preparing for virtual school
days in its planning, as well.
Districts in Washington are also training teachers for e-learning. “We
have a couple districts that feel very poised to deliver continuous
instruction at a distance through Zoom and online learning platforms,”
Reykdal said. But, he added, he “cautioned all districts to consider if
they can deliver services equitably.”
If impacted by the virus, Superintendent Michael Trimberger from rural
Random Lake School District in Wisconsin said he his district will
adopt protocols similar to those reserved for virtual snow days. The
CDC has reported 1 to 5 cases of the coronavirus in the state.
When Random Lake was hit by a snowstorm last year, Trimberger first
surveyed parents on home internet availability for students. Around 10%
of families didn’t have access, so the district partnered with local
wireless providers to offer internet at a reduced rate.
“If and when we would have to go on extended leave, we have some things
worked out with them so that we would buy radio transmitters or lease
them,” he said. “Our families would be guaranteed internet at least at
the speed where they could do homework for $10 a month or for free,
depending on their financial situation.”
For students with IEPs, Trimberger suggested using virtual days as an
opportunity to build relationships with parents of special needs
students. “With caseloads of 15 to 20 students," he explained, "we made
sure that every virtual day our teachers were reaching out."
E-learning not an option? There are workarounds
Against a backdrop of ongoing staff shortages and already-tight
budgets, many districts may not have the resources for 1:1 device
programs.
“We aren’t necessarily equipped, at this moment, to handle distance
learning for large numbers of students,” said Elizabeth Graser, chief
communications officer for Oregon’s Hillsboro School District. The CDC
reports a small number of cases in the state. “And with a sub shortage
going on already in our region ... we’ll need to get very creative
about finding every employee with a teaching license, using conditional
emergency licenses for staff where appropriate, etc.”
In the absence of 1:1 devices, Dan Domenech, executive director of
AASA, The School Superintendents Association, said a majority of
districts across the country are working on providing traditional paper
packets to get content home with students. The preparation is for
roughly two weeks of materials, considering guidance from the CDC is
for a 14-day quarantine after onset of symptoms.
In a letter to Washington state districts, Reykdal suggested some might
be better off closing instead of continuing learning remotely.
“School districts must ensure equal access to education for all
students,” he advised. “It will likely make more sense to cancel school
and/or district services and make up missed days at the end of the
school year, rather than deploying a distance learning model that can
be accessed by some, but not all, of your students.”
Cutting it close to maxing out makeup days? Here’s what to do
Districts often try to cushion allotted instructional time to allow for
days off due to inclement weather or other unforeseen circumstances.
But those cutting it close can be helped by waivers of lost
instructional time, which many states grant in case of an emergency.
In Washington, WAC 392-129 allows for such a waiver. Reykdal said an
infectious disease outbreak “would likely meet the definition of an
emergency closure due to an unforeseen natural event.”
California’s waiver policy is similar. “Generally, if it's health and
safety related, it’s hard to deny those kinds of waivers because you’re
forced into a situation of having [schools] closed,” San Juan Unified
School District spokesperson Raj Rai said.
The district’s Harry Dewey Fundamental Elementary School was closed
last year after several students contracted norovirus. “In the past, if
there has been a school threat where a school has to shut down,
California Department of Education has granted waivers for that, too,”
Rai said.
According to the Education Commission of the States, other states with
similar policies that would provide instructional-hour exceptions for
emergency-related school closures include:
Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
Colorado
Georgia
Idaho
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Michigan
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Texas
Utah
Virginia
West Virginia
What operations should remain functional during closures?
The Washington ed department, called the Office of Superintendent of
Public Instruction, is advising districts to plan for ongoing
apportionment payments and to ensure payroll continues even in the case
of disrupted district operations.
But providing meals for students on free or reduced priced lunches will
be difficult. “It’s impossible for schools to deliver meals to the home
of each child," Domenech said.
However, Trimberger said that’s a possible solution he is considering,
along with letting families pick up meals at an off-site location. “I
still would want to try to get our families two meals a day,” he said,
but added he is looking for more guidance from the CDC and his
nutrition teams as to what “no contact” to prevent disease transmission
means in the context of meal distribution.
Finding a way to provide meals in case schools close is a challenge Reykdal is facing as well.
“When we shut down over here for a snowstorm, we don’t provide meals
for that day,” he said. He added if schools transition online instead
of closing, parents could expect meals to still be provided.
For Washington's Seattle Public Schools, that's the goal: continuing to
provide meals through potential closures. If only a few schools are
closed, the district is planning for students to pick up meals at
another nearby school. In the case of multiple campus closures, it
hopes to provide sack lunches at a grab-and-go location.
Nationally, approximately 22 million students depend on free or
reduced-price school lunches, according to the School Nutrition
Association (SNA).
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allows schools to serve
students meals through the Summer Food Service Program during
unexpected school closures through a waiver process. Flexible guidance
issued by the agency in November, prior to the virus spread, encourages
schools to continue providing meals in case extreme weather or “other
events” force area schools and facilities to close.
But how that would change in the case of the virus is uncertain. In a
letter sent to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, the SNA
suggests allowing schools to implement grab-and-go and delivery
services without requiring states to request a waiver first.
Reykdal said he is working with the USDA to make sure his districts
“understand rules around meals when schools are not operational."
But the agency's western regional Food and Nutrition Services (FNS)
office, based in California, said it won't be providing further
guidance, and that whether meals are delivered during closures or
extended periods of e-learning is up to individual districts.
A spokesperson for the the national USDA FNS office said that the
agency is "monitoring the situation closely" and will be "ready to
assist in the governmentwide effort to ensure all Americans have access
to food in times of need." "All of our programs — including SNAP, WIC
and the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs — have
flexibilities and contingencies built-in to allow us to respond to
on-the-ground realities and take action as directed by Congress," the
USDA spokesperson said.
|
|
|
|
