Districts can turn snow days into remote learning days instead

Snow days may never be the same.

At least not in this, the year of COVID.

The state Board of Education, with little discussion, voted unanimously on Wednesday

to direct the Department of Education to develop guidelines to allow remote learning during inclement weather to count toward the required number of school days for the 2020-21 school year.

Already, the board agreed to allowed districts to trim the standard 180-school-day year in public schools to 177 if those three days were used at the start of the school year to help educators prepare for the unprecedented school year.

“We want to stay ahead of this and not have it something that becomes problematic later,” Commissioner of Education Miguel Cardona told the board, some meeting in person in Hartford and others remotely. “It should be something we are able to allow under a pandemic emergency.”

Cardona said the idea would be to come up with guidelines that ensure the quality of the educational experience is being protected.

All learning went remote last spring when the COVID-19 pandemic spread throughout the state and Gov. Ned Lamont declared a public health emergency.

This fall, some students have returned to in-person

learning, many are split between in-person and remote learning and some, including the Danbury and New Haven school districts, are fully remote.

Cardona said of the state’s 514,944 public school students statewide, 31.6 percent are learning fully at home. He also said it has been determined that 96 percent of the fully remote students are engaged, meaning they are logging onto devices or in contact with their schools.

Jessa Mirtle, the department’s legal director, said

districts have been asking for guidance when it comes to days when weather would keep everyone home, especially when they are already providing effective remote learning to some.

The guidelines to be developed may address how many snow days would be allowed, and would allow for true cancellations in cases where power goes out.

Before the pandemic, most school districts either built a number of snow days into their school calendars

or would tack snow days onto the end of the school year. In bad winters, snow days have eaten into spring breaks.

It is not clear when the guidelines will be issued to districts but a number of school chiefs welcomed the change.

“It’s a better use of instructional time,” said Bridgeport School Superintendent Michael Testani. “The reality is that days made up in mid to late June are not as productive as we would like them to be. It’s hot in schools without

air conditioning.”

Ansonia Schools Superintendent Joe DiBacco said switching out remote days for snow days can prove very helpful in a number of ways.

“It will allow staff and families to plan their school year,” DiBacco said. He also said it will allow for a continuity of instruction, prevent students and staff from having to venture out in unforgiving weather, and allow families and child care programs to plan accordingly instead of receiving a couple of hours of notice.

In Stratford, Schools Superintendent Janet Robinson said she also supports the idea.

“I believe that we have all learned a lot about remote learning since March,” Robinson said. “In future years, our challenge will be to ensure that all our students have the technology and connectivity to engage when this happens. It has been a challenge to put devices and hot spots into the hands of all our students since we closed for COVID-19.”