9 a.m. to 3 p.m. school day could become thing of past
Mandatory early-morning through mid-afternoon school day schedules could soon become a thing of the past in Connecticut, as Gov. NedLamontandsomelocal superintendents call for increased flexibility in how schools measure attendance to better suit families’ needs.
With about $1 billion in federal coronavirus relief funding being infused into Connecticut’s K-12 schools, thestate is facing a“oncein a lifetime opportunity” to “rethink what a student’s school day looks like,” Manchester Superintendent of SchoolsMatthewGearysaidina virtual meeting with state officials and other school administrators Thursday.
Students wholearnbestinclassroomsfromroughly9a.m. to 3p.m. fivedaysaweekcancontinuedoing so, but there’s no reason for that to be the only way for schools to define attendance, Geary said. He pointed out that the state Department of Education has already created more flexible guidelines on how to measure remote attendance.
“If weweretoredefinepresence in school as some combination of time in your seat, plus time with a tutor, plus some virtual work, plus skill development, it would give us a much more holistic way of looking at whatstudents learn ... as opposed to looking at the hours you’re in aseat, whichdoesn’tguarantee learning anyway,” he said.
Even before COVID-19, the traditional school day schedule was not working for everyone, the former high school principal said.
“Whenwegettostudentsinhigh school whoarechronically absent, rarely did that start yesterday. It’s been a lifelong struggle ... because schools are not set up to support those students andfamilies,” Geary explained. “We continue to say to you, ‘You will come to school 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, regardless of your situation.’ We continue to think about chronic absence in a punitive way, and we should stop doing that.”
Geary added that he was not suggesting “wedon’twantstudents in school,” or that the social elements of traditional schooling models are unimportant, noting there’s more than one wayfor kids to connect with their peers.
Lamont said he was hopeful a more flexible definition of attendance could be put into practice next school year and highlighted the importance of providing students with activities during the summer as well.
“It seems to me the 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., 183 [school] days a year is right out of our colonial agricultural economy. Wedon’t necessarily have to take a break to harvest thepotatoes,” Lamontsaid.“I think we ought to think about afterschool ... [and] what we do during those offmonths. Notall academic, but I think we have to rethink the 12 months. I think it could make a big difference, and I hope this is a year we can experiment.”
Hartford Superintendent of Schools Leslie Torres-Rodriguez said the district has not begun conversations with families about whether remote learning will be offered next school year, but “we are looking to do some redefining of the school experience” for older students.
“We have found some students, particularly at the high school level, that have had to take on jobs to support their families,” she said. “The last thing that we should be doing is having a student choose from coming to school or helping their family meet basic needs. We have to solve for that.”
From September through February, attendance among students without high needs was higher than 95%, said the state Department of Education in a recent report. But those students only make up about 48% of Connecticut’s public school population. For students whoarelearning English, have disabilities and/ or comefromalow-incomefamily, attendance rates are “substantially lower than they were in 2019-20,” the department said.
Inconversation about the state’s new Learner Engagement and Attendance Program, which will provideextra fundingto15districts to increase direct outreach to families, East Hartford Superintendent of Schools Nathan Quesnel cautioned against looking for one specific reason to explain why kids are missing school. By talking to families, the district is already aware that students are facing multiple attendance barriers, including technology and connectivity problems, housinginsecurity and food insecurity.
“Of course we want to build trend lines, we want to forecast out what are the most important areas of investment. But the reality is when we’re talking about human needs, it’s multifaceted, it’s complex,” he said. “We also should remember we’ve learned a lot through COVID, we’ve learned newways of doing old things.”
Torres-Rodriguez added that the fear of catching the virus is still “very real” for families, especially those living in multigenerational households, so some children are continuing to learn remotely. But at the same time, adults in the household may not be able to sit with a young student and get them logged into Google Classroom.
“Even though we’ve provided tutorial supports for our students in-person and virtually, there is still a challenge with accessing the actual instruction,” she said.
Torres-Rodriguez also emphasized the importance of using outreachtoprioritize building relationships with families.
“When we want to really address equity, we know we have to get close ... and personal to really understand that families not only need, but the context in their personal story,” she said. “That takes time, that takes trust and additional resources.”