When can remote instruction count as a school day?
For most public school students, remote learning is only permitted this year in COVID-related isolation or quarantine. But with the option available, questions about its other possible uses have started to brew.
Conversations around remote instruction were reignited last week as pandemic-related staff shortages and dis
rupted bus routes hampered schools’ ability to hold in-person classes. Stratford and Westport extended their winter breaks, while Ansonia and Danbury schools had to close as the week progressed. And rather than learn from home, those districts will likely make up missed classroom time at the end of the school year, like they do now for snow days.
“Remote learning is generally not permitted during the 2021-22 school year on a district-wide, school-wide, or individual student basis,” education commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker wrote last week in a letter to superintendents. “However, COVID-19 health and safety concerns may dictate very limited exceptions.”
At-home instruction counts as an official school day if active COVID cases or close contacts are involved, or if the legislature or governor requires it. Under some circumstances, students with disabilities or live-in family members with unusual vulnerabilities to COVID-19 could learn from home, too.
Otherwise, state officials have presented a united front on the importance of in-person learning, without much wiggle room for other considerations, like if a student catches the flu for a few days or other reasons for temporary absences.
“Legislation enacted in the 2021 session has generally precluded remote instruction during the current, 2021-22 school year,” said Eric Scoville, communications director at the education department.
Schools have to follow broad guidelines this year for remote learning for it to count as attendance. Students must engage with material for at least half a school day, though what that means could vary from district to district. Synchronous virtual classes and meetings, digital platforms, and paper or online assignments all qualify, so long as they take enough time to do.
Before the state can set into motion broader applications of remote instruction, officials are putting together more robust remote learning standards, to go into effect this fall for high school students. A state commission on the subject, which has already begun meeting, will also host public meetings on Monday afternoon and Jan. 25.
Districts could authorize the practice for the state’s oldest students as soon as next school year. But throughout Connecticut this week, as COVID-19, icy roads and inclement weather burdened inperson schooling, the change can’t come soon enough.
In the Greenwich Public Schools, many students are on remote learning due to the spike in COVID cases. School district data on Friday morning showed 438 positive cases, including 391 among students.
More than half of cases this school year were new since the winter break, a Hearst Connecticut Media analysis found.
For grades 6 to 12, a student placed in quarantine for health-related reasons by the health care team should have access to watch their classes virtually, said Jonathan Supranowitz, director of communications for the Greenwich Public Schools.
For students in prekindergarten through fifth grade, “work will be sent home for those in districtissued quarantines or isolations,” Supranowitz said.
After extending the winter break by a day, Westport Superintendent Thomas Scarice on Wednesday announced temporary remote access to classes for students in isolation with confirmed COVID-19, in quarantine or with symptoms. The option is available to students in grades 6 through 12, and should make it easier for families — who may be inclined to send kids to school with a runny nose or minor sore throat — to keep them home.
“We want all students and staff demonstrating any symptoms to stay home,” Scarice reiterated to parents.
Remote access could also ease the burden on teachers catching students up after they return to school, when COVID cases are surging. More than 250 students and staff were reported positive this week, according to district data. Close to 29 percent of this school year’s total cases were new since Monday, according to the Hearst analysis of school data.
“This accommodation will enable students to observe classroom instruction to remain current in the content taught,” he said.
Danbury schools shut for three days this week for icy roads and staff shortages. By the week’s end, district officials and the city’s legislative delegation were planning to advocate for the authority over remote options.
Superintendent Kevin Walston said all students have devices, while teachers union president Erin Daly added staff could have pivoted to remote instruction.
Even on the couple of days schools were open this week, not all Danbury students were learning. Student attendance was at 74 percent on Monday and 80 percent on Tuesday, down from the average of the mid-90s, according to the district.
“This week, we could have had a very productive remote learning week,” said Daly, who also teaches third grade. “That’s very frustrating for me personally as a teacher, because I feel like my students are losing almost a week’s worth of instruction.”