{"id":32881,"date":"2020-05-28T06:03:25","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T11:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=32881"},"modified":"2020-05-27T18:03:49","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T23:03:49","slug":"heres-what-school-could-look-like-for-oklahoma-students-next-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2020\/05\/28\/heres-what-school-could-look-like-for-oklahoma-students-next-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s what school could look like for Oklahoma students next fall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.simplecast.com\/ea6c960d-3a84-464e-b6c8-06ea84484bcb?dark=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The coronavirus will<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">change school next fall. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Oklahoma State Department of Education has issued a series of guidelines for schools. But will we see a statewide shutdown of schools and shift to distance learning next fall like we did this spring?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI would not anticipate that unless it is necessary for the governor to call another state of emergency,\u201d State Superintendent for Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Local school boards will ultimately be the decision makers.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">District leaders are scrambling to figure out how exactly to deal with the situation. And the summer\u00a0 will be a critical time in\u00a0 making those decisions. It\u2019s impossible to predict the future. But it is possible to plan.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe can be ready and we can use this time to prepare for multiple scenarios and then be focused on learning and identifying where those gaps are, as we do year after year for students in the ordinary operations and service of a school,\u201d Hofmeister said.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Will there still be \u201cdistance learning\u201d in the fall?<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">School buildings will be open and they will be filled with at least some students.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, state officials aren\u2019t ruling out distance learning in fall 2020. In fact, they\u2019re\u00a0 pretty much counting on it.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOSDE encourages districts to plan for integration of schoolwide virtual learning days into school calendars for the 2020-21 school year given the expectation of short- or long-term disruptions to on-site instruction as a result of COVID-19,\u201d according to guidance sent from the State Department of Education.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Distance learning works best when students have internet access, though. And more than 100,000 children in Oklahoma don\u2019t have home web access. That\u2019s a problem that the State Department is working to fix.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.readfrontier.org\/stories\/hofmeister-wants-governors-funds-to-focus-on-digital-divide-in-rural-oklahoma\/\">In an April letter<\/a>, Hofmeister asked Gov. Kevin Stitt to leverage some or all of $40 million in federal funding through the CARES Act on fixing the internet gap.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe governor and his team are working with OSDE, local school districts, and state legislators in order to ensure these dollars effectively serve all Oklahoma students during these unprecedented times,\u201dStitt spokeswoman Baylee Lakey said in a written statement.\u00a0 \u201cNo official decisions have been made on how the $39.8 million in emergency discretionary funds will be spent. However, we are evaluating numerous initiatives, including rural broadband, hotspot connectivity and virtual AP options for all schools.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lakey also pointed out that the $40 million only represents a fraction of funding that g<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">oes to schools. The CARES Act disburses $160.9 million for a direct common education grant through the State Department of Education for distribution to public school districts, and $150.7 million for direct higher education grants, to be distributed to in-state colleges and universities.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The State Department of Education has indicated districts that spend at least some of their CARES Act relief funds on fixing the internet gap in their community will be eligible for additional grants from the state.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>What will the school calendar look like?<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a late May interview on Fox News, Stitt said the state was looking at a common start date across Oklahoma in early August.Hofmeister said that was an early idea but it has since been axed. Instead, local districts will determine when they can start.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An early start date will likely be encouraged but not required. The Education Department\u00a0 has laid out five things schools should consider when laying out their calendars.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Options include staggering start dates for grades, building in virtual days of instruction, starting school early, adding night classes or Saturday school, and taking more and longer breaks throughout the year. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further guidance is expected soon so schools can start planning.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>How will students be kept safe?<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The CDC has released a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/community\/schools-childcare\/schools.html?fbclid=IwAR2fSWi0qezQUJ2Uwge0_8d8pIO7pslXhTzWZsBA9h8_WodjKt6w3xC-Fd0\">lengthy guidance<\/a> for maintaining hygiene at schools.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The agency encourages small classrooms, masks for teachers and students whenever possible and teaching handwashing with soap and water for at least 30 seconds.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On a call with superintendents last week, state officials said they were working on securing PPE and other supplies for schools to use.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>What do schools do if they have a positive case of COVID-19?<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If a positive case is detected in an Oklahoma school, the Department of Education\u00a0 is recommending schools close immediately for the remainder of the day of detection.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sanitization in any place where the student might have been for 30 minutes is also encouraged and school leaders should consider closing for a longer period of time.. Teachers or students who have tested positive for coronavirus are advised to stay home.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>What about assessments?<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s spring tradition in Oklahoma to have a bevy of assessment tests.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because of coronavirus, the state <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2020\/03\/19\/oklahoma-will-ask-federal-government-to-waive-spring-assessment-tests-requirements\/\">received a waiver<\/a> from its federally mandated assessments in spring 2020.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, barring a major catastrophe, another waiver is unlikely because districts are\u00a0 required to do the testing under a\u00a0 federal law called the Every Student Succeeds Act, which is tied to congressional funding for districts. School officials are planning to have assessments next\u00a0 spring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The coronavirus will change school next fall. The Oklahoma State Department of Education has issued a series of guidelines for schools. But will we see a statewide shutdown of schools and shift to distance learning next fall like we did this spring?\u201cI would not anticipate that unless it is necessary for the governor to call [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":32366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32881"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32886,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32881\/revisions\/32886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}