Florida Schools ordered to reopen in fall 7/8/2020

 Wednesday, July 8, 2020 at 9:13AM

Florida Schools ordered to reopen in fall 7/8/2020

 

Local health officials can override directive if needed

Ryan McKinnon

Sarasota

Herald-Tribune

7/8/2020

Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran issued an emergency order Monday, requiring all schools to open in the fall and laying out the requirements districts must meet to offer any sort of non-traditional remote instruction in addition to their in-person option.

“All school boards and charter school governing boards must open brick and mortar schools in August at least five days per week for all students,” the announcement states. Local health officials can override the commissioner’s directive if it is not safe to open schools, due to COVID-19, but Monday’s announcement makes it clear that districts have to prepare to open their doors to all students in August.

And while health officials could deem schools unsafe, as long as there are not widespread shutdowns, it could be a tough call to single out schools.

“Logically, I don’t think they could say schools aren’t safe if they are allowing people to be out in public,” Department of Education spokeswoman 

Corcoran

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Cheryl Etters said.

“If locally they are not able to open, we will work with districts on the continuation of their Instructional Continuity Plan (ICP) or determining alternative options,” she said in a follow-up email.

Both Sarasota and Manatee County’s school boards are developing reopening plans, and while the commissioner’s order provides clarity, it is sure to disrupt eff orts to maximize remote options for both students and staff .

What it means

Under the directive: - School boards must prepare to reopen physical buildings in August for all students, full time.

- School districts cannot shift to a hybrid model, where students spend half their time in school and half at home. Every student must have the option of being in school fi ve days per week.

- The only option for schools to not be physically open in August is if local Department of Health offi cials say schools cannot open.

- The DOE will not be waiving the minimum number of instructional hours for students and schools must provide all services they normally do.

Remote learning options

The order signifi cantly raises the bar for remote learning options.

In the spring, as the coronavirus pandemic intensifi ed, the DOE emphasized “grace and compassion” as schools shifted to all online learning in a matter of weeks, and the state removed several requirements districts normally must follow.

In the fall, schools can off er a remote learning option in addition to in-person learning, but those plans must be approved by the state and must be far more robust than they were last spring.

Remote learning options must...

- Ensure students receive the same number of instructional hours, the same content and the same level of feedback and interaction that students in a physical setting would receive.

- Allow students to transition off of the remote plan and return to the physical setting.

- Share monitoring data to demonstrate that students learning remotely are progressing.

The commissioner’s order requires districts to provide the full suite of services to students with disabilities or English Language learners.

Schools will receive funding this fall based on pre-COVID student enrollment projections, but in October the DOE will issue guidance for reporting students who are learning remotely.

The order eliminates some of the options that both Sarasota and Manatee school boards were considering.

Sarasota was weighing the option of starting the school year online and delaying a physical reopening until after Labor Day, and Manatee offi cials were working on a hybrid approach in which students would spend part of their time learning remotely and part of their time in school, to limit the number of people in school at one time.

Both options fall outside the commissioner’s directive.

Manatee School Board member Charlie Kennedy said he understood the need to get students back in schools, but he said Corcoran’s order puts staff at risk and upends months of planning by district offi cials.

“This shoots this out of the water,” Kennedy said. “The state’s teachers union has got to sue over this. It is forcing compromised staff back to work.”

Sarasota School Board Vice-Chairwoman Shirley Brown said it wasn’t fair for the state to issue directives, especially because local property taxes largely fund the schools.

“School boards are supposed to run the schools, but the governor and the DOE, they are the ones who make the rules on how we get paid for our students,” she said. Manatee’s board will discuss reopening plans during a workshop on Thursday, and Sarasota will discuss them next Tuesday.