Are schools getting out later?

[JenniferFolsomCa]

For those of you with kids getting out of school for some time in March, are you still getting out at your normal time, either late May or early June? I am planning to go May 27/28th to June 7th and wondering if it is going to be swamped with everyone moving spring break to early summer or if some of the kiddos who normally would be out will now be in school longer.

Anyone get told yet?

Jenn

 

[sponica]

I know my sister's union in MA is pitching a fit about having to make up days that are forced closures. But they get out mid to late June as it is.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I don't think anyone fully knows how they will be making up the time if at all at this point. My DS12 goes to a small, private school that closed yesterday, but he is scheduled to be on spring break for two weeks starting Monday anyway and they will not extend past their original last day of June 12. The public schools in our area are closed indefinitely and they weren't scheduled to be on break until April. They are scrambling to put together some type of e-learning for those students now. The CT Governor just issued an emergency statement a few days ago eliminating the 180 days of school requirement for public schools here. No public school in CT can extend past June 30 to make up days. I, honestly, would be shocked if they extend at all. Many districts in our state are under budget crunches and I'm sure they would love to find any excuse to save some money. I just don't think there is anyway to predict crowds at this point.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We will be moving to online courses so we will still get out on time. I'm in NJ so we go until mid to late June depending on your district.

 

[Tink_83]

We go until early June (very small private school in northern VA) - it seems like they are going to send home homework for us to do the teaching. Ya- I get to work from home and take care of my 2 year old and now homeschool my first grader... oh well, I completely understand and realize there is a far worse scenario and understand the need to curb the infections so I’m not upset about that - just wondering if Mickey Mouse clubhouse 24/7 will have a detrimental impact on my 2 year old (I have to work somehow)!

I’m going to assume that since we are doing homework with the kids that we won’t be extended but I wouldn’t be upset if we made up a week of time.

 

[brockash]

I think generally if there are states of emergencies issued; each state can and usually does lift the mandated seat time for students. I know that's what's happening here...we now have 20 days that do not need to be made up (we're only currently scheduledto be out 5,) so unless it goes over that we will not have an extended school year.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

For those of you with kids getting out of school for some time in March, are you still getting out at your normal time, either late May or early June? I am planning to go May 27/28th to June 7th and wondering if it is going to be swamped with everyone moving spring break to early summer or if some of the kiddos who normally would be out will now be in school longer.

Anyone get told yet?

Jenn

have not heard officially but from what I am reading in our area schools are not having to make up these date so still getting out on time here in Pa

 

[aml1676]

I'm in Marion County in Indiana, and I don't expect they'll have makeup days - they've got eLearning starting on Monday, and they're still doing spring break as planned. If there were going to be makeup days I'd have expected them to cancel that break since we're all stuck at home anyway.

 

[LSUmiss]

I think generally if there are states of emergencies issued; each state can and usually does lift the mandated seat time for students. I know that's what's happening here...we now have 20 days that do not need to be made up (we're only currently scheduledto be out 5,) so unless it goes over that we will not have an extended school year.

Yes this is the case in Louisiana. The governor cancelled schools & with the proclamation comes a waiver for hoe many minutes the schools have to do each school yr.

 

[rhondabee]

Im in MS and since the governor declared a state of emergency, the missed days will not have to be made up, so the kids will still get out in May in my area.

 

[MrsSLF]

We don't know yet but more information regarding that issue should be available to us on Tuesday. I'm in Maryland and when our schools were closed, the state super of school suggested adjusting spring break to help make up the difference. My county has a lot of affluent parents, however, that scheduled vacations that will either pitch a fit or won't send their kids to school if we open during spring break (our break isn't until April 6 and we return on the 14th). As of right now, we're only scheduled to be closed for 2 weeks but I don't know if that will be extended based on recent CDC guidance that says 2 weeks isn't really long enough to be in the clear.

I'm hopeful we will get out at the same time as usual and our district has already created work for kids to during the break but it's not officially e-learning. If we're extended beyond the current closure time, we may have to start teaching online (teacher and parent to a 2nd grader). Most of what of my curriculum is already given via online instructional methods anyway (Google Classroom and Nearpod), I just don't know if they're going to devise a plan for students that don't have access to a device at home (maybe loan out our county Chromebooks to those families or something and figure out the WiFi situation).

These are seriously different times for us as parents and, in my case, as a teacher. I also happen to be a history teacher so I am very interested to see how this all pans out in the history books. Something one of my colleagues suggested to her students before leaving on Friday was for them to journal their experiences while they're away because it could be something in the future that people will want to read: living through the pandemic as an 11-year-old (we're middle school teachers and she teaches 6th graders). I thought that was an awesome idea and I'm bummed that I didn't think of that as a history teacher. I am going to have my 7-year-old do this, though.

 

[saraheliz]

Massachusetts here, the governor declared last week we won't have to go beyond the 185th day on the school calendar- so we'll use our 5 "snow days" but nothing beyond that (and many years we've had more than 5 snow days and HAVE gone beyond that). Depending on the district that makes the last day anywhere from June 18-25, which is typical for this part of the country. So, not really later, although we had a mild winter so some schools hadn't used any snow days yet (and would have gotten out up to 5 days earlier before all of this).

 

[Bjkandma]

In the state of Michigan, the governor declared a "state of emergency". In cases of snow day cancellations of a state of emergency is declared, schools are not required to make up days. Since this is unprecedented, I'm assuming the state of emergency status, schools will not be required to make up days.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

For those of you with kids getting out of school for some time in March, are you still getting out at your normal time, either late May or early June? I am planning to go May 27/28th to June 7th and wondering if it is going to be swamped with everyone moving spring break to early summer or if some of the kiddos who normally would be out will now be in school longer.

I am a public school teacher and while my district has not announced any closures, I can tell you that even if they did, that would absolutely not relate to school being extended into summer. And I'm sure it would be the same across the country. There are a myraid of reasons, and here are just a few:

1. Teachers and other school year employees are not under contract to teach in the two summer months we have off. We are only paid for 10 months of work and it's on a specific schedule that's decided far in advance.
2. Districts would have to come up with a great deal of extra money to pay for operations during the summer. Even districts in the most affluent areas don't have this level of extra cash laying around.
3. A lot of students wouldn't attend, because they already have vacation plans. This would defeat the purpose of extending the school year, and also further strain the budget, as most public school dollars come from students' daily attendance.
4. The point of school closures is to mitigate virus spread, and the virus is still going to exist in the summer.

So no, don't count on an extended school year this summer. Not going to happen.

 

[CalSea12]

Plus many schools are switching to online studies... which is what we are doing so we won't go into summer.

 

[Amy11401]

We don't know yet but more information regarding that issue should be available to us on Tuesday. I'm in Maryland and when our schools were closed, the state super of school suggested adjusting spring break to help make up the difference. My county has a lot of affluent parents, however, that scheduled vacations that will either pitch a fit or won't send their kids to school if we open during spring break (our break isn't until April 6 and we return on the 14th). As of right now, we're only scheduled to be closed for 2 weeks but I don't know if that will be extended based on recent CDC guidance that says 2 weeks isn't really long enough to be in the clear.

I'm hopeful we will get out at the same time as usual and our district has already created work for kids to during the break but it's not officially e-learning. If we're extended beyond the current closure time, we may have to start teaching online (teacher and parent to a 2nd grader). Most of what of my curriculum is already given via online instructional methods anyway (Google Classroom and Nearpod), I just don't know if they're going to devise a plan for students that don't have access to a device at home (maybe loan out our county Chromebooks to those families or something and figure out the WiFi situation).

These are seriously different times for us as parents and, in my case, as a teacher. I also happen to be a history teacher so I am very interested to see how this all pans out in the history books. Something one of my colleagues suggested to her students before leaving on Friday was for them to journal their experiences while they're away because it could be something in the future that people will want to read: living through the pandemic as an 11-year-old (we're middle school teachers and she teaches 6th graders). I thought that was an awesome idea and I'm bummed that I didn't think of that as a history teacher. I am going to have my 7-year-old do this, though.

I am also a teacher in MD. Using spring break isn't going to do much for our county. We literally only have 2 days of spring break. I am hoping MD changes course and says the days don't need to be made up considering MD is also under a state of emergency.

 

[yorkieteacher]

Most schools, like the one my grandson goes to and the one where my daughter teaches, have sent home learning assignment packets plus made digital assignments. She has to contact all her students' parents over the course of the next two weeks several times each to see how they are doing and how she can help. She will also be monitoring the digital assignments. The Georgia governor declared a state of emergency, so we will not have to make up these days. This has happened once before in April 2011 when our school was hit during the huge tornado outbreak and was unable to open for over two weeks.

 

[k_hase]

NYS school employee here; the 180 days of school requirement has been waived by the state for students; district contracts with teachers are not included (there's no state mandate about teacher days). So our kids will get out at the end of June as always.

We are shifting to some online learning elements for all grades, with teachers expected to 'work' during this period of closure although what that looks like in practice we haven't determined. We'll have a few days this week before we close to get kid access and staff expectations sorted.