Snow days may become flex days

New law allows kids to stay home but still count a legitimate school day

Hazardous winter weather is no longer a reason to cancel school, exactly.

A new law signed this summer and going into effect this fall allows schools to keep students home but with responsibility for completing work that amounts to a legitimate school day.

The option for flexible instructional days was signed by Gov. Tom Wolf in June after it passed almost unanimously through both legislative chambers.

Bellwood-Antis School District Superintendent Tom McInroy noted the law's requirement for districts to specify a plan for making a flexible instructional day worthwhile and request approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

"With the passage of the new law, districts have until September to apply for flexible snow days. As part of the application, districts need to outline how they plan to continue the students' education. In other words, we can't have them do busy work, it needs to be a continuation of the regular education of the students," McInroy wrote in an email.

Three years ago, the state launched a pilot program for 12 schools to test the idea. Three of the schools in that initial phase were in Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill's district in York County.

"Based on positive feedback, she wanted to codify it into state law," Jon Hopcraft, Phillip-Hill's chief of staff, said.

The new law is supported by public school board and teacher associations as well as the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference representing parochial schools, he said.

The pilot program was set to expire this year. Now all other districts can apply for Flexible Instructional Days.

The law is not proposing a "cyber" day. Provisions in the law allow for other methods of instruction to take place at home.

Whether it is through the internet or textbooks sent home prior to a stormy forecast, the method of instruction delivery during a flexible instructional day is up to the school district.

Flexible instructional days allow otherwise canceled school days to be counted toward the 180 days of instruction currently required under law.

McInroy wrote that he has been waiting for the flexible instructional day option to become law since the dozen schools began piloting the program years ago.

"I want to move forward with the flexible snow days.Perhaps we will try one or two the first year and assess how well, or not, the program worked," he said. "Personally, I have waited about five years for the law to pass so we can move to this model."

Of course, he noted, the school board must approve the plan and work with the district teachers' union is necessary to develop processes for the flexible instructional days.

The schools that were part of the pilot program have worked out many of the issues that schools just starting flexible snow days will encounter, and learning from them will help expedite the process,McInroy said.

Weather is not the only reason flexible instructional days may be used. They may be applied to a disease epidemic, a law enforcement emergency, the inoperability of school buses or other equipment necessary to the public school entity's operation, damage to a school building or another temporary circumstance rendering any portion of a school building unfit or unsafe for use.

Altoona Area Assistant Superintendent Brad Hatch said the district is exploring the option.

There are questions for such a large district.

"It will be a challenge in terms of numbers," he said.

However, the overall direction the district is taking with secondary education lends itself to the transition.

Students in grades 7 to 12 all have Chromebooks that they take back and forth from school to home.

"Internet access at home is a concern," Hatch said.

But instruction in school is beginning to become interchangeable with personalized cyber instruction at home.

"Teachers' ability for videocasting allows them to put out tutorials that students can access from home and have web-based communication with teachers," Hatch said.

Teachers can set up videos, worksheets, links to websites, project-based learning and package all sorts of digital resources to be accessed at home or in a classroom.

"We are moving a lot more to a hybrid learning mode where anything we do in our cyber academy or our brick-and-mortar buildings are interchangeable."

By the end of next year all core high school classes will be available virtually. Students who are part of a virtual program would be getting the same class as if they are sitting in the classroom, Hatch said.

Whilethe district's teachers can deliver classroom instruction for high school students through Google Classroom, and Hatch said the district is in the beginning stages of looking at how to provide the same kind of real-time education for elementary school students on a flexible instructional day.

Hatch also said he has concerns with how to meet the instructional requirements of special education students if the district were to opt for flexible instruction days.

School officials will meet to decide on applying for flexible instructional days before the September deadline.

"We want to have all our questions answered before we develop a proposal," he said.

Williamsburg Community School District Super­intendent Lisa Murgas agreed there would be challenges to implementing the flexible instructional days effectively, but she said she believes it can work for her district.

"This is definitely something I am interested in and believe it is worth pursuing," she said."There are several things that would have to be worked out in order for it to work effectively for students, parents and staff, but I believe it is a great option in regard to snow days."

Mirror Staff Writer Russ O'Reilly is at 946-7435.