Coronavirus and Schools: Virtual Learning during the COVID-19 Outbreak (Follow Up Question)
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
Inquiry from a school district: We were assured we would not be penalized for not meeting the 180 day/990 hour requirement?
Quite right. The secretary has informed the field in his message of Friday, March 13, that schools will be able to apply for a shorter year, and he has suggested that those applications will be granted liberally. That is certainly one good reason not to worry about offering cyber instruction in place of actual instruction—something we have advised against.
The ability to run a shorter school year, however, was not really the point of our earlier messages today. Certain federally mandated IEP, evaluation, and reevaluation timelines continue to run for students with disabilities despite the cessation of school. We were offering recommendations for complying with those timelines through virtual and telephonic modalities, but those recommendations will require the use of teachers, working remotely, during the break.