Coronavirus closed Idaho schools. Here’s how districts will keep teaching students
Idaho shut down all of its public schools until at least April 20. But the closure doesn’t mean education will stop.
The spread of the novel coronavirus forces schools around the state to find new ways to continue instruction outside of the traditional classroom setting. Some have plans in place. Others are quickly building those plans.
The Idaho Statesman surveyed the state’s three largest school districts — West Ada, Boise and Nampa — to see how they plan to adjust to a new education world.
BOISE SCHOOLS GO ONLINE MONDAY
Last week, the Boise School District said it wouldn’t offer online courses because it couldn’t ensure all students had equal access to them. But an extended closure and new advice from the state and federal education departments allowed Boise to reverse course.
Boise will start distance education Monday, district spokesman Ryan Hill told the Idaho Statesman. He said the district will reveal more details on how it will work later this week.
Distance education in Boise includes a mix of online material and paper packets. Hill said everything available online will also come with a paper packet, ensuring it won’t leave behind any students without internet access or a computer, tablet or phone that can access the internet.
The district could distribute those paper packets at school sites or possibly on buses delivering lunches.
“We have to move very quickly,” Hill said. “But that’s not an excuse to leave any of our students behind.”
The Boise School District doesn’t know how many students will need a laptop, iPad or WiFi hotspot. It will begin that survey next week.
Hill said the district will start slowly as it moves education outside of the traditional classroom. It will need to train teachers on best practices and give students and parents time to adjust.
“We are all going to be learning together,” Hill said. “We are going to invest a lot of time and energy into people, and making sure that people are comfortable and that they are ready to go.”
The Boise School District doesn’t have a dedicated platform for online classes like most universities. So it will post material on its website starting Monday as it weighs establishing a platform for long-term school closures.
Many districts around the country have made their online courses optional. Hill couldn’t say if Boise would follow a similar path, but he said students won’t be punished out of the gate.
“We are going to give everybody a chance to get up and onto a level playing field as soon as we possibly can before we worry about homework deadlines and grading,” Hill said.
WEST ADA PREPARES FOR REMOTE LEARNING
Like Boise, the West Ada School District said last week it wouldn’t host online classes because it couldn’t ensure everyone could access them. But the district changed course after feedback from its parents and teachers.
“What really changed is these are extraordinary times,” West Ada spokesman Eric Exline said. “And we heard from our parents that they wanted us to do whatever we can to continue their education.”
Exline said the district will communicate detailed plans to parents Monday. But he shared a rough outline with the Idaho Statesman on Tuesday evening.
The district will host “remote learning” with three features: online classes, emailed material and printed packets.
Exline said individual schools will produce and print their own packets for their students without internet access. Packets will be available at those schools.
West Ada started a survey this week to see which of its 40,000 students needed help accessing online material. Exline said 18,000 have responded so far, and 900 (5 percent) said they don’t have home internet access. That number could climb as harder-to-reach families respond.
The district has 20,000 laptops it can distribute to students. But acquiring and distributing 1,000 or more wireless hotspots remains a hurdle.
“The challenge with those is getting them quickly is not easy,” Exline said. “… We can give you a laptop, but if you don’t have internet access, it’s not doing you a whole lot of good.”
What those online classes will look like remains a work in progress. Like Boise, West Ada doesn’t have a dedicated online education platform. It will instead build off the district’s existing Microsoft Teams accounts. Installing and teaching students and staff to use a new online platform would only cost the district time it doesn’t have, Exline said.
Exline couldn’t say when West Ada would start remote learning and online classes. But he said it wouldn’t be Monday.
“We still have to continue working with building administrators and with our teachers, because they are going to be the heart of making this work,” Exline said. “They know where their kids are at, what their kids need.”
NAMPA WAS READY FOR ONLINE
Years of investing in technology put the Nampa School District in an enviable position.
Unlike West Ada and Boise, Nampa has computing devices for every one of its 14,000 students. The district purchased iPads for all elementary school students and laptops for middle and high school students using levy funds. It started distributing those in the fall of 2016 and reached the final students this fall.
“That was really fortunate,” Nampa spokeswoman Kathleen Tuck said. “We wouldn’t be able to do this otherwise.”
That allowed Nampa to announce last week plans to move its classes fully online. The district will host one final training day for teachers Monday before starting online classes Tuesday.
Nampa will re-evaluate after one week.
Tuck said Nampa schools have already ingrained those iPads and laptops into the district’s curriculum, and its teachers have the tools and training to conduct online education.
“There’s not a set schedule for students because we realize families at home are dealing with a lot of different things,” Tuck said. “But there are definitely expectations that work will continue. We are just doing it outside of the classroom.”
The district conducted a survey last week and found 93% of its students already have internet access. To reach that last 7%, the district has distributed 148 mobile hotspots to its most needy students. And all Nampa School District buildings will serve as WiFi hotspots for students, capable of hosting 50 devices at a time outside the school.
By providing everyone an internet-connected device and boosting internet access, Tuck said lawyers for the Nampa School District believe they’ve met all state and federal requirements of free and equal access.
“It’s a brand-new situation, and we are taking it day to day,” Tuck said. “But we wanted to provide this to students so they can get the credits they’ve earned. We don’t want them to be behind.”
IDAHO NOT ALONE IN LIMBO
Idaho faces many of the same obstacles as schools across the country as the coronavirus pandemic forces the U.S. to start a massive experiment in online education.
The U.S. Department of Education reminded schools last week they still had to meet federal civil rights guaranteeing equal access if they moved classes online. That led Oregon and large school districts in Chicago, Philadelphia and suburban Seattle to suspend mandatory and graded schoolwork online.
Federal education law requires schools to provide free and appropriate public education to all of their students. Districts feared they couldn’t meet that standard for all students online, including students enrolled in special education, which account for 14% of all U.S. students. And experts warned online education could increase achievement gaps between high- and low-income students.
But U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos took direct aim at those school districts Saturday, calling their worries “an excuse.” She said in a press release nothing from the education department should be used to prevent schools from offering online classes.
“We need schools to educate all students out of principle, rather than educate no students out of fear,” DeVos said. “These are challenging times, but we expect schools to rise to the occasion, and the department stands ready to assist you in your efforts.”
The Idaho State Board of Education followed that advice during its special meeting Monday.
“They were giving districts, not an out, but an opportunity to focus down the road,” Charlie Silva, Idaho’s director of special education, said during the conference call. “What are we going to have in place for students if things were to get worse? And guess what? They’ve gotten worse, and that’s where we’re at.
“So I think a lot of states now are shifting and saying: ‘You know, let’s look at online. Let’s look at appropriate modifications.’ ”
Idaho’s constitution requires “a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.” Internet access and computers are anything but free and uniform, as anyone with a creaky, old laptop or spotty WiFi can tell you. But Mike Keckler, a spokesman for the State Board, said the board is not seeking to reduce all Idaho schools to the lowest common denominator.
He said individual school districts are in the best position to make decisions for their students.
“This is an unprecedented thing we are dealing with,” Keckler said. “We are dealing with this, and we are trying to be agile and flexible. By the same token, we are trying to continue the education of our students for the remainder of the school year.
“… The bottom line is that this is going to look different across the state.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
