Is your school district offering online learning for the fall?

[martikus]

Yes. But not allowing k-2. About 650 of 16,000 signed up. They rejected about 100 who aren’t good candidates (didn’t do well this year online etc). The online teachers only teach online.

I’m guessing that was a lot less than they expected so not sure if they will continue past 21/22 or not.

 

[Colleen27]

I haven't actually heard whether we'll be offering the remote option for next year. We've been open all year and that's been a big selling point to our newer families, many of whom joined us because we were offering an in person option when the public schools weren't, so I don't think there's going to be a lot of pressure to continue a remote option.

 

[amcnj]

I have not heard about next year yet. A few weeks ago they began allowing all the elementary kids to attend together. They had previously been split into two groups with one group going mornings and the other afternoons. Now they all go each day from roughly 8:30 AM till 1 PM.

The last I heard the Middle/High school was still split into three groups, and each day two of the three groups attend in class instruction.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

The district where I work has not made an announcement yet. The latest is that we are waiting for updated guidance from the state governor about school safety requirements. If we can accommodate full classes based on social distancing requirements (or the lack thereof), we will fully open in the fall. If there are still safety measures that we need to follow (such as 3 or 6 feet between students), we will have to stay with our current split day schedule. Whether or not we offer distance learning is also still up in the air. From what I've heard, the district would prefer to fully open and drop the online option completely.

 

[gopack]

Our very large school district is offering Virtual Academy next year for PreK-12th grade.

 

[Disneylover99]

It was just announced yesterday that a remote learning option will be available in Ontario for the next school year, but no details yet about which grades this would be for.

 

[Katie Dawn]

Our school system (3rd largest in the state) has said for awhile now that virtual will be an option for the 2021-2022 school year. Then almost a month ago the state decided they want public school systems to be in-person only. So now our district has submitted a request to created 3 virtual academies (an elementary, middle, and high). They have to submit it to the state and then wait to see if they get authorized to do this. It's a mess.

Our district has been VERY clear that they prefer students be in-person learners whenever possible, and have said that while some students have excelled, a much larger portion have really struggled. I don't think they are in love with the idea of offering virtual next year... But I'm thinking they're worried that if they don't offer something then families will end up going with private virtual/online schools. And the private virtual schools we've had around here are awful.

 

[design_mom]

This year, our district offered a “flexible attendance model” and a “committed distance learning “ option. Parents could choose but you could not switch once you'd chosen. The flexible attendance model started hybrid and is currently full-time in person. During the hybrid phase, at-home assignments were asynchronous. Committed-distance is all online (combo of synchronous/asynchronous) but it has separate, dedicated teachers.

Next year, there will not be a committed distance model.

The district has also (for several years) has had a individualized learning program that includes an online component. You can get referred to it for a variety of reasons. I think it’s possible if you had a true COVID-related reason that you couldn’t do in-person school, you might be accommodated that way (but you’d have to have a documented reason/be approved, it's not an option that everyone is free to choose.)

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

Ours hasn't made any official declarations but they have been telling teachers that hybrid will still be offered next year. Many teachers are unhappy about this.

 

[MomOfDisneyPrincess]

No, but another district in the same county is.

 

[Toolulu22]

Next week is our first 5 day week for hybrid kids in schools in our district that are able to accommodate all those kids (some can’t with the current CDC mandates). As of now, parents will have the option of having their kids be virtual in Fall, while the goal is to be fully in person. We were told that going forward we will have full access to the tech we had this year, and kids are getting/keeping Chromebooks and keeping them until graduation.

I’ve had some of my kids switch from hybrid to virtual recently because their parents weren’t comfortable with them back in school now that we’ve increased from one to five days per week slowly over the past 3 months.

We’ve been teaching synchronously all year- with a computer and Smartboard synced. I’m comfortable with managing the at-home kids and the in-person people after doing so all year, but the hard thing is monitoring what students at home are doing and learning. I’m just glad this year is almost over. Trying to help as many kids get through this year passing their classes so they can start fresh in September. Whatever that looks like- we’ll be ready for it.

 

[slo]

We don’t know yet, but I hope so.
My DD17 is e-learning now and she loves it and wants to continue next year.

 

[MamaMermaid]

I'm a high school teacher in south Florida - we've been doing simultaneous teaching (it sucks). Next year, students are not allowed to be virtual and attend our school; the county is offering a "virtual school" students can choose if they don't want to come to campus.

I'm just happy to stop doing 2 jobs.

 

[monsterkitty]

The district I teach in will continue the online academy for those who want to stay online. However, they will reject your application if you had poor attendance or if you did not do your work.

Our district has been very strict about kids who have poor attendance on VA or failure to do work. They have worked very closely with the truancy court and those who had very poor attendance were required to go back to in-person learning this semester. That has meant that our in-person class sizes have increased to 23-25, which is the limit for our class size set by health officials at the beginning of this school year.

 

[wenrob]

We have the choice between all virtual or all in person. Honestly I did not pay attention to the details because we had already decided they were going back to school. We decided this before the news of vaccine approval but it makes me feel better that they will most likely be fully vaccinated when they go back.

We have always had online academies here but I had been against the idea because my niece and nephew are basically 8th grade dropouts after going that route. After the last year I realize that it can be done. My DS has thrived in virtual school, his grades have never been better. It’s been a hard call for me. I feel he needs to be around people and make friends beyond online. We’ll see how next year goes. I’m open to letting him go back to virtual.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

I teach in an inner city school district and we are offering parents the option to stay online until the end of the first semester (January 28th). As far as I know we are the only school district in the county that is offering this option to parents. I personally think this is a mistake. So many students are failing and really need to be back in person. My youngest is graduating but I know that our district is only offering it with a doctor's note. My district has told us teachers that we will not be teaching simultaneously in the fall so there will be online teachers and in person teachers. So my question is what are your school districts doing for the fall?

DS is doing online based school next year, per his choice. He signed up for AP Statistics, US Government/Economics, Engligh IV, ASL 1, and 2 computer classes (AP Computer Science and Procedual Programming, which is Python based)...now to wait and see if he gets them. He'll get college credit for the statistics and computer science courses, which is great. He is choosing to not take honors or AP English or US gov/econ this year.

They have always offered online school here; it's considered a regular K-12 school, complete with mascot. For the state required tests, they go to what would be their zoned school if they chose in person school, to take the test. If a senior, they can graduate with their zoned school (if they want to walk, Grad Bash, etc) or they can do the online graduation ceremony with the virtual school; they can attend the zoned schools proms/homecomings/etc.

In the two counties where my kids went, both required an online course as part of graduation requirements.

 

[Turn the Page]

Our district hasn't said anything about next year yet. However, they put a survey out a few months ago asking how satisfied we were with the virtual learning and if we wanted the option next year. The school board recently announced that they had purchased a new learning management system for next year as they were not happy with the one they used this year.

I have no idea why they would purchase a new platform, even if they were unhappy with the old one, if they weren't planning to offer online next year but who knows. The word on the street is that at the beginning of the year 20 - 25% of students in the district had done the online option but they were coming back in droves for the second semester.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Our school district has always offered a full virtual option (even before Covid) and will continue to do so for next school year.

 

[sk!mom]

This year my district has been fully face to face or fully virtual. Families had to commit to a quarter at a time. That, however, was loosely enforced. If your choice wasn’t working many switched whenever they wanted.

Despite all the news of the failure of virtual learning, there is a small minority who like it and feel that it has served their family just fine. With public school systems already struggling with the number of students MIA this year (not enrolled in anything nor registered as homeschooling) many feel that they can’t risk losing those who do not want to come back.

Due to all that, my district will offer a virtual option next year. They are discouraging it as much as possible- if you choose it, it will be for a full semester, no electives or extracurriculars on campus, and no “home” campus that you interact with. If you’re virtual- you’re virtual.