Interpreting the Department of Education’s Guidelines

[Condessa]

We homeschool through a charter.  So legally my kids are public school students in a different town.  But essentially they give us funds, we submit semester work samples, do occasional testing, and otherwise just do our own thing.  The state keeps changing virtual charters’ attendance requirements, but this past year it included me responding to a daily text that yes, we were schooling that day.  Our state was previously considering a requirement that virtual students receive at least half their instruction time with a teacher by zoom lesson, which would have been catastrophic to our homeschool day.  I wrote the department of education about that, and they scrapped that plan, but instead are instituting this requirement:

“For remote instructional models, schools and districts must take daily attendance. Attendance should be demonstrated in a set 24 hour window that the school establishes and communicates to families prior to the school year. The 24 hour window is not required to be from 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.
Attendance for all instructional models will be defined to include both participation in class activities and substantive interaction with a licensed or registered teacher during a school day or substantive interactions with educational assistants, paraprofessionals, and TAPP family advocates that support meaningful learning and/or attend to student mental health and well- being.
Substantive interactions can be evidenced by any of the following or reasonable equivalents:
 Active participation in a video class;
 A meaningful series of two-way communications between student and teacher via chat,
text message, communication app or email;

 A sustained phone call between the teacher or educational assistants/paraprofessionals and the student, or, for younger students, with the parent or guardian of the student.”

 

If I am reading this right, they want every virtual student (or their parent) to have a not-too-brief interaction with a school professional every day?  
What would one even talk about in “sustained” daily conversations about a young student?  “Yep, taught my kid phonics again.  Short a sounds.”  And again the next day.  And the next.  And the next.

[Lecka]

It will depend — I had some virtual time with one of my kids last year and the teacher would email me “please could you send an update” probably every two weeks?  And I could say “we have been working on reading and he has done a math sheet every day for the past two weeks.”

This was less than what they preferred but it was definitely good enough.

Ymmv.  
 

I also had a time period where I was taking pictures of my daughter’s math and emailing it to the teacher.  The teacher would send back positive comments for my daughter so she actually really liked that.

I also was texting pictures of books to my son’s teacher and she would send a little message like “that looks cool I am glad you are learning about such-and-such.”  But those were both teachers my kids knew so they thought that was cool, which did motivate me to do it, because my kids did like the feedback.  
 

I think you will just have to see how that looks in practice.

I would guess either there is no feedback and then they would be fine with a weekly or biweekly summary, or there is feedback and that makes it kind-of fun.  
 

If you have zero interest in feedback I think ask if you can check in less often but tell what you have been doing over the time, or just take some pictures of books used or whatever.  

[Lecka]

Honestly — maybe don’t ask.  Maybe just do it and see if they put up with it.

 

 

[Lecka]

If you are in good standing then a lot of times they are not going to be as picky with you, you know?  
 

And then I think they will have a separate idea of “when do we actually think there’s a problem.”

 

Honestly with one of my kids, I don’t think the teacher had any problem with me whatsoever, and she emailed me when she needed something to say I was complying — and it was much less than the stated requirement.  
 

But ymmv how comfortable you are with that, and/or if they are in practice going to be lax or strict.

The purpose here was just to make sure kids weren’t getting lost.  They did have leeway if they thought kids were doing things and I said online was not working for one of my kids.  

[Katy]

I bet this has less to do with you and more to do with parents who fid no work at all but called it home schooling.  A picture of work completed is probably enough. 

[prairiewindmomma]

Do your kids’ classes involve live instruction? It sounds like that’s the case and it means that they need to attend the live portion.

Are you a TAPP family advocate per the charter definitions? If yes, it just means that you have to interact with your students. In our charter experience last year there were many parents who were working full time and letting their kids do whatever—no making sure they did any schoolwork at all that day.

I’d get the clarification. That way you know whether legally you can meet their requirement or whether you need to opt out and wholly homeschool.

[Lecka]

If you happen to need to do it and there is anything where it would be appropriate to have a child email a short summary of something — that it would be an appropriate thing for a child to do — that could be something.

If they are older that kind of thing works.

If they are younger or there just is not written output to produce — then I think you can communicate and see what is wanted and what is acceptable.  
 

I would not make my kids do online sessions of any kind that were not working for them.  In practice that meant nothing for my son with special needs, and my other two kids did not have problems with meeting the minimum requirements for online on their own.  
 

I have never had a problem saying I am working with my kids, while not doing — various things that are “supposedly” required but it’s clear I am working with them and the “required” thing is not appropriate.  

[Condessa]

A TAPP family advocate is a school employee who works with native tribes, and not applicable here.  Some of my kids take online classes, but from providers like AOPS and CLRC, not from the charter school’s registered teachers.  They do offer some online classes as an option, but they do not fit my kids’ academic needs.  I have no problem with letting the school know what we are working on in exchange for their funding, but if the D of E is going to be requiring that the school impose daily interruptions for this, that’s going to be a problem.  

The state department of education has gotten way more interfering in distance education options since covid started.  This school has been functioning well with great results for years, but now it’s getting lumped in with all the new public-school-on-the-computer-at-home options, which clearly do need some work.

[prairiewindmomma]

We've had the same problem here in this state.  The check-in requirements became much more onerous over the past year.

It sounds like, then, they are wanting substantive contact for each student with a registered school person daily. I would want clarification from the school, in writing, of what your family specifically needs to do to meet requirements so that you have it on hand in case they go crazy and claim truancy.

I'm so sorry. It's not like you need another thing on your plate.

[wendyroo]

I'm sorry the requirements are ramping up...and in such a stupid way.

My kids are part time virtual students in a neighboring district, and last year the requirement was weekly communication with a school employee. Even that felt utterly ridiculous because it was so pointless. The employee (not one of the teachers, but someone who's sole job was keeping tabs on this communication) would send out a mass email to all the kids in the program once a week with profound questions like, "Are you excited about winter break coming up?" or "Have you learned anything interesting this week?" My kids would respond with "yes" or "no" or some other 1-2 word answer, and the employee would respond back "Great!" or something else equally vapid. That seemed to qualify as "back and forth communication"...though I don't think anything was actually communicated at all. 🤪