Shifting School Calendars, Telehealth Bill, and more
Shifting School Calendars?
A year of the pandemic has created colossal shifts in how school districts deliver public education and many lessons have been learned. Although it has been rocky, school districts now realize that distance learning has helped some students excel and has provided more opportunities to offer expanded programming for students.
In January, the Senate Education Finance and Policy Committee heard from superintendents and school board members from different areas of the state about the need for flexibility in designing learning models based on what they learned through the pandemic. This resulted in the introduction of SF1441 (Chamberlain) which proposes to provide school districts more flexibility in designing learning models to meet all learners and additional flexibility in determining the school calendar. SF1441 was heard this week in the Senate Education Finance and Policy Committee. No action was taken—but provisions of the bill could advance as the committee moves forward with their education funding package later in session.