What parents, students need to know after Kentucky lawmakers’ school COVID decisions

The Kentucky General Assembly was asked to provide schools COVID relief as districts confront staffing shortages and increases in COVID cases and quarantines. What did lawmakers do and what does that mean for parents and students?

Masks

School districts and school boards have to decide individually if they want to require students, teachers and staff to wear masks. A statewide school mask mandate will expire in a few days.

Virtual instruction & district shutdowns

Twenty temporary remote instruction days were added to allow specific classes, grades, buildings or an entire school to shut down — with student learning at home — to deal with COVID cases or quarantines through Dec. 31.

But school districts didn’t get any extra learn-at-home, virtual instruction days for the entire district. A whole district still cannot use at-home learning more than 10 times.

Keeping COVID-exposed students in classrooms

Kentucky’s local health departments are required to help create test-to-stay programs for school districts. A student exposed to COVID-19 can be rapid-tested for the virus each morning before class instead of quarantining. Fayette County Schools is piloting a program but officials in some rural districts are skeptical the idea can be implemented across the state.

Using retired teachers in schools

Some teachers can go back to the classroom in as little as 30 days after retiring and retirees can make up as much as 10 percent of a district’s teacher roster. Substitute shortages have contributed to school district closings.

No help for schools needing bus drivers

Some superintendents wanted lawmakers to reconsider requiring bus driver applicants to have a high school diploma or GED. That didn’t fly.

Avoid loss of state money

Schools are given state money depending on how many students attend schools on average and some districts feared COVID cancellations would affect their bottom lines.

School districts can waive a requirement of 170 instructional days in favor of 1,062 instructional hours. That will let schools adjust start and end times to help make up for days lost to COVID.

This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 10:29 AM.