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In-person Cohort Attendance
Published on Jan 21, 2021 21:00
Good evening Parents, Caregivers, and Families,
One of the many challenges of educating students in both remote and in-person cohorts is providing adequate planning, materials, and resources to both groups. This issue is exacerbated when students who are expected to be in school in-person are instead learning remotely. There are many legitimate reasons why this is occurring (e.g. students required to quarantine, students who are experiencing symptoms or may have been exposed to COVID-19, students who are ill unrelated to COVID-19). We sincerely appreciate families erring on the side of caution when it comes to students experiencing symptoms --we want to do the best we can to mitigate the spread of the virus in our schools. However, there have been other times when a student may temporarily switch from hybrid to remote for reasons that appear to be more for convenience or non-health related. For example, schools are reporting that some students who are supposed to be learning in-person are deciding to sleep in and do their classes remotely. There have been other instances where students have temporarily switched from hybrid to remote for a period of time due to a family vacation. While we certainly appreciate the fact that students can continue the learning process when they are not in the building, temporarily moving from hybrid to remote for non-essential reasons creates difficulties for both students and teachers.
When a cohort is scheduled to be in-person, teachers have planned learning activities, assignments, and assessments with the expectation of in-person attendance. Students who are expected to be in-person but instead are virtual may be missing specific instruction, materials, and experiences that may not be part of the remote instruction for that day or period. In most cases, teachers plan lessons and activities specifically designed for the in-person cohort. Students who were expected to be in-person but were not physically present may miss out on important material and/or have to do make up work. This situation also creates a challenge for teachers and staff who may have to alter their lesson plans or activities when expected students do not attend in-person. Students may also have to spend additional time getting back on track with the rest of the cohort.
Again, we understand that at some times students will be absent from school. The fact that those who are absent may access learning remotely is certainly a positive but it is important that students and families remember that any absence from expected in-person learning should be the result of significant circumstances.
Cooperation between families and the schools has been outstanding this year and has helped keep our schools running even during spikes in the virus. Our school nurses and school offices report that communication with regard to illness, quarantining, COVID-19 testing, and other attendance and health matters has been excellent. Thank you so very much for your proactive communication. We certainly do not want families to send their students to school if they are not well or there is a health concern. However, we ask that students who are able to attend in-person attend along with their cohort consistently.
Sincerely,
Bob Mullaney
Superintendent
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