Will DCPS ignore snow days again in June?

[Anonymous]

Last year DCPS just unilaterally decided to ignore the make-up snow days in June. We finished the year with less than 180 days of school.

Will they do that again this year? I found the whole process last year to be very weird, given that they ignored the law and agreement with the union.

[Anonymous]

I went back to look at how this went down last year, and it seems like they found some technical way to claim that they fulfilled the 180 day requirement despite two snow days. But there was never a formal announcement explaining the decision; the only thing i can find is a Twitter post in late April reiterating that the last day of school was still June 17.

I assume something similar will happen this year, assuming no additional snow days. Otherwise, presumably the last day of school will move to Friday, 6/20, with the teacher records day moving to Monday, 6/23.

[Anonymous]

this is a really serious issue that no one pays attention to. our charter school doesnt come anywhere close to 180 days and no one cares. parents aren't paying attention and osse lets schools ignore the law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is a really serious issue that no one pays attention to. our charter school doesnt come anywhere close to 180 days and no one cares. parents aren't paying attention and osse lets schools ignore the law.

They are just waiting until someone sues. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet by a family with a special needs child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went back to look at how this went down last year, and it seems like they found some technical way to claim that they fulfilled the 180 day requirement despite two snow days. But there was never a formal announcement explaining the decision; the only thing i can find is a Twitter post in late April reiterating that the last day of school was still June 17.

I assume something similar will happen this year, assuming no additional snow days. Otherwise, presumably the last day of school will move to Friday, 6/20, with the teacher records day moving to Monday, 6/23.

Can you post or link to this text? I'd love to read the tortured reasoning devised by the GC of OSSE.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, this annoyed me last year as well and I would love more focus on the ways that both DCPS and the charters skirt the school day requirements all the time.

It was frustrating that the dialogue around last year's snow days was something like "well no learning will happen those days anyway so why bother." That's a ridiculous attitude! Why isn't learning happening in school as we near the summer break? What are we even doing here.

It just feels like no one cares. And then we talk about equity issues and test scores and it's like "well how will we ever help our poor and black students close this gap?" Uh, well what if we started by actually following the law on in-person schooling and then tried to ensure kid actually learned? Groundbreaking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went back to look at how this went down last year, and it seems like they found some technical way to claim that they fulfilled the 180 day requirement despite two snow days. But there was never a formal announcement explaining the decision; the only thing i can find is a Twitter post in late April reiterating that the last day of school was still June 17.

I assume something similar will happen this year, assuming no additional snow days. Otherwise, presumably the last day of school will move to Friday, 6/20, with the teacher records day moving to Monday, 6/23.

I also feel like they took for-freaking-ever to decide last year. I honestly don’t feel strongly about two days either way. But it does change camp/childcare planning.

[Anonymous]

OSSE has extremely lax rules about what counts as a school day. It allows schools to claim they are in session for 180 days when any normal person tallying up the days would not come anywhere close to 180 days. It's really scandalous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is a really serious issue that no one pays attention to. our charter school doesnt come anywhere close to 180 days and no one cares. parents aren't paying attention and osse lets schools ignore the law.

They are just waiting until someone sues. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet by a family with a special needs child.

I dont think parents realize their schools are doing it. They just assume the school is following the rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is a really serious issue that no one pays attention to. our charter school doesnt come anywhere close to 180 days and no one cares. parents aren't paying attention and osse lets schools ignore the law.

They are just waiting until someone sues. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet by a family with a special needs child.

I dont think parents realize their schools are doing it. They just assume the school is following the rules.

It's not just schools are not making up snow days. Many of them are adding many, many (worthless) "professional development" days too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went back to look at how this went down last year, and it seems like they found some technical way to claim that they fulfilled the 180 day requirement despite two snow days. But there was never a formal announcement explaining the decision; the only thing i can find is a Twitter post in late April reiterating that the last day of school was still June 17.

I assume something similar will happen this year, assuming no additional snow days. Otherwise, presumably the last day of school will move to Friday, 6/20, with the teacher records day moving to Monday, 6/23.

Our charter school had “asynchronous learning” days during spring break last year. This year they proactively added them in November. The kids did worksheets. No one learned anything.

It didn’t bother me because our kids are in lower elementary, and I wouldn’t have sent them for days added at the end of the year anyway because we scheduled summer travel for the day after the last day of school. But as they get older loss of instructional time is going to be a bigger issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is a really serious issue that no one pays attention to. our charter school doesnt come anywhere close to 180 days and no one cares. parents aren't paying attention and osse lets schools ignore the law.

They are just waiting until someone sues. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet by a family with a special needs child.

I dont think parents realize their schools are doing it. They just assume the school is following the rules.

This but there is also a contingent of parents who don't care and actually are happy when there is less school.

This group is larger when there is a debate over something like adding days to the school year for snow days. I remember tons of parents last year lobbying against the snow days because they had vacation plans right after school got out or "whatever it's not like kids learn anything the last week" or just not wanting to deal with school commutes for a couple more days. It's remarkable how many people just don't value education at all and view school as little more than a babysitting service or an annoying obligation. Depressing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is a really serious issue that no one pays attention to. our charter school doesnt come anywhere close to 180 days and no one cares. parents aren't paying attention and osse lets schools ignore the law.

They are just waiting until someone sues. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet by a family with a special needs child.

I dont think parents realize their schools are doing it. They just assume the school is following the rules.

This but there is also a contingent of parents who don't care and actually are happy when there is less school.

This group is larger when there is a debate over something like adding days to the school year for snow days. I remember tons of parents last year lobbying against the snow days because they had vacation plans right after school got out or "whatever it's not like kids learn anything the last week" or just not wanting to deal with school commutes for a couple more days. It's remarkable how many people just don't value education at all and view school as little more than a babysitting service or an annoying obligation. Depressing.

They could easily add days to the school year *before* June. Teachers could postpone their PD days in June or god forbid schools don't take two weeks off at Xmas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went back to look at how this went down last year, and it seems like they found some technical way to claim that they fulfilled the 180 day requirement despite two snow days. But there was never a formal announcement explaining the decision; the only thing i can find is a Twitter post in late April reiterating that the last day of school was still June 17.

I assume something similar will happen this year, assuming no additional snow days. Otherwise, presumably the last day of school will move to Friday, 6/20, with the teacher records day moving to Monday, 6/23.

Our charter school had “asynchronous learning” days during spring break last year. This year they proactively added them in November. The kids did worksheets. No one learned anything.

It didn’t bother me because our kids are in lower elementary, and I wouldn’t have sent them for days added at the end of the year anyway because we scheduled summer travel for the day after the last day of school. But as they get older loss of instructional time is going to be a bigger issue.

Charters are really abusing the rules, much more than DCPS. Some of them are not even in the ballpark of 180 days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is a really serious issue that no one pays attention to. our charter school doesnt come anywhere close to 180 days and no one cares. parents aren't paying attention and osse lets schools ignore the law.

They are just waiting until someone sues. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet by a family with a special needs child.

I dont think parents realize their schools are doing it. They just assume the school is following the rules.

This but there is also a contingent of parents who don't care and actually are happy when there is less school.

This group is larger when there is a debate over something like adding days to the school year for snow days. I remember tons of parents last year lobbying against the snow days because they had vacation plans right after school got out or "whatever it's not like kids learn anything the last week" or just not wanting to deal with school commutes for a couple more days. It's remarkable how many people just don't value education at all and view school as little more than a babysitting service or an annoying obligation. Depressing.

They could easily add days to the school year *before* June. Teachers could postpone their PD days in June or god forbid schools don't take two weeks off at Xmas.

LOL. Aww, you’re precious.