Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.
But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.
I'm not employed by MCPS--I'm just a parent who reads more than you, despite your negative opinions on things you've never read. If you knew anything about virtual learning plans, you would know they are drawn up by professional paid staff, not parents.
I have written my BoE members to ask why MCPS didn't have a virtual learning plan approved by MSDE as other Maryland districts did, that would have allowed them to offer the option of virtual learning, like thousands of schools across the countries did last week.
They don't seem to think virtual is a good idea either. If you want to see it happen, you're going to need to come up with a proposal. You're obviously not going tomorrow be responsible for implementing it, or even fleshing it out, but you haven't been able to come up with anything for accommodating young kids or students with special needs. Nothing at all.
How can you be surprised we're not doing it if you can't come up with a way to do it?
Are you a new MCPS staff member? I had two children in K-2 when COVID started and I'm very familiar with how young students were accommodated. There was virtual live instruction, packets emailed or delivered. This isn't something that MCPS is unfamiliar with. This is what MCPS did for a year plus.
This is what thousands of students did last week in school districts around the country. You just sound like you don't know anything about virtual learning except that you don't like it.
Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed
Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?
If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.
BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.
Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?
Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?
McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..
Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.
That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.
You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.
You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".
Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.
And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.
We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.
You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.
That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.
You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.
I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.
We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.
So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.
But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.
I'm not sure what you're babbling about, because there are multiple people posting on this thread, yet you seem to think you're talking to a single person and know their motivations. I am happy to have makeup days. I have read that the teachers union won't allow the makeup days you're suggesting to occur (other than June 18).
I'm also not going to give MCPS a pass for not having a plan for virtual learning after they had that mess with snow days less year. Other Maryland school districts prepared one. Let MCPS start preparing now and seek public comment. It doesn't need to take months if Taylor makes it a priority, which he should because parents are pissed at how incompetently MCPS is being run.
We'll have more snow days before March is out, and MCPS shouldn't continue to act like a teenager who forgot to do their homework.
The union doesn't have to agree to make up days. They're already in the calendar.
No one has even been able to provide a plausible plan for lower elementary or special education. Putting together a plan, even hastily, would take weeks. Another month for public comment and a hearing. That puts us at the end of March. Implementing the plan would also cost money for equipment, supporting services, and compensatory services. We'd also need to make sure those supporting and compensatory services were even available. There simply isn't time.
Real make-up days are the only option for this year.
There was a lengthy thread last week about using the 2 Presidents' days holidays as makeup days, on a different thread, and people who said they were teachers had said they had already made plans to be out of town, and that there was no way they would teach and that the union would never allow it.
Fine with me if they use those make up days. I just don't think it is going to happen, because as one teacher posted "they have Broadway tickets they've paid for, and there's no way they're cancelling their day off."
And putting together a virtual learning plan is something MCPS should be doing anyway, like other school districts, starting now. You may not like virtual learning, but I suspect for weeks like this one, most parents would much rather their =kid get some instruction, than be part of an unfortunate year where MCPS sought a waiver to allow 175 days of instruction, because they couldn't be bothered to do a virtual learning plan.
They can copy paste the virtual learning plan from the ones that Baltimore or Anne Arundel submitted and change the name. It would probably be better written than most of the stuff MCPS produces.
Presidents' Day isn't a contingency day. Between that and the short turnaround time, it would be hard to use it. The union probably could kill it by demanding impact bargaining. The same isn't true of the real contingency days.
I suspect there's a big divide between high school and elementary school families when it comes to virtual. Special education, too. How are kids in child care going to participate in virtual? Neither has a chromebook. At least, not one they're able to bring home.
They can have class during child care - they had pods and other child care during covid. Or, they can make up the work at home with parents or guardians.
This is one of the many reasons virtual was terrible during covid. How do you expect virtual to work with a set 30-50 kids? How parents cover lessons with only a few waking hours left in the day and no lesson plans? How do you expect kids with special needs to learn when their needs aren't being met?
Virtual might work for some, but in-person works for all. You just don't care about everyone else.
Ok, explain to us how we're going to make up four in-person days with the remainder of the school calendar. What makeup days would you use?
Three real make-up days is far superior to virtual.
We can't do virtual this year anyway, so it's a moot point. We should modify the calendar next year to build more days in. We should also institute a policy of automatically using the next available contingency day.
If you really want to push for virtual, you should at least come up with a plan that addresses lower elementary, kids in child care, and kids with special needs.
I don't work for MCPS. I am a parent with a job that pays taxes to pay to pay MCPS salaries and for MCPS's $3bn budget. I am not coming up with a plan to address lower elementary, kids in child care and kids with special needs.
But if you really think it's beyond the capabilities of MCPS to come up with such a plan, I'm sure you can copy paste it from the ones that Anne Arundel and Baltimore submitted to the state so they could hold virtual learning last week.
Or I'm sure MCPS could use their Metro Cards and travel to Alexandria public schools and see how they've been doing it for the last three days. Or take the bus to NYC and see how NYC public schools did virtual learning for a school district 10x the size of MCPS.
There's no shortage of examples that MCPS could use. Don't ask us to do the job of paid staffers who were too lazy to submit a virtual learning plan to the State.
Their plans appear to be a repeat of the covid-era plan of "screw 'em."
If you want to push for virtual, you're going to need to come up with something better than that.
What element of the Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Alexandria, and NYC virtual learning plans appear to say "screw em"? Did you read them? Why do you conclude that virtual learning is better than no learning at all?
Please explain to me then how they accomodate the needs of those students.
Please explain to me what you find problematic of those plans, and why you think they disregard the needs of those students. Did you read them?
I don't see their full plans, but the information on their websites make no reference to accommodations for children in child care or students with special needs. That sounds like disregarding them to me.
Sounds like you're making a lot of conclusions without actually reading the plans (which fall under the jurisdiction of three different states). But you are ready to make the conclusion that these plans are out to "screw em" because you just don't like virtual learning. I hope you're not a teacher, because you seem to lack intellectual rigor.
Again, what's your plan? You haven't suggested anything at all.
I'm suggesting we copy elements of the other fine school districts that made a plan. But you said that wasn't possible because you looked at these four school districts and your conclusion was that these plans are out to screw kids (when you really didn't read them at all.)
What elements do you want to copy regarding lower elementary and students with special needs? You keep avoiding that.
You can't point to any problems with them because you have no idea what's in them. I trust the Governments of New York, Maryland and Virginia who approved the virtual learning plans for the four school districts I mention, and know they have more integrity than someone who says that a plan they haven't even read is out to screw children, including children with special needs, just because you have an agenda.
If they're so good, then why won't you say what they are? Seems weird to hide whatever good ideas they allegedly have.
They're posted online--the Internet is not a hidden information source if you're able to read and comprehend words. Here's one for Baltimore County--which includes sections on accommodations for kids with IEPs and how instruction is differentiated by age. Now that we've made it super easy to find, since you were too lazy to read one, you can explain how it is screwing kids?
https://www.scribd.com/document/669575364/MSDE-Virtual-Day-Instruction-Plan-SY2023-2024-072623#from_embed
Look at the year.
But, separate from that, look at the accommodations section. It doesn't say anything useful, and what it does say is clearly false. There are a variety of supplemental aids, supports, and services that cannot be provided virtually. AAC tools, for instance, are incredibly common supplemental aids. What are they going to do instead? What about students who require repetition and redirection from a paraeducator?
That's exactly the sort of thing that tells me their plan is "screw 'em".
As a parent you help and there are paras online to help too.
+1 First you said that the Baltimore and Anne Arundel virtual learning plans didn't contain any information about accommodations for special needs students, which shows that no one should believe anything you write since it's a required section from MSDE and you have never seen a plan in your life until the PP posted one.
Having been proved wrong about that, you say that what's written and submitted by a school district and posted online for all to see is "clearly false?" You may need to examine why you want to lie about things you clearly know nothing about.
I said their web sites don't.
And it makes sense why, given the one plan you've been able to find doesn't actually say how they'll provide supports and services. It completely ignores the broad range of supplemental aids and services that cannot be provided virtually. How do you use an AAC device when you don't have it?
No, you said you read all four school district virtual learning plans and your conclusion was that they were all about screwing kids, and when asked to explain why they were screwing kids, you said it was our job to explain to you why the plans were good. But you never had read any of them. That's pretty disturbing that you would jump to a conclusion that school districts are out to screw kids without having read a thing.
If a 7th grader reasoned the way you did, I would be disappointed, but in an adult to lie and slander based on things you haven't even read is unacceptable.
And you've been blindly assuming their plans are fine.
Are you going to post the others since you think they're such great examples?
Why bother? You said you already read them and concluded they were out to screw kids. Why don't you post them for us? Unless you were lying (again).
In other words, you don't want to provide an actual plan because you know it would get ripped to shreds.
You mean like the Baltimore plan approved by MSDE posted above for which your only criticism was--"they must be lying about providing accommodations."
They are lying. Again, explain how you use an AAC device remotely.
Please send a complaint to MSDE about these lies and let us know how they respond. Because the only proven liar we can see here is you, claiming that you even know what is in a virtual learning plan.
+1 If you're so convinced they're lying, you should spend your time right now writing a complaint to MSDE and tell them how they're wrong to have approved virtual learning plans for inclement weather for school districts because they're all lying about their plans to provide accommodations to students with special needs. Please come and post back and let us know how they respond.
Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed
Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?
If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.
BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.
Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?
Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?
McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..
Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.
That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.
You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.
You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".
Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.
And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.
We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.
You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.
That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.
You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.
I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.
We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.
So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.
But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.
Of course parents want make up days. Why wouldn't we want them? It's our kids losing out on the education we pay for with our taxes. It's the teachers who prefer to have them as additional holidays.
-Why wait til March 20? Why not February 17? I would bet there are fewer students travelling for Presidents day than for spring break.
-April 15 is a Wednesday off in the middle of the week. Most parents hate that.
-June 18 is a useless day. It's too late in the school year to offer meaningful instruction and teachers use it as an excuse to just show videos for a half day. I would much rather have a virtual learning day than that.
I don't want them made up. We have other activities planned. (and not travel, school related). Stop blaming teachers. We could have had school this past week via assignments or virtual. We had one teacher send out assignments via email so clearly it can be done. That teacher put a lot of effort into it.
here aren't a lot of choices here. You either:
1) Open schools in less than optimal weather conditions (cue the people screaming that we don't care if their child dies slipping on ice and falling into traffic.)
2) Develop a functional virtual learning plan that is contingency for bad weather weeks like this one and use it (Except that MCPS never made a virtual learrning plan that the State of Maryland required, unlike other school districts, and apparently people on this forum say it will take them months to make one up.)
3) Do make up days, recognizing that people have made plans thinking that school is out.
4) Shortchange kids of the 180 days of education required by law and apply to the state of Maryland to get a waiver to miss several days of instruction this year.
I prefer #3, and that BOE requires that MCPS develop #2 starting now, so we don't have this same conversation next year.
#1--having grown up in a colder weather state--the level of incompetence MCPS shows around weather issues astonishes me.
Anonymous wrote:Looking back at covid, closures were excessive. The virtual did long term harm. Same with this snow. Push through it. Do something. Open, virtual, say you feel the pain of the working parents. But not just send emails and another email to explain what the first meant.
The 180 days instruction is a sham so they can afford 6 7 or more snow days no problem. Look closer at the curriculum and how MCPS teaches it. Units that are scheduled for 25 days can be done in a week if home schooled. So in June no need for extra half days. Spare us the performance.
Ok MCPS staffer, we know you don’t want to have your summer vacation shortened by anyone who actually thinks that kids should get 180 days of education like every other school district in the country.
How many people are actually enthusiastic about making up these days? Seems like most parents want their kids in school but once a snow day has happened, what’s done is done. No one wants to lose planned vacation days.
Who is “no one?” I sent my kids to all 3 June half days last year and they both said 60 pct of the class was there.
That said-all they did was watch videos so I am less enthusiastic about sending them this year if teachers aren’t even going to teach.
I sent my kids too. I had no reason not to. I wasn’t pleased MCPS extended the year or anything, though.
In IEP's, every service section has a spot to say if this service could be given virtually or what would be different in a virtual setting, so there is a plan in every IEP that takes virtual changes into account.
To the poster who keeps mentioning using AAC devices remotely... while a teacher can't directly support that student there are online pages of aac screens and pathways that can be shared for instruction (even printed as worksheets/packets to guide students to find the words). Maybe the student can't do that independently, yet, but that exposure may be enough for virtual, it's certainly better than nothing.
Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed
Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?
If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.
BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.
Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?
Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?
McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..
Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.
That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.
You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.
You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".
Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.
And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.
We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.
You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.
That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.
You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.
I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.
We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.
So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.
But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.
I'm not sure what you're babbling about, because there are multiple people posting on this thread, yet you seem to think you're talking to a single person and know their motivations. I am happy to have makeup days. I have read that the teachers union won't allow the makeup days you're suggesting to occur (other than June 18).
I'm also not going to give MCPS a pass for not having a plan for virtual learning after they had that mess with snow days less year. Other Maryland school districts prepared one. Let MCPS start preparing now and seek public comment. It doesn't need to take months if Taylor makes it a priority, which he should because parents are pissed at how incompetently MCPS is being run.
We'll have more snow days before March is out, and MCPS shouldn't continue to act like a teenager who forgot to do their homework.
The union doesn't have to agree to make up days. They're already in the calendar.
No one has even been able to provide a plausible plan for lower elementary or special education. Putting together a plan, even hastily, would take weeks. Another month for public comment and a hearing. That puts us at the end of March. Implementing the plan would also cost money for equipment, supporting services, and compensatory services. We'd also need to make sure those supporting and compensatory services were even available. There simply isn't time.
Real make-up days are the only option for this year.
There was a lengthy thread last week about using the 2 Presidents' days holidays as makeup days, on a different thread, and people who said they were teachers had said they had already made plans to be out of town, and that there was no way they would teach and that the union would never allow it.
Fine with me if they use those make up days. I just don't think it is going to happen, because as one teacher posted "they have Broadway tickets they've paid for, and there's no way they're cancelling their day off."
And putting together a virtual learning plan is something MCPS should be doing anyway, like other school districts, starting now. You may not like virtual learning, but I suspect for weeks like this one, most parents would much rather their =kid get some instruction, than be part of an unfortunate year where MCPS sought a waiver to allow 175 days of instruction, because they couldn't be bothered to do a virtual learning plan.
They can copy paste the virtual learning plan from the ones that Baltimore or Anne Arundel submitted and change the name. It would probably be better written than most of the stuff MCPS produces.
Presidents' Day isn't a contingency day. Between that and the short turnaround time, it would be hard to use it. The union probably could kill it by demanding impact bargaining. The same isn't true of the real contingency days.
I suspect there's a big divide between high school and elementary school families when it comes to virtual. Special education, too. How are kids in child care going to participate in virtual? Neither has a chromebook. At least, not one they're able to bring home.
They can have class during child care - they had pods and other child care during covid. Or, they can make up the work at home with parents or guardians.
This is one of the many reasons virtual was terrible during covid. How do you expect virtual to work with a set 30-50 kids? How parents cover lessons with only a few waking hours left in the day and no lesson plans? How do you expect kids with special needs to learn when their needs aren't being met?
Virtual might work for some, but in-person works for all. You just don't care about everyone else.
Ok, explain to us how we're going to make up four in-person days with the remainder of the school calendar. What makeup days would you use?
Three real make-up days is far superior to virtual.
We can't do virtual this year anyway, so it's a moot point. We should modify the calendar next year to build more days in. We should also institute a policy of automatically using the next available contingency day.
If you really want to push for virtual, you should at least come up with a plan that addresses lower elementary, kids in child care, and kids with special needs.
I don't work for MCPS. I am a parent with a job that pays taxes to pay to pay MCPS salaries and for MCPS's $3bn budget. I am not coming up with a plan to address lower elementary, kids in child care and kids with special needs.
But if you really think it's beyond the capabilities of MCPS to come up with such a plan, I'm sure you can copy paste it from the ones that Anne Arundel and Baltimore submitted to the state so they could hold virtual learning last week.
Or I'm sure MCPS could use their Metro Cards and travel to Alexandria public schools and see how they've been doing it for the last three days. Or take the bus to NYC and see how NYC public schools did virtual learning for a school district 10x the size of MCPS.
There's no shortage of examples that MCPS could use. Don't ask us to do the job of paid staffers who were too lazy to submit a virtual learning plan to the State.
+1 You say that "only in-person works for all." But that you don't want those in-person days to be the 180 required by law, because you can't find any makeup days to suggest and you'd rather kids just do nothing at all.
And you want people on this forum to make the MCPS plan for Virtual Learning during Weather events even though MCPS has a massive central office?
We have make up days in the calendar. We just need to use them.
You're the one pushing for virtual. If you think it's such a good idea, then explain how it would work for young kids and students with special needs. Otherwise, why do you think it's such a good idea?
Sure go ahead and tell us which 4 days you would use. Because all I'm seeing is people here saying we should suck it up and lose a few days of required instruction time, because MCPS can't figure it out.
March 20, April 15, and June 18.
I hope you don't teach math, because those are only 3 days. We need to make up 4.
We can request a waiver after 3. If not, my preference would be to use President's Day.
Yeah, that's unlikely to happen. So then what? Just have kids lose a day of instruction? And what happens if it snows in February or March? Lose more days?
What's unlikely to happen? MSDE has granted waivers. MCPS needs to make a good faith effort. Full days on those contingency days would do that.
As discussed, virtual is a moot point anyway, so anyone who cares about education should want to see those contingency days used.
Why does a good faith effort require full days on the contingency days, rather than short days? MCPS already well exceeds required minutes.
Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed
Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?
If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.
BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.
Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?
Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?
McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..
Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.
That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.
You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.
You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".
Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.
And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.
We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.
You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.
That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.
You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.
I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.
We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.
So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.
But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.
I'm not sure what you're babbling about, because there are multiple people posting on this thread, yet you seem to think you're talking to a single person and know their motivations. I am happy to have makeup days. I have read that the teachers union won't allow the makeup days you're suggesting to occur (other than June 18).
I'm also not going to give MCPS a pass for not having a plan for virtual learning after they had that mess with snow days less year. Other Maryland school districts prepared one. Let MCPS start preparing now and seek public comment. It doesn't need to take months if Taylor makes it a priority, which he should because parents are pissed at how incompetently MCPS is being run.
We'll have more snow days before March is out, and MCPS shouldn't continue to act like a teenager who forgot to do their homework.
The union doesn't have to agree to make up days. They're already in the calendar.
No one has even been able to provide a plausible plan for lower elementary or special education. Putting together a plan, even hastily, would take weeks. Another month for public comment and a hearing. That puts us at the end of March. Implementing the plan would also cost money for equipment, supporting services, and compensatory services. We'd also need to make sure those supporting and compensatory services were even available. There simply isn't time.
Real make-up days are the only option for this year.
There was a lengthy thread last week about using the 2 Presidents' days holidays as makeup days, on a different thread, and people who said they were teachers had said they had already made plans to be out of town, and that there was no way they would teach and that the union would never allow it.
Fine with me if they use those make up days. I just don't think it is going to happen, because as one teacher posted "they have Broadway tickets they've paid for, and there's no way they're cancelling their day off."
And putting together a virtual learning plan is something MCPS should be doing anyway, like other school districts, starting now. You may not like virtual learning, but I suspect for weeks like this one, most parents would much rather their =kid get some instruction, than be part of an unfortunate year where MCPS sought a waiver to allow 175 days of instruction, because they couldn't be bothered to do a virtual learning plan.
They can copy paste the virtual learning plan from the ones that Baltimore or Anne Arundel submitted and change the name. It would probably be better written than most of the stuff MCPS produces.
Presidents' Day isn't a contingency day. Between that and the short turnaround time, it would be hard to use it. The union probably could kill it by demanding impact bargaining. The same isn't true of the real contingency days.
I suspect there's a big divide between high school and elementary school families when it comes to virtual. Special education, too. How are kids in child care going to participate in virtual? Neither has a chromebook. At least, not one they're able to bring home.
They can have class during child care - they had pods and other child care during covid. Or, they can make up the work at home with parents or guardians.
This is one of the many reasons virtual was terrible during covid. How do you expect virtual to work with a set 30-50 kids? How parents cover lessons with only a few waking hours left in the day and no lesson plans? How do you expect kids with special needs to learn when their needs aren't being met?
Virtual might work for some, but in-person works for all. You just don't care about everyone else.
Ok, explain to us how we're going to make up four in-person days with the remainder of the school calendar. What makeup days would you use?
Three real make-up days is far superior to virtual.
We can't do virtual this year anyway, so it's a moot point. We should modify the calendar next year to build more days in. We should also institute a policy of automatically using the next available contingency day.
If you really want to push for virtual, you should at least come up with a plan that addresses lower elementary, kids in child care, and kids with special needs.
I don't work for MCPS. I am a parent with a job that pays taxes to pay to pay MCPS salaries and for MCPS's $3bn budget. I am not coming up with a plan to address lower elementary, kids in child care and kids with special needs.
But if you really think it's beyond the capabilities of MCPS to come up with such a plan, I'm sure you can copy paste it from the ones that Anne Arundel and Baltimore submitted to the state so they could hold virtual learning last week.
Or I'm sure MCPS could use their Metro Cards and travel to Alexandria public schools and see how they've been doing it for the last three days. Or take the bus to NYC and see how NYC public schools did virtual learning for a school district 10x the size of MCPS.
There's no shortage of examples that MCPS could use. Don't ask us to do the job of paid staffers who were too lazy to submit a virtual learning plan to the State.
Their plans appear to be a repeat of the covid-era plan of "screw 'em."
If you want to push for virtual, you're going to need to come up with something better than that.
What element of the Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Alexandria, and NYC virtual learning plans appear to say "screw em"? Did you read them? Why do you conclude that virtual learning is better than no learning at all?
Please explain to me then how they accomodate the needs of those students.
Please explain to me what you find problematic of those plans, and why you think they disregard the needs of those students. Did you read them?
I don't see their full plans, but the information on their websites make no reference to accommodations for children in child care or students with special needs. That sounds like disregarding them to me.
Sounds like you're making a lot of conclusions without actually reading the plans (which fall under the jurisdiction of three different states). But you are ready to make the conclusion that these plans are out to "screw em" because you just don't like virtual learning. I hope you're not a teacher, because you seem to lack intellectual rigor.
Again, what's your plan? You haven't suggested anything at all.
I'm suggesting we copy elements of the other fine school districts that made a plan. But you said that wasn't possible because you looked at these four school districts and your conclusion was that these plans are out to screw kids (when you really didn't read them at all.)
What elements do you want to copy regarding lower elementary and students with special needs? You keep avoiding that.
You can't point to any problems with them because you have no idea what's in them. I trust the Governments of New York, Maryland and Virginia who approved the virtual learning plans for the four school districts I mention, and know they have more integrity than someone who says that a plan they haven't even read is out to screw children, including children with special needs, just because you have an agenda.
If they're so good, then why won't you say what they are? Seems weird to hide whatever good ideas they allegedly have.
They're posted online--the Internet is not a hidden information source if you're able to read and comprehend words. Here's one for Baltimore County--which includes sections on accommodations for kids with IEPs and how instruction is differentiated by age. Now that we've made it super easy to find, since you were too lazy to read one, you can explain how it is screwing kids?
https://www.scribd.com/document/669575364/MSDE-Virtual-Day-Instruction-Plan-SY2023-2024-072623#from_embed
Look at the year.
But, separate from that, look at the accommodations section. It doesn't say anything useful, and what it does say is clearly false. There are a variety of supplemental aids, supports, and services that cannot be provided virtually. AAC tools, for instance, are incredibly common supplemental aids. What are they going to do instead? What about students who require repetition and redirection from a paraeducator?
That's exactly the sort of thing that tells me their plan is "screw 'em".
As a parent you help and there are paras online to help too.
+1 First you said that the Baltimore and Anne Arundel virtual learning plans didn't contain any information about accommodations for special needs students, which shows that no one should believe anything you write since it's a required section from MSDE and you have never seen a plan in your life until the PP posted one.
Having been proved wrong about that, you say that what's written and submitted by a school district and posted online for all to see is "clearly false?" You may need to examine why you want to lie about things you clearly know nothing about.
I said their web sites don't.
And it makes sense why, given the one plan you've been able to find doesn't actually say how they'll provide supports and services. It completely ignores the broad range of supplemental aids and services that cannot be provided virtually. How do you use an AAC device when you don't have it?
No, you said you read all four school district virtual learning plans and your conclusion was that they were all about screwing kids, and when asked to explain why they were screwing kids, you said it was our job to explain to you why the plans were good. But you never had read any of them. That's pretty disturbing that you would jump to a conclusion that school districts are out to screw kids without having read a thing.
If a 7th grader reasoned the way you did, I would be disappointed, but in an adult to lie and slander based on things you haven't even read is unacceptable.
And you've been blindly assuming their plans are fine.
Are you going to post the others since you think they're such great examples?
Why bother? You said you already read them and concluded they were out to screw kids. Why don't you post them for us? Unless you were lying (again).
In other words, you don't want to provide an actual plan because you know it would get ripped to shreds.
You mean like the Baltimore plan approved by MSDE posted above for which your only criticism was--"they must be lying about providing accommodations."
They are lying. Again, explain how you use an AAC device remotely.
Please send a complaint to MSDE about these lies and let us know how they respond. Because the only proven liar we can see here is you, claiming that you even know what is in a virtual learning plan.
Just answer the question. How do you use an AAC device remotely?
Do you even know what they are?
I know that less than 1% of MCPS students use them. Is your argument is that because 100% of supports available in a school setting to non-verbal children can't be provided remotely, that NONE of the 100K+ MCPS students should have any virtual education?
These virtual learning policies are imperfect tools during temporary weather events. But you'd rather that no instruction occur at all in the name of "equity" and that days be added in June when it's too late to provide instruction.
DP. This is likely correct. Why not extend the school year or make other arrangements for that 1% instead of 100%?
Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.
But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.
I'm not employed by MCPS--I'm just a parent who reads more than you, despite your negative opinions on things you've never read. If you knew anything about virtual learning plans, you would know they are drawn up by professional paid staff, not parents.
I have written my BoE members to ask why MCPS didn't have a virtual learning plan approved by MSDE as other Maryland districts did, that would have allowed them to offer the option of virtual learning, like thousands of schools across the countries did last week.
They don't seem to think virtual is a good idea either. If you want to see it happen, you're going to need to come up with a proposal. You're obviously not going tomorrow be responsible for implementing it, or even fleshing it out, but you haven't been able to come up with anything for accommodating young kids or students with special needs. Nothing at all.
How can you be surprised we're not doing it if you can't come up with a way to do it?
Are you a new MCPS staff member? I had two children in K-2 when COVID started and I'm very familiar with how young students were accommodated. There was virtual live instruction, packets emailed or delivered. This isn't something that MCPS is unfamiliar with. This is what MCPS did for a year plus.
This is what thousands of students did last week in school districts around the country. You just sound like you don't know anything about virtual learning except that you don't like it.
They did it for for years. A year for Covid, and a three year voluntary program.
Anonymous wrote:Typical MoCo parents trying to pretend kids with special needs don't exist. I know you long for the days when they were segregated into self-contained classrooms. Except now you won't even pay for those!
We don’t have a say in no one is saying sn don’t exist but virtual or even assignments lare to can do with their kids is better than no education at all. Stop using other kids as rage and talking points.
Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.
But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.
Virtual worked much better for my SN kid. It also gave us extra time for tutoring and therapies. Every child is different. Given the low in person test scores, clearly in person isn’t working too for many kids.
Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.
But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.
Virtual worked much better for my SN kid. It also gave us extra time for tutoring and therapies. Every child is different. Given the low in person test scores, clearly in person isn’t working too for many kids.
As bad as in person is, virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids
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