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The Daily Signal
We’re All Homeschoolers Now
Lindsey Burke
March 16, 2020
In the fight against coronavirus, 33 states have closed some 64,000
schools, affecting more than 32.5 million students, Education Week
reports.
Texas is waiving state testing requirements for school districts, New
York is relaxing state requirements for how many days a year schools
have to be open, and, in California, the Los Angeles Unified School
District announced a partnership with PBS to put school lessons on
television for students at home.
The District of Columbia and Puerto Rico also have closed schools to
help curb the spread of the new coronavirus disease, which health
experts call COVID-19.
Like other institutions, schools should implement social-distancing
policies. Keeping that policy in mind while trying to help needy
students, some schools—including those in Ohio, Michigan, and New
York—have begun providing pick-up breakfasts and lunches at designated
places for eligible students.
A rapidly flourishing market of online resources is beginning to meet
the content needs of millions of students across the country.
Numerous companies such as Zearn and STMath are providing their materials online for free during the coronavirus outbreak. Existing options such as Khan Academy
offer a wealth of educational resources for families navigating
homeschooling for perhaps the first time. Prenda microschool is
offering its coursework to families for just $100 for the remainder of
the year.
Here is a fantastic list of online learning resources that every family should bookmark on their computers during this pandemic.
National School Choice Week
has online resources categorized by content area. You can find online
tools such as communications platforms, math, social studies, English
language arts, and foreign language education.
Be sure to check out “Daddy School” while you’re at it.
Also available are virtual visits to museums,
including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the
Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and 2,500 other museums that have
partnered with Google to make their art and virtual tours available
online.
When you have a chance, check out some 450 online courses available for free from Ivy League universities.
Many of these online learning providers have been doing this for a long
time, and traditional school districts should look to either imitate
them or work with them—so that districts don’t try to create something
from scratch and then realize it doesn’t work.
The list of online resources for families and teachers is growing as
social distancing becomes the necessary, new normal. But policy actions
by officials in school districts and state governments, as well as at
the federal level, can maximize health and safety and provide learning
opportunities for students.
District and State Level Policies
States and school districts should put online learning resources on
their websites. They could include links such as those above to
existing private resources and tools, along with links to virtual
platforms (such as Blackboard) enabling families to contact teachers
directly, access lessons, and stay in touch virtually with classmates.
State restrictions on teacher certification should be lifted
temporarily to free up the supply of online tutors, allowing anyone
with a bachelor’s degree to provide instruction online.
States should restructure per-pupil K-12 education funding in the form
of emergency or temporary education savings accounts for families of
children with special needs, so that they may continue to receive the
therapy they need. Five states currently have ESA options in place.
(Parents receive a portion of their child’s per-pupil public school
funding in a restricted-use account that they then can use to pay for
any education-related service, product, or provider of choice.)
Federal Policies
At the federal level, Congress should immediately but temporarily make
funding authorized under the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act both student-centered and portable, allowing children with special
needs to access learning services to which they’re entitled under
federal law. These IDEA funds could be used to pay for in-home tutors
and behavioral therapies, among numerous other allowable uses, to help
children with special needs continue to have access to service
providers that are so critical in their lives.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act requires every state to
administer reading, mathematics, and science assessments annually to
all students in tested grades, the outcomes of which are used in state
accountability plans. Although the U.S. Department of Education
currently is providing targeted waivers to federal testing provisions
under ESEA, it temporarily should provide a blanket waiver to all
states, enabling them to postpone testing until this pandemic has
subsided.
The coronavirus pandemic has created unprecedented health challenges,
which have affected schools from the earliest grades through college.
These temporary measures can provide some relief and flexibility,
helping schools to better meet the needs of families during this
challenging time.
And the growing body of online learning resources can help parents as they navigate this new normal.
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