Many North Carolina school districts had to cancel in-person classes for two weeks due to back-to-back winter storms.
Districts are limited to five remote learning days by state law, but most exhausted them before plows could clear students’ snow-covered roads.
For this edition of Carolina Curious, WFDD’s Education Reporter Amy Diaz set out to learn more about the origin of remote instruction limits and when exceptions are made.
In 2021, just over a year after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, state legislators began working on a bill that added parameters to remote instruction.
It laid out how districts can use this type of learning for things outside of a pandemic, too. Rep. Jeffrey Elmore explained this to his colleagues in the House.
“We found that in this year with COVID, a remote day can be used as a tool, but it's not necessarily a solution," Elmore said. "So what we're creating here is the ability for a school system to use these remote instruction days for bad weather days, if there's flooding, if there is a snow.”
The legislation allows districts to use up to five remote days for things like that, which count toward their overall required instruction hours. It also provides exceptions for districts that needed to close for eight days due to weather during any four of the last 10 years.
Most of the districts that currently qualify are located in the Northwestern part of the state, including Ashe, Avery and Watauga counties. They’re allowed 15 remote instruction days.
Everyone else has to find other ways to make up for lost time — and the solutions are not always popular.
The Davidson County Board of Education voted last week to extend the school day by 30 minutes. If bad weather persists, they might need to cut into Spring Break or Saturdays.
“We hear you, we understand, we're equally as frustrated. We would like some calendar flexibility," said Board Chair Nick Jarvis, addressing the public during the meeting.
The district and several others are advocating to the General Assembly for more remote learning days.
State education officials say the legislature does have the ability to provide them in extenuating circumstances. But no changes have been made yet.