Snow days once kept kids home from school, but with modern technology they can keep kids in school at home.
Remote learning days are a pandemic-era innovation that can allow students to retain some learning progress even in unusual situations while preventing school systems from having to use all their vacation days to account for the weather early in the year. Instead of missing school outright, students stay at home to attend virtual classes and complete exercises designed by teachers which include paper packets and online lessons.
For each school year, N.C. schools are allowed to use up to five days of remote instruction or 30 remote instruction hours can be counted toward the 185 days or 1,025 hours schools are required to teach students, as per General Statute 115C-84.3. Virtual courses and some e-learning courses do not count toward that total. Under certain circumstances a county can receive a “good cause” waiver to bump the total number of days up to 15.
The stated goal of the statute is to ensure school systems have additional options for keeping schools open in the event of power failure, severe weather conditions or emergencies. Macon County Schools Superintendent Josh Lynch said remote learning prioritizes review and practice of skills over new instruction, adding the days are reserved for special circumstances.
Most recently, Monday’s surprise snowfall forced most Macon County Schools to use a remote learning day and Nantahala School to close outright. The freezing weather at the beginning of February combined with lingering snowfall from Jan. 31 caused the county school district to use an additional two of its five remote days for the year. A few more instructional hours were lost to delays in late January and early February. To date, Franklin and Highlands have both used three remote days and Nantahala has used six, according to public information officer Renee Burt.
“When used intentionally, remote learning days can help maintain instructional continuity while prioritizing student and staff safety,” Lynch said. “At the same time, we recognize they come with unique challenges, including varying levels of student access, engagement and the developmental needs of our learners. Teacher feedback is a critical part of how we evaluate the effectiveness of these days, and those perspectives help guide our decisions on when remote learning is appropriate versus when a traditional cancellation is the better option.”
In spite of the drawbacks, some school districts are requesting more learning days to use in the event of storms or special conditions. According to reporting from WXII12, a handful of Piedmont Triad school districts signed onto a letter from Guilford County Schools Superintendent Whitney Oakley requesting an expansion past the initially allotted five days. Forsyth, Davidson, Davie, Stokes, Yadkin and Rockingham school districts also voiced support for the request.
According to the letter, expanding the number of remote learning days would give systems “flexibility during severe winter weather conditions” after “multiple Piedmont districts have exhausted allocated remote learning days due to early December weather” and recent icy conditions. It said the expansion could also make systems better able to plan in the long term.
Lynch said, “We remain thoughtful and measured in our use of remote learning days and view them as a tool, not a replacement, for in person instruction. Any consideration of additional flexibility at the state level would need to balance instructional quality, local capacity, and the realities faced by families, educators, and our entire support team.”