This story was updated at 8:25 p.m.
Vermont schools will remain closed for the rest of the school year.
Gov. Phil Scott on Thursday evening ordered school districts remain shut to in-person instruction, but to continue teaching students remotely. The directive extends an order he issued earlier this month that initially closed schools through April 6 in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
The decision to close schools was “based on the best scientific evidence available” to state public health experts, and “is expected to help provide the necessary care and services to prevent and reduce the spread of COVID-19,” the order states.
The governor is requiring districts come up with plans for remote learning through the rest of the year by April 13. The Agency of Education will provide technical guidance by the end of the week on how to instruct students remotely, Scott’s office said.
“The education of our students and the bonding and learning experiences they have at schools are tremendously important, so I fully appreciate the impact and difficulty of this decision,” Scott said in a statement.
The state will also issue guidance by May 8 to schools about graduation ceremonies and other end-of-the-year gatherings.
Nearly every state in the country has closed its K-12 schools in response to the pandemic, which has claimed more than 1,000 lives in the U.S. to date and brought the economy to a screeching halt. A handful of states, including Oklahoma, Kansas, and Virginia, have already said that schools will be closed for the remainder of the year, according to a running tally kept by Education Week. More are expected to follow.
The governor’s latest order also formally relaxes a mandate issued last week that schools be required to provide child care to workers deemed “essential” to the state’s response to the epidemic. The VT-NEA had balked at the demand, asking that such services be delivered on a voluntary basis, and administration officials have in recent days issued updated guidance backing away from the mandate.
Thursday’s gubernatorial directive now says that districts are “encouraged” to provide such services, and Scott in his statement praised those schools that had created onsite emergency child care programs.
“These educators and staff who are finding ways to support these families have been critical to our COVID-19 response efforts and I am so proud and appreciative of their hard work, creative can-do attitude and their willingness to step up in this moment of service,” he said.
The VT-NEA, which represents both teachers and support staff, responded within minutes of the governor’s announcement to say they would work with local and state officials to “continue teaching and learning in a meaningful way.”
“While we are disappointed and saddened, we understand the fierce urgency of maintaining the health and safety of all our students, educators, school administrators, parents, and all Vermonters,” VT-NEA president Don Tinney said in a statement.
The governor’s order to shut down for the remainder of the year, while unprecedented, will come as little surprise to most Vermont school leaders. Since Scott’s initial order directing schools to close through April 6, administration officials had stressed a more prolonged closure was more than likely.
“I think the whole state has been working toward this likelihood for the last couple of weeks,” said Jeanné Collins, the president of the Vermont Superintendents Association. “We’re already on this.”
But pivoting to remote work raises a slew of thorny problems about how to maintain equitable learning opportunities, particularly in households and communities that lack reliable access to high-speed internet. School officials have also repeatedly raised concerns about how they will deliver special education services in a distance learning setting without running afoul of federal civil rights laws.
“We don’t have that figured out yet,” said Collins, who is the superintendent in the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union. “But we’re working on that, too.”
