New legislation could give Tennessee schools 10 days for virtual learning each year

A new bill filed by two Republican lawmakers this week could give schools the option to offer virtual or remote instruction in the event of extreme weather or serious outbreaks of illness.

The bill, HB 1912, filed by Rep. Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, and sponsored in the Senate Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown, would grant districts up to 10 days of remote instruction to use toward the 180 days required per school year.

Districts could require individual classes, schools or all schools in the district to "to utilize remote instruction in the event of dangerous or extreme weather conditions or of serious outbreaks of illness affecting or endangering students or staff," the bill reads.

The effort to grant school districts some flexibility when it comes to in-person versus remote instruction comes as other Republican lawmakers attempt to do the opposite.

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The Senate Education Committee advanced a bill last week that would make students eligible for education savings accounts, a type of school voucher, if their zoned public school did not offer 180 days of in-person instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Faison said the bill did not originate with the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he has witnessed school districts in rural Tennessee having to shut down the entire district because of snow and icy roads affecting one or two schools or even a water main break at one school.

Now that many districts have invested federal coronavirus relief funds in buying student laptops and other technology, Faison said he believes districts can offer quality remote instruction to keep students learning.

"This is a great piece of legislation," Faison said. "This is giving your superintendent the ability to suspend school for a day or for a group of classrooms and puts in back in local control."

Though he emphasized the bill was not meant to address closures due to COVID-19 specifically, Faison did say he intentionally did not limit the use of remote days to inclement weather.

Calls for school to remain in-person

Republican lawmakers have continually called for schools to stay open throughout the pandemic.

During the first full school year of the pandemic, much of the attention was aimed at Metro Nashville Public Schools and Shelby County schools for keeping students at home, learning remotely for much of the year.

But Bell's proposed legislation came this winter as dozens of school districts across the state shutter due to severe staffing shortages in the wake of surging cases of the omicron variant.

Gov. Bill Lee's administration has maintained since last fall that entire districts could not pivot to virtual or remote learning. But Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn enacted a waiver process in August that would allow individual classrooms or schools to temporarily pivot to remote learning.

The state has received more than 120 requests for virtual learning, the majority of which have come since Jan. 1 this year. Nearly off all the districts seeking waivers to take school virtual have been in suburban and rural counties.

Just last week, the state education department gave seven districts permission to pivot all their schools to remote learning. Department officials say there was no policy shift since there is no limit to the number of schools districts can seek permission to take virtual. Officials and lawmakers alike have long maintained that schools need to stay open.

Most Tennessee school districts already have up to 13 stockpile days built into their calendars in case of inclement weather or other needed school closures. But on days when schools close and use a stockpile day, students are not receiving instruction.

Many districts have used several days so far this January thanks to several winter weather storms and ongoing staff shortages. Once districts run out of stockpile days, school leaders have to consider adding time to the school day or additional days at the end of the school year.

Neighboring states have similar plans

Some neighboring states already offer variations of Faison's proposal.

For years, Kentucky school districts have allocated 10 nontraditional instruction days a year that can be used to close entire districts in the case of events such as catastrophic weather, illness or staffing shortages.

But earlier this month Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear signed a bill that grants schools 10 additional remote learning days that they can use to close individual schools or send certain grades of students home to learn remotely.

The Mississippi State Board of Education voted last Thursday to allow school districts to pivot to hybrid instructional models which include scheduling a portion of students to learn online and reducing the number of students at school in person.

Reporters Olivia Krauth and Keisha Rowe contributed to this report.

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Meghan Mangrum covers education for the USA TODAY Network — Tennessee. Contact her at mmangrum@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: New Tennessee bill to give schools 10 days for virtual learning a year