With the governor’s order closing schools in the state through the end of the academic year, many districts have been struggling to figure out how to provide instruction to their students under the state Department of Education’s guidelines governing continuity of education.

The process has led to confusion for parents and students about what their respective districts are actually doing or not doing.

Pedro Rivera, secretary of the state’s Department of Education, said that one of the greatest challenges facing the districts right now is connecting students to the resources they need to continue education.

Speaking during an online press conference, Rivera said that his department has set a “high expectation that districts will continue to provide educational opportunities for students across the commonwealth.”

“This is not a day off for students,” Rivera said. “We have a responsibility to provide educational support and educational resources to students we serve. The serious challenges going forward are how do we provide not only instruction, but how do we provide the resources that they need to continue and maintain that continuity of instruction.”

According to Dr. Ken Dady, assistant superintendent at the Jersey Shore Area School District, the state initially had four options that districts can choose when formulating a plan for continuity of education for their students at all grade levels.

One option that Dady noted was to not provide any type of instruction, which he said was no longer on the table.

Continuity of education, according to PDE’s definition, is a “broad term given to educational practices that occur in the event of a prolonged school closure.”

The second option available to districts is enrichment and review which consists of “informal activities that reinforce or extend students’ prior learning.” No new skills are introduced in this option.

“The second option, enrichment and review, allows districts like ours that really struggle with the connectivity and access issues to be able to do something without violating federal law and regulations,” Dady said.

Under federal regulations, Free Appropriate Public Education, or FAPE, is an educational right of all students in the country. It is guaranteed by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

“One of the biggest issues that we are facing is, can we provide new instruction and be able to offer it across the board to all of our students, whether it be within a certain grade level or K to 12?” Dady said. “We’re unable to do that.”

Dady said that the district had put out a survey to determine how many households in the Jersey Shore Area School District don’t have access to internet. He noted that of the over 1,100 households that replied, over 300 didn’t have internet access at all. For almost 60 of those households, high speed internet was not even an option. For about 100 of the respondents, high speed internet is available but they said it was too expensive for them to be able to afford, Dady said.

The total number of students in the district was 1,276 as of the beginning of March, Dady noted.

“So, we would have to figure out as a school district, how would we supply that to them. That becomes very expensive. And, how do you supply something for them that’s not even available in their area?” Dady questioned. “Even if we wanted to be able to do this, how do we do it well in such a short amount of time when the infrastructure is not even there to help us?”

The third option outlined by the state under continuity of education is planned instruction. This includes “formal teaching and learning similar to that which occurs in a classroom setting,” according to the state Department of Education. This means that teachers use planned courses of instruction of new concepts and skills for each grade level.

The fourth option is a combination of the second and third options.

The Department of Education does that specify the methods used to deliver these learning opportunities, that is dependent on decisions make by the individual districts depending on the resources available in that area. The only stipulation is that the districts meet the needs of all students as outlined in FAPE.

“Take our situation for example,” Dady said. “If I was going to educate all of our middle school kids, if we have middle school kids that don’t have access, I’ve got to figure out how do I offer the same education through packets or something like that. Am I able to meet the same rigorous regulations that are in FAPE to make sure they’re getting something similar or comparable?”

Where the confusion comes in, according to Dady, is when people don’t understand what the terms mean, so they question why their child’s district is not doing the same as some other district when it comes to continuity of education.

“They hear these different terms and are not realizing what exactly do those things mean,” he said. “I think every district in our county is trying to do the best they can within the regulation.”

A canvassing of most of the area school district websites found continuity of education plans listed for parents to understand what is being offered to their children.

The Department of Education also recently tasked the state’s intermediate units with providing resources for districts to use in providing options for their students during the closure.

According to a news release from IU 17, the state has tasked the IU’s with providing online and printable resources for student, teachers and parents to use during the closure.

Intermediate Unit 17 services districts in Bradford, Lycoming, Sullivan and Tioga counties, reaching approximately 30,000 students.

The resources offer diverse platforms for remote learning with both online and offline toolkits.

“These resources can support both enrichment and review opportunities and planned instruction and are designed to supplement the learning plans school districts are already working hard to provide their students,” according to Brooke Beiter, director of educational planning for IU 17.

“On our continuity of education site there is a list of everything from online resources, paper and pencil resources and we just provided a list of everything that came out of our network,” Beiter said. “To complement those resources we hosted an online learning hub webinars three times a day the last three weeks where teachers were able to connect.”