With Maryland's schools closed until at least May 15, Montgomery County updated residents on distance learning, state graduation requirements for seniors, and how students will be graded.

Maryland’s largest school system will have a new grading system for students in the final quarter of this school year.

In a letter Sunday, Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jack Smith announced that regular letter-grade report cards for the third quarter of the school year are scheduled to go to homes in the mail, starting next week.

Students will be graded as usual for the third marking period, which ends April 27.

But Smith said tradition letter grades won’t serve the best interest of students in the fourth quarter when most of the learning will have been on line.

Smith said the school system is developing a grading plan for the fourth period for middle and high school students based on the framework of pass/incomplete or credit/no credit.

There will also be no traditional letter grade report cards for elementary school students in the final quarter.

Additionally, the school system said it added two more sites where students can receive meals. They are John Poole Middle School in Poolseville and Meadow Hall Elementary School in Rockville.

Students have been learning online for the last several weeks and will continue to do so until at least May 15. The school year ends June 15.

Smith said the school system will emphasize connecting with and engaging elementary students.

At the same time, teachers will not measure attendance in a traditional way during distance learning, however the school system will track students’ completion of assignments and engagement with teachers during scheduled virtual office hours and responses to phone calls and emails.

In the early phases of the COVID-19 outbreak, state officials expressed concern about graduation requirements for seniors, which include nationally and locally mandated standardized tests. Those requirements were waived last week, along with service learning requirements. The county’s school staff is working on a plan for ways to honor those students scheduled to graduate this spring.

The school district also outlined a schedule of instruction for distance learning broken down by grade level. For example, elementary students will have an online learning curriculum that includes math three times per week; literacy twice per week; and art, music and P.E. through prerecorded lessons at their convenience.

In a regular school year, school systems are required to be open for 180 days. However, the state recently voted to reduce that number to 175 days in light of the major disruption caused by the coronavirus.

The county shortened spring break by three days, and also took advantage of the state’s decision to only count five of the 10 days of emergency closure during the first part of the coronavirus outbreak against the schools’ total.

Consequently, Montgomery County only needed to make up two days of instruction between now and the end of the year. The system is able to target June 15 for the last day of school because those two days of instruction will be made up: one day because primary voting will no longer happen as originally scheduled in late April, and another day already built into the calendar for emergencies that has yet to be used.

The school also has asked that members of the community who must engage with school staff, such as during meal and computer pickups, to use face coverings.

Montgomery County has about about 200 elementary, middle and high schools, and around 170,000 students.