K-12 schools in Indiana to conduct remote learning through remainder of school year

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — All K-12 schools in Indiana will remain closed through the end of the school year.

Indiana’s superintendent of public instruction on Thursday made the announcemnt.

“All K-12 schools in Indiana shall provide instruction via remote learning for the remainder of the 19-20 school year,” said Dr. Jennifer McCormick, State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Schools will not conduct in-person instruction through the remainder of the school year.

McCormick said the state is also looking at the amount of instructional days that will be required for schools. All schools previously received a 20-day waiver in order to reduce the amount of required in-person or remote instruction to 160 days.

Schools will now have to provide only e-learning instruction until they either complete 160 instructional days or at least 20 additional days of remote learning between April 2 and the end of the school year. If a school completes the 20 days but falls short of the required 160 days, the Indiana Department of Education will waive the difference.

Schools will be required to submit a continuous learning plan by April 17.

“The department is committed to working with schools to make sure that those plans have some type of guidelines for you to follow, but it also signals to families, students, and our policy makers what instruction is happening across the state and what that looks like,” said McCormick.

McCormick said one of the department’s goals is to get graduates across the stage, saying that all high school seniors on track to graduate before school buildings were closed on March 19 will be provided with the flexibility they need to earn an Indiana diploma.

Superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools Aleesia Johnson said Thursday afternoon she supported the decision to keep schools closed for the rest of the year in response to the public health crisis.

“We’ll continue working to serve our students and families well,” Johnson said on Twitter.

I fully support @DrMcCormickIN and @GovHolcomb’s decision to keep our schools closed the rest of the year in order to address this public health crisis. We’ll continue working to serve our students and families well. This is sobering news, but we will push forward together. https://t.co/ThA5s9Ijx6 — Aleesia Johnson (@AleesiaLJohnson) April 2, 2020

You can watch McCormick’s announcement, along with announcements by Gov. Holcomb and state health commissioner Dr. Kris Box below: