Buried among all the negative aspects of the LEARNS Act is a bit of good news for students and parents: no more spending snow days inside, slogging through packets of homework.
According to an October 26 opinion from Attorney General Tim Griffin, under LEARNS, districts may continue to use approved alternative methods of instruction (AMI) on days when weather or other emergencies require closing schools to in-person instruction. However, according to Griffin, those AMI days will “probably not” count “toward the 178 days or 1,068 hours of ‘on-site, in-person instruction’ required for a school district to be eligible to receive LEARNS funds for teacher salary increases.” That means most school districts will likely elect not to use them.
Griffin reached this conclusion based on a plain-language reading of the LEARNS Act, he said. (Attorney General opinions are not binding law, but Arkansas courts generally treat them as persuasive.)
State law currently sets 178 days as the minimum number of required, in-person instructional days, and does not prohibit districts from having more, so there would be nothing preventing a school from using both AMI days and end-of-year makeup days. However, Griffin notes, “as a practical matter, most school districts probably will not use Commissioner-approved AMI days if those days cannot also count toward the funding requirements.”
Despite the possibility that AMI days would not count toward the required number of days for a district to receive LEARNS funds for teacher salaries, the Arkansas Department of Education is not telling districts how to proceed.
While “the department firmly believes that in-person learning is the best option for most students,” wrote Kimberly Mundell, ADE Communications Director, “[d]ecisions regarding district calendars, the use of AMI days, and whether or not to close school and use makeup days…are made completely on the local district level.” Because the decision on whether to use AMI days “will vary from district to district,” Mundell says the ADE “encourage[s] districts to review the AG opinion and make future decisions that align [with the opinion,] but are also in the best interest of their students.”
For the most part, school administrators have already accounted for this change in the law, and at least some have abandoned AMI days entirely.
“It is my understanding that AMI days can be used, but we would still have to be on-site and open for 178 days regardless,” said Star City Superintendent Jordan Frizzell. “With that said, we would not use AMI days in the event of inclement weather, and would make any days up at the end of the year.” The Star City School District already has five inclement-weather days built into their calendar at the end of May, Frizzell noted, though “anything beyond that would go into June.”
Magnet Cove Superintendent Danny Thomas explained that he was “aware that, under the LEARNS Act, AMI days would not count toward the minimum [number of in-person days] required for a district to receive state funds that are earmarked for increased teacher salaries.” For that reason, Magnet Cove “did not submit, as we have done over the past several years, an application of a district-wide AMI Plan for approval to the ADE.”
Prairie Grove School District is taking the same approach, according to Superintendent Lance Campbell, who noted that his school also did not submit an AMI proposal. “We are on a traditional calendar this year,” said Campbell, meaning that any snow days “will have to be made up at the end of the year and could push us into June.”
Lucas Harder, Policy Services Director for the Arkansas School Boards Association, said that the ASBA informed its members about this change back in the Spring, when districts were making their 2023-2024 calendars, and he is not aware of any schools that plan to use AMI days this school year. “They don’t want to put their funding at risk,” Harder said.
In recent years, schools in Arkansas have closed for one or more days for snow, flu and flooding. Allowing AMI days to count toward the minimum number of days required in a school year meant that those days did not have to be made up at the end of the year. This change in the law under LEARNS means that administrators will now have to weigh the potential burden of additional school days in May and June when deciding whether to close schools this year, whatever the reason for the closure might be.
Nevertheless, none of the people who spoke to the Times about this were worried that the possibility of extending the school year into June would impact whether districts cancel school in the event of inclement weather.
Kimberly Mundell reiterated that “[d]istricts should always prioritize the safety of students when making decisions about the instructional day, and it is important to note that districts have the flexibility to adjust calendars and schedules as needed to ensure safety while also meeting the minimum instructional hours requirement.”
Superintendent Frizzell was unequivocal that he “would use the same caution that I would have before in determining whether or not to close school, even if that means having to make up the days at the end of the year.” Superintendent Thomas echoed this sentiment, stating that Magnet Cove “will always err on the side of student safety, and not have school when bad weather is threatened.” (Thomas noted that Magnet Cove, like Star City, already has five snow days built into the end of the 2023-2024 calendar.)
In Prairie Grove, Superintendent Campbell is being proactive about addressing this issue for the 2024-2025 school year. “We want to move to an alternative calendar, based on minutes,” he explained. “Our school day is already 36 minutes longer than required. If we could bank those extra minutes each day, that would really add up and give us additional days of credit so that we did not need to make up days in May or June if we were closed for inclement weather during the school year.” He noted that Conway and Greenland School Districts are already on a similar alternative calendar.
Campbell hopes to circulate two proposed alternative calendars to the Prairie Grove School Board in the coming weeks and, if the board agrees, to have the new alternative calendar finalized by the December board meeting.
Whether other school districts take the same approach remains to be seen. In the meantime, however, it looks like snowed-in kids no longer need to worry about those dreaded AMI packets.
That is one thing for which every parent can be grateful.