IL Schools 'Must Resume Fully In-Person Learning' This Fall: ISBE

SPRINGFIELD, IL — The Illinois State Board of Education called for all schools to resume fully in-person learning in the fall.

At Wednesday's meeting, board members backed a resolution supporting a declaration by the state superintendent of education, who was granted authority last year to declare when remote or blended learning days are necessary.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, several parents spoke in opposition to the proposal. Some board members also expressed concerns about the wording of the resolution during a discussion before ultimately voting unanimously to approve it.

State Superintendent Carmen Ayala plans to issue the declaration, "subject to favorable public health conditions at the time," at the end of the current school year, according to the resolution.

"Beginning with the 2021-22 school year, all schools must resume fully in-person learning for all student attendance days," it says, "provided that, pursuant to [laws passed last year governing remote learning] remote instruction be made available for students who are not eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine and who are under a quarantine order by a local public health department or the Illinois Department of Public Health."

The resolution notes that Illinois schools are receiving $7.8 billion in federal relief earmarked for ensuring the safe return to in-person instruction and addressing pandemic-related learning gaps.

The state superintendent's authority under the laws cited lasts only as long as the governor's ongoing disaster declaration remains active, according to the state laws.

But another law, the Remote Education Act, which predated the pandemic, allows districts to allow students to enroll in remote learning following a determination that it "will best serve the student's individual learning needs."

Darren Reisberg, chair of the state education board, said the resolution would not limit the existing ability of district administrators to establish remote learning plans.

"The resolution is really only dictating what is required by school districts. It does not, in any way, take away from school districts the local authority that they have to be establishing remote learning programs," Reisberg said.

"So school districts that were thinking strategically about how to capitalize on their learnings this year to be offering remote learning programs to their students, still, whether under the proclamation or after, would have the ability under the school code to do that."

Ayala said board members have suggested issuing more guidance to districts as soon as possible, as administrators are already planning staffing and budgetary decisions. She said ISBE had been encouraging schools to return to in-person learning for several months and is currently encouraging all students aged 12 and up to get vaccinated.

New guidance from the state public health department about coronavirus safety precautions in schools during Phase 5 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's Restore Illinois plan is forthcoming, according to the resolution.

"We have to work with what we know today, and whether we get more direction further down, as we get closer to the actual opening of school," Ayala said.

"But we will continue to do what we have been doing throughout this entire pandemic year in providing feedback, in providing the best guidance that we can, addressing the issues, helping districts work through things, helping parents work through things, we will continue to do that because there are a myriad of nuanced situations."

Board member Donna Leak questioned whether the resolution was sending the right message.

"Do we have to say 'must'? Could we not say 'should'?" Leak asked. "That 'must' just feels so strong."

Trisha Olsen, the board's general counsel, said there were already enough factors creating uncertainty for school districts.

"If the goal is to provide certainty to districts one way or the other, it would be best to give that certainly and to not include language that may provide more confusion," said Trisha Olsen, general counsel for the board. "In this instance, if the board wishes to send a message on what schools are preparing, the use of the word 'should' might be problematic."