Going To School Online During The Shutdown? It Won’t Count, MI State Officials Say

By Lori Higgins, Chalkbeat Michigan

Schools offering online instruction during the state shutdown of schools won’t be able to count any of that time toward the requirements that schools provide 180 days of instruction.

That’s the ruling in an email the Michigan Department of Education sent to school leaders Friday.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last week ordered all schools closed to try and curb the spread of the new coronavirus.

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“There is no mechanism to earn instructional time during a period of mandated school closure,” said the memo, written by deputy superintendents Venessa Keesler and Kyle Guerrant.

The schools are encouraged “to offer supplemental learning opportunities to students using distance learning methods as they see fit.”

The ruling could be a blow in communities such as West Bloomfield, where district officials moved quickly to move instruction online.

West Bloomfield Superintendent Gerald Hill told Chalkbeat earlier this week that students are completing the requirements of a full school day at home. But he noted that he was awaiting guidance from the state.

“We’re working right now to try to determine what the state will and will not recognize as a quote unquote school day of attendance,” Hill said.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization covering public education. Sign up for their newsletters here.