UPDATE: Nevada Department of Education Meets with Attorney General about Digital Days in Washoe County School District

Friday officials with the Nevada Department of Education met with Attorney General Aaron Ford and staff to give them an update on the situation with Washoe County School District calling district-wide digital days.

Doctor Jonathan Moore, acting Superintendent of Public Instruction for NDE, says Aaron Ford provided guidance, and supports their interpretation of the law, which is that WCSD is only allowed digital days on an individual, case by case basis.

"The challenge we see is that the Washoe County School District submitted an application for a distance education program designed to be implemented on a student and case by case basis," Moore says. "What we have witnessed is that Washoe County School District has implemented their digital day quietly across the district. This is not allowable under the Nevada revised-statue."

The district filed an amendment to change the wording from case by case basis to something that would allow digital days to be district wide. In the letter sent to Superintendent Traci Davis on January 4th, the NDE recommended the legislature as one way to change the law to allow the practice district wide. But right now, Moore says the NDE has to enforce the approved terms of digital days, which is a case by case basis.

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UPDATE: The Washoe County School District (WCSD) has released a statement after the legality of the district's Digital Days has come into question.

The district claims the Nevada Department of Education (NDE) approved their plan to implement the Digital Days, despite NDE saying the district did not ask the state whether the program was legal before launching it. 

You can read the full statement below.

The Washoe County School District (WCSD) works in close collaboration with the Nevada Department of Education (NDE) to do what is best for all students.

This commitment to support and provide resources for our 64,000 students extends to instances where it is too unsafe for them to travel to and from school.

As part of our collaboration, WCSD sought guidance from NDE and worked together to create the WCSD’s Distance Education Plan. The WCSD Distance Education Plan includes a provision for Temporary Education Plans (TEPs). TEPs were renamed “Digital School Days” in the fall of 2018 for ease of public understanding.

District-wide Digital School Days enable the District to provide all students with online classes and/or take-home work for students to learn from home during inclement and dangerous weather conditions and in place of attending a traditional brick and mortar school.

The use of Temporary Educational Placement (TEP) Days in the WCSD Distance Education Plan was discussed explicitly with the NDE when WCSD was drafting the renewed Distance Education Plan, which the District must update every three years. The name was changed to Digital School Days for ease of public understanding during the rollout district-wide in the fall of 2018.
 
Written in the approved Distance Education Plan: “When a student cannot attend school and/or it is not safe to convene school in the traditional sense, school will be convened using independent study methods such as packets or online lessons. When a school is closed, principals will enact their TEP plans.”

Having reviewed WCSD’s proposed Distance Education Plan, including the provision with the District-wide Digital School Day plan, NDE confirmed in a letter dated June 13, 2017 that WCSD’s plan was acceptable and approved it for implementation through June 2020.

The letter from the NDE dated January 4, 2019, was in regards to an amendment to WCSD’s Alternative Education Plan, after the NDE met with WCSD officials and requested that WCSD’s alternative education plan be modified to include TEP Plans.  WCSD made the requested amendment to incorporate TEP Plans (Digital School Days) to the alternative education plan, which was then denied by the NDE in the January 4, 2019 letter. However, WCSD continues to operate Digital School Days under the approved Distance Education Plan which remains in force until June 2020.

WCSD piloted the distance education plan at schools in Incline Village for the 2017-18 school year with success.

In good faith, WCSD moved forward with implementing the District-wide Digital School Day plan—or TEP plan— within the approved distance education plan for the 2018-19 school year, which we believe provides flexible options for our students and families.

WCSD continues to work with the NDE and the Nevada Attorney General’s Office to refine this practice going forward, while continuing our ongoing partnership in protecting and providing a quality education for students in Washoe County.

You can read the WCSD's letter below.

 

The Nevada Department of Education says the Washoe County School District did not ask the state whether its Digital Days program was legal before launching it. 

A Nevada Dept. of Education representative says the state does not support it. 

We've called the Washoe County School District for a comment. 

WCSD says Digital Days are used when weather and road conditions are too hazardous for students, families, and staff members to travel to school.

WCSD says the concept is based on a pilot program conducted at Incline Village schools last year.

Digital Days was most recently used on Tuesday when the school district implemented its now former region-based response to weather conditions. 

This is a developing story. 

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ORIGINAL STORY: 

The Washoe County School District says it will return to its original District-wide approach of implementing Digital Schools Days or two-hour delays.

The school district released this statement on Tuesday:

The Washoe County School District prides itself on being responsive to our students, families, staff members, and our community. We teach our students to listen and learn, and we strive always to model that behavior in all of our work. We are continually refining our processes and striving to improve our service to our families, and we appreciate their partnership and feedback.

In the past, our District heard complaints from families and staff members who opposed a “one size fits all” approach to weather-related delays and Digital School Days, due to the fact that weather conditions can differ greatly in the 3,600 square miles in which our students and families live and employees work.

As a result of these complaints, we created and implemented a regional approach to designating Digital School Days and two-hour delays. We did so because we sincerely believed that this approach would alleviate their concerns and counter their criticisms.

We acknowledge that the system does not meet the needs of students, families, and staff members in a district of our size once we implemented the system for the first time today.

Because we are a continuous learning and listening organization, we have reassessed the situation and decided to immediately return to the original District-wide approach of implementing Digital School Days or two-hour delays.

In the future, we will use the notification system to which our students, families, and staff members are accustomed to declare District-wide weather-related changes in schedules.

Earlier in the day, they tweeted: