House COVID-19 panel will take up testing waivers, class sizes and likely school calendar
Waiving testing requirements, K-3 class size reduction and the school calendar will all be part of a bill that will be considered by the North Carolina House.
With schools closed until at least May 15 and online learning underway, the House Select COVID-19 Committee’s education subcommittee will vote next week on a bill that will be proposed when the full General Assembly returns on April 28.
The draft Education Omnibus/COVID-19 bill includes several waivers for standardized testing, teacher and administration requirements, reading assessments, K-3 class size reduction and allotments. The proposals would waive many state requirements that would have to normally have been met if school was in session.
What it doesn’t include — yet — are details about school calendar flexibility. But that should be in there when the committee takes a vote next week, said Rep. Craig Horn, who chairs the committee with Rep. Ashton Wheeler Clemmons and Rep. John Fraley. Horn and Fraley are Republicans, while Clemmons is a Democrat.
“We are working diligently [on the school calendar]. We want to make sure we’re working with the latest information coming out of the governor’s office, coming out of Washington, D.C.,” Horn said Thursday.
Gov. Roy Cooper’s statewide stay-at-home order expires at the end of the month. He has not yet announced whether it will be extended and whether schools will reopen this year. Cooper told reporters this week that restrictions will be lifted more like a dimmer switch than an on/off switch.
Other proposed education waivers for this school year include:
▪ Waiving end-of-grade tests, known as EOGs.
▪ Postponing K-3 class size reduction plan a year. Class sizes would remain the same.
▪ Waiving new school performance grades and report cards. The status would be the same as the previous year.
▪ No new schools will be identified for the Innovative School District program based on data from this year.
▪ No summer reading camps for third-graders. Principals will determine the appropriate new school year grade level for the students, in consultation with teachers. Fourth grade students will receive reading assessments within the first 10 days of the 2020-21 school year.
▪ Waiving the state required tests this year for private schools, including religious, non-religious and home schools.
▪ Waiver of requirement for high school seniors to take CPR to graduate this summer.
▪ Teacher licensure requirements will be extended.
Rep. Bobby Hanig questioned postponing the K-3 class size reduction plan this coming school year, saying the state is already taking a hit.
“There are a lot of unknowns in the coming year,” Horn said. “We don’t know what we’re going to have in teacher corps. We don’t know what we’re going to have in student population. We don’t know what room we’ll have [because of construction delays],” he said.
Committee members did not object to the recommendation of the chairs in the draft bill, so it is likely to pass next week and then be submitted as a proposed bill to go to the House floor and the Senate for further discussion and debate.
The Senate has not been holding public committee meetings about COVID-19 response.
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