As quarantines send students home, what’s the plan to keep them learning? – By Kalyn Belsha and Matt Barnum, Chalkbeat

It was only her son’s third day of kindergarten when Sabrina Padgett got a call in late July that he’d been exposed to COVID and had to stay home for over a week.

Soon after, that got extended when Padgett herself tested positive for COVID. Then her other two school-age children had to stay home, too.

What happened next made her even more concerned. Padgett says her children didn’t have the option to do lessons online and weren’t given hotspots or laptops, though other schools in their Mississippi district transitioned to virtual learning. It took a week to receive packets of printed work for her older children. And her kindergartener was given worksheets that asked him to write his name and numbers — skills he hasn’t learned yet.

Many families and school officials had hoped that this school year would bring more normalcy and consistency for students. But as COVID cases rise, students across the country are seeing the start of their year disrupted by quarantines after they were exposed to COVID.

Some schools are offering quarantining students live virtual instruction. But others are being sent home with only paper packets or are receiving no instruction at all — a worrying indication that many students could face another year of stop-and-start learning. In states like Mississippi, where case rates are among the highest in the country and many students lack access to home internet and devices, the situation is particularly fraught.

Pa. to offer weekly COVID-19 testing for K-12 schools – from the Williamsport Sun-Gazette

Pennsylvania will offer voluntary COVID-19 testing in K-12 schools, state health and education officials announced Monday, promoting the effort as a way to keep the doors open for in-person learning amid a statewide resurgence of the coronavirus.

School districts will have to opt in, and parents must give consent to the weekly classroom testing, in which students’ nasal swabs will be pooled and evaluated together to detect the presence of COVID-19 in a school building. The statewide program will be available to all schools, public and private, with the exception of Philadelphia, which runs its own COVID-19 testing program.

Boston-based Concentric by Ginkgo Bioworks, which operates school-based programs in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Arizona, North Carolina and other states, was awarded an $87 million contract to run Pennsylvania’s program for the upcoming school year. The funds are coming from the state’s share of the federal coronavirus relief bill.

“Early detection like this is exactly what we need to keep students in classrooms, and COVID out,” Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said at a news conference in Enola.

Missouri to permanently allow online training option for substitute teacher candidates – From Allison Nelson, Missourinet

Missouri has had a K-12 teacher and substitute teacher shortage for years and the pandemic has created an even greater shortage. The Missouri Board of Education has approved today permanently allowing an online training alternative for substitute teacher candidates.

Later this calendar year, aspiring subs will have the choice of taking a virtual course of about 20 hours – or fulfilling the traditional 60 college credit hours.

During today’s Missouri Board of Education meeting, board member Don Claycomb of Linn says although the additional route was controversial at first, he thinks the permanent route is a good move.

“To me, it’s an improvement. The 60 hours had no stipulation as to what those 60 hours might all be on one topic or nothing at all related to teaching, whereby this is a survival crash course it looks to me like. I think it’s a much, much better service for the schools and for the students,” says Claycomb.

Dr. Paul Katnik, an assistant commissioner with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, says all school feedback about the virtual program has been positive.

Louisiana Education Board Wants to Skip School Letter Grades – By the Associated Press on US News

 Louisiana’s top school board agreed Monday to seek federal permission to shelve the issuance of letter grades for K-12 public schools this year because of classroom upheaval sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Advocate reports the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education agreed to the request without objection. Officials believe the U.S. Department of Education will easily approve the request after signing off on similar accountability waiver requests from dozens of other states.

The grades and school performance scores are traditionally announced in November and spell out how schools fared in the previous school year, a key benchmark in Louisiana's accountability system.

But the bulk of school performance scores and letter grades are tied to student performance on standardized math, English, science and social studies tests that students took in the spring -- called LEAP 2025. State officials announced earlier this month that those scores plummeted across nearly every school district in the state during the pandemic.

Backers of the waiver request said the LEAP results were so flawed that it makes no sense to issue letter grades. Supporters included representatives of charter schools, local school boards and school superintendents, according to the Advocate.