Education Committee - Senate & House

Mary thank you thank you and chair Johnny cay depart of education and I do want to introduce doctor give any pride Dr pride just recently which she's been with the team for some time but was recently promoted to the position of assistant commissioner for learning services docked pride comes to us with the. A very distinguished career in education strong background in literacy and is very will police to take the reins of of that unit and lead our rise Arkansas initiative as long as as well as a number of other than initiatives that we have going she also in and her division has the special ed unit which if you saw this week in the paper we have received some very today yes some my very good recognition from the US department of education regarding improvements there so dark pride is going to continue those improvements continue to pursue our vision of leading nation instead focused education and I wanted to you all to get to see her because I I know that you will be and interacting with her on a number of issues in the future. You could take off your mask for one moment so we can see you. Thank you cell because otherwise will not recognize you when we walked down the street would you like to say a few words yes thank you secretary key I'm delighted to be here delighted to be appointed to this position and just let you know I've been an advocate for all of our students for many years and I am just I'm humbled to be here and to be able to lead such a magnificent team already into work with great people and I look for to collaboration thank you so much thank you we look forward to working with you. Secretary key are up okay and now I have to. Help. With the distancing issue I at the start pride to join me now I'm gonna start Pfeffer and don Adams from the health department say again very good come on up and take seats this is going to be a a tag team presentation I will ask them to introduce themselves and then then I'll start presentation. Abby five for department of education. Don Adams saw Arkansas department of health. Subcommittee of thank you for this opportunity to present to you today you you all know we've had a lot of interaction with many of you over the last few months and what I want to do today is just really kind of recap the story of of we're not out I don't want to go back to where we how we finished the school year but really about from the preparations four how we overcome some of the issues that were presented in the at the end of the school year and moving forward to how we plan to restart the and the the twenty twenty one school year better it is you know yeah we went through a series of decision making processes during the the spring and starting with hoping we would only be closed for a few days to hoping we can only be closed for a few weeks and ultimately the decision made in the best interest and safety of all of our staff of our students as that we in the school year for on site instruction and continue the school year with with with blended or with digital learning or AM my extended a of mine first I do want to say one appreciate and express my appreciation for Arkansas eighteen and they stepped up and assisted us with that project in a way that many states did not have that type of relationship and so for Cordy pleasure in her team I do want to say in front of this group we really appreciate the work that they did help us with that it made I am unavailable two parts the state that otherwise would have been very limited in their ability to reach students. I also want to give credit to our school districts around the state for their work he and maintaining a mill service programs at one point Arkansas had ninety percent of its school districts that we're continuing some type of meal service either through grabbing go meals or delivery of meals and I think that just as a testament to the dedication of our educators and our communities to make sure that the hunger needs of our students were being met in the best way that we could during that pandemic an emergency rat response condition. But that was an emergency response all of those things we did were response to an emergency that we had no experience with. so it didn't look very different than what we expect school look like in the fall because now we've had plant and a time to plan we've had time to review our resources to realign resources redeploy resources and to help make sure that as we go into the next two year of the what we provide students is more robust and that's what the Arkansas ready for learning plan is about so we know a lot more now about the epidemiology of this disease with respect to school age children as you have followed the governor's daily press briefings and you've seen that the the data you see that the impact on this age group zero to seventeen is much different. then the impact two of the other age groups that we are are tracking Children are less susceptible than adults to infection more likely to be a symptomatic less likely to be hospitalized less likely to. Have the occurrence of death. Of the there are reports of the multi inflammatory syndrome that is something that is continue to be monitored I don't know that we're seeing a lot of that happened in Arkansas Mr Adams can help with that if if your questions on that. But just to point out that it is much different. what we all can agree on though is that children need to be in school. central Mario Sander when they had hearings is that in the US Senate. He addressed the issue one his comments and it's not a matter of if we go back to school it's house and we need to be planning for how we do that twenty seven million workers in our nation depend on schools for childcare not necessarily for child care sake but that is one of the key components as you look at the The American us American academy of pediatrics say issued a report about two three weeks ago talked about the importance economically socially healthwise education wise for kids to be starting back to school in the fall and that's what we are working toward right now. I have talked a little bit about where we were in the A of my extended your A of mine After that the question became okay what do we do about this interrupted learning there was a lot of question about loss learning so the first thing we did was in preparation for the next two year is to determine how can we address the issues of that nine weeks that that we lost to onsite learning where is learning did continue in some way through distance learning through a in my it was definitely not what we would have preferred so we know that there's going to be an impact we know that there will be an impact on students across the state so we brought teachers together over one hundred thirty educators to create what we call the back to school playbook how do we address unfinished learning. Of these were teachers and principals around the state that have been Paul had been involved in our profession learning communities pilot these are but because of the importance of identifying the essential standards that is one of the. Key elements of the profession learning communities process and because these teachers these teacher teams had experience doing that within their home district within their own school we brought them together to say okay if we were creating or resources for teachers across the state what would that look like what would lessons look like what would that process look like in the worked very hard in a very short period of time I think over about a three week period of time or maybe less maybe just three weeks at the most worked remotely worked collaboratively of through zoom in other means to create the playbook and I believe that is linked in the documents that you have so if you want to look at that in depth it has each grade level hi and lessons for each grade level and then accommodations for special needs students included at the end of each unit and it's a very good resource we've had a lot of compliments for teachers about that and then the question became okay will well how do we start school safely that's great we we know interrupted learning we know loss learning something that we need to address but. There are a lot of their broader issues that go along with starting school and that's where working with the health department begin creating they're ready for learning. Initiative. And that also on this slide shows the the executive summary for that I think it is also in your packet as well but it just briefly outlines the the high points of what we intend to do and centered around the six systems there we've identified six primary systems of us running school operating school and how within each of those six systems do what what to school districts need to think about in preparation for starting the school year but as you see all of those systems revolve around the center and that center is our students. So when it comes to. Ready for learning. A lot of the questions that we get around policies. Of what are the the policies that need to be considered what are the health conditions that need to be addressed. And all the again from the American academy of pediatrics all policy considerations for the coming school year should start the bill having students physically present in school that aligns very well for the governor has said for weeks the governor has said. We need to be in school we need our kids in school we need to be ready for that in preparing for that but districts also need to be ready to shift to other means they need to have the planning in place the all the resources in place so that at the point that this disease may create a situation where a district needs to respond either on a billing level a district level or regional level that that the districts are ready to do that so that there is no interruption in learning. What one thing we learned during the spring is that Arkansas because of the legislation you past several years ago I think is twenty seventeen Arkansas schools were better prepared than most school many school districts around the state around the nation excuse me for at the AM on alternative methods of instruction when we say a a minor in Arkansas it's become part of our local language we know what that means if you say that to someone in another state they look at you funny and they say what is I am not. encounter that was some conversations with my colleagues in other departments of education we had a policy that empower districts to be able to move forward and whereas normally we were planning for only ten days of a of mine because of that experience over the last four years we were able to shift quickly a to extend that so that is a good example of a of a good policy decision that was made that enable us empowered us to be able to move forward we need to do the same thing now school policies need to be flexible and amble what it is is many of you probably heard I think Calhoun County got its first case yesterday. So does the what we do we are the policies we have in Hampton school district are they should they look the same as the policies that we have in Springdale or fate bill or Bentonville. I will not. because we have such diversity in our sizes in or geography of of our schools of our policies need to be nimble that's from the state level even down to the local level it's important that that they can be revised quickly that policies can be revised quickly That's why you're seeing now and one good example of that is the question that's come up the last couple weeks about masks as we have worked on providing guidance to school districts a lot of questions about are you it's the state going to mandate masks for four schools. And the guidance has been that H. ten up it's recommended. strongly recommended but is not mandated we've not issue that mandate but we've also so tell districts that if you want to create a policy that requires masks then you can do that at the local level and within the last few days I think we've heard not just cities I think the news has been that cities are taking that approach from the the model let's or the model policy that the governor has worked with the municipally gone but we're also seeing now districts and school boards taking that up as well. policy should be practical feasible and appropriate this is important appropriate for the child and adolescence developmental stage that's want ten and up was important because of the practicality in developmental appropriateness for children under the age of ten to wear masks in all those settings and it was something help parchment and. Red looked at and said that was not something that we could recommend. Of obviously we need to look at ways to not exclude children in any way from on side instruction unless it's necessary to address the public health risk and that's where our policies need to be focused. And that that forms the basis for already for learning. Initiative in what is that it's a planned returned on site instruction that allows of level flexibility for learning options we talk about the preparation and there's a lot of preparations going on around the to this this state for for the schools and we are supporting them we have a group of sixteen superintendent said have their constitute our superintendent working group that's part of the economic recovery group that governor Hutchinson is appointed so it's a and that's it to subcommittee of that that's been working with secretary ward and the health department and with our department it's also an opportunity for teachers parents students and community to be engaged in that planning process if parents are not comfortable with where districts plan is parents are very likely to keep their kids home if it's possible or just to not be confident in their ability to send their kids to the school and and not have risk of health issues. So. A key element of the Arkansas ready for learning plan is a system a blended learning what is blended learning it allows students to continue learning grade level material if you remember we we have. We we did say you could not introduce new material we recommended that you limit new material back in the spring just because of the concerns that we had was students being able to adequately access materials adequately access teaching and the but but going into the next school year we have to be prepared to continue learning new material if the health conditions warrant another closure of face to face instruction flexibility implementing on site or remote teaching that and quickly pivot as necessary to make that happen and then the support center needed supports our parents sports for students supports for districts that we work food with the districts we work with the coops to make sure that those supports are in place so that they can innovate and adapt appropriately. It's important that we understand why why are we doing this because we believe that students can learn anywhere anytime if they're given the right supports that means in a classroom obviously the most preferred method in a classroom with their peers with their teacher but to to say that that students can't learn if they're not in the classroom and with a teacher I thank you nor is of the resiliency of our kids because if they have the supports we believe that they can learn any place any time anywhere. So what is that support look like using our ester funds the emergency. Secondary elementary secondary school emergency relief funds from the cares act we are supporting districts with a state provided digital content option and learning management system of the we have an approved digital provider Lincoln learning is been improved digital provider for some time they were selected by EPSRC to work. With this grant to provide this level of support districts also have their own A many cases they have their own elements that they've already adopted their own digital content so they they have that available as well we're also providing CTP options that's one of the things that we felt was very important that we need to create technical education options to continue. Even in a situation like we have now did not be need to be one of those things that we set aside is an important because it is not unimportant it is as important as any of the other subject areas that we're talking about. we also our partnership the virtual Arkansas is continuing they have been a provider in Arkansas for number of years and working with them on this content hello learning management system options I need training for teachers we know that there are some districts that are well ahead of others with respect to those blended learning opportunities you have a virtual academies in a number of school districts around the state those teachers have has had the training they do that very well not all of our teachers have had the opportunity so we want to make sure the blended learning training is available for the teachers as well and team digital another one of our long standing partners is working with us on that. And then this last point I think is probably one of the most important yeah we could not us it Mr are ACT aspire last year so we have data gaps now all over the state we have data gaps so that it's difficult for us to know what the true impact of the learning loss within our interrupted learning has been. So we felt those very important to I have an opportunity for diagnostic assessment. we looked at the resources that we have currently right now we have under state law requirement for Kate to assessment. using our again are ester funds we are expanding the K. two assessment. At the district's option they can choose to extend there K. to provider into three eight so every district now has the opportunity to extend a diagnostic assessment will be administered three times a year to from Kate to to now B. K. eight. We've also created a working with our coop partners ready for learning blended a blended learning decision pathway. And you see here it's it takes step by step. Our districts and teachers through process of determining what they need to do to put a robust learning digital learning system a blended learning system in place They end this resource. provides embedded links and if you were if you look at this electronically you see the hyperlinks so that each of these red dots link to a video just a short video that explain that process and then the the more detailed links are also there embedded in and hyperlinked but this is something that we rolled out rolling out this week and next week to help districts and to be better prepared in selecting what they want what they need for their blended learning. Models locally. And associated with that we requiring the districts to ever ready for learning plan I know this is been something that and they'll probably be it a number of questions on this but we asked the state board to adopt a set of of waivers along the lines of twelve forty waivers and one of the elements of. Getting those waivers accessing those waivers was it each district had provide a district support plan what is that learning plan what does that look like what are the elements that you need to consider and that the district levels of supporting your Billings and supporting your teachers and preparing for what learning will look like in the fall. And this is just an example of one page of that template that we working with caught partners put together but to as you see here it takes them through that step off how do you answer each of these questions what is the district plan for addressing the sayings and making sure that all the needs of our students are met. It falls very much in line with our S. a plan. probably the six to eight weeks ago can't remember now the the time just really blurs two three everything that we've done since the spring but we have a lot of internal conversations about we need to create a plan and roll it out for the districts and what we realized is that we already have a plan in place and that was our S. a plan. R. S. a plan every student succeeds act plan is as you see this planned to check this is embedded in our plan that we submitted and were received approval from department of education the number of years ago of we all had a plan every district had a plan of how they were going to do the last nine weeks of school. And covert that plan up. It blew up the districts plans it blew up the the department's plans everybody in here has had some plan impacted by this current somebody's pandemic. So what happens when your plan when something happens that impacts your plan. If you look at our plan do check model that we have encouraged districts to employ under SO. The when you get hit by something this severe. That's where check comes in. And well they were in the middle of doing cove it happened and now we are in the process of okay that didn't work what we were doing then didn't work and now we're going to. Revise our plan and that's what we're asking districts to do is to revise our plan but now make that plan to accommodate the impact of the code of nineteen pandemic. So what's next. what's next is we're going to continue to issue additional details every week something changes the data. our understanding of the data our understanding of the impact of covert nineteen in general and. When those things happen we are in conference with the department of health on a daily basis we've had someone embedded with the health department for the last several weeks. And that collaboration has been very effective in helping us respond quickly to the changing situation our state wide guiding coalition that group of teachers and educators that came together to help create the playbook they are continuing to work to revise refine and improve on the resources that that that we can make available to all teachers our teacher leader advisory group is engaged this is the group that consists of our teachers of the year are milking award winners and other teachers from around the state that are having regular conversations about the impact that this is having on teachers and what support they need. And then continued meetings with with stakeholders there such as our superintendents our teachers others around the state that are impacted by this and have to be need to have that type of feedback loop for us also encouraging our districts to do the same thing districts are expected to have ready for learning committees at the local level in a number of the districts that we've talked to the last few weeks have established that they are bringing in parents teachers the classified staff of medical professionals from their local area they're doing a really good job of bringing those groups together to establish what the local needs are and to address those. I would ask if Dr Pfeffer could just address anything that I might have missed Mister items and then we'll take turnover of questions. Thank you secretary Kate and I and I know I don't think there was anything at all that you miss I was going through and and just taking notes in reflecting I think that to the most critical elements are that is part of our planning process we want to make sure that every district takes this and in a with that local ready for learning committee. Takes the time go through the planning document have conversations with all of their stakeholders other stake holders are fully aware of the opportunities and challenges that are going to face them in the returned on site instruction and through those conversations be able to make decisions about what is it that we are going to need to do how are we going to need to adapt and hit that we've heard from a lot at the and school districts that have completed surveys recently the results from the surveys are helping them make decisions about what is and what's going to be our protocol with transportation what's going to be our protocol in terms of arrival and departure of students and the more that they get to know about their and community there and the responses from their communities the better position they are to be able to make those plans I would say that if and we can well this whole process standard three things these would be the three most important things we need to make sure that all of our students next year are taught a guaranteed in the Bible curriculum that's based on essential standards that needs to happen for all students and that needs to be able to happen anytime anywhere so that is the goal of Arkansas already for learning and why the students are at the very center of that student focused education. I thank secretary key and doctor pepper did a good job of summarizing your plan just for the record the identify yourself don Adams with the Arkansas department of health thank you and you can take your mask off my talk yes ma'am. Thanks. I think they did an excellent job of summarizing the plan and our team at the health department of work very closely with the team at department of they had to develop the plans and the guidance is that have been put forward and as secretary key said as things evolve and we learn more we're trying to update those plans to provide additional more up to date guidance. Thank you. Madam chair will be happy to take questions. I think we have a few here of the sender Johnson. Thank you madam chair Welcome Mr secretary thank you it's good to see you and Dr pepper and and Mister at arms First of all what thank you for the tremendous job you all are doing to plan. But I wonder. How your crystal ball is actually how accurate it is on what to plan for you mentioned some of the stress and I was running late this morning because I got behind a large piece of equipment being moved around and couldn't get to the street fast enough and I. Sat there and thought about how stress is caused by unfulfilled expectations you mentioned in your presentation how we we all I've had plans we're going to have this year and they had to change because of the pandemic and course you all are at the forefront of a very specific thing that you had to plan it's the taking care of all of Arkansas's students is a big job when everything runs smoothly and now that it's not running smoothly because of F. things outside our control A you've come up with the plan and I'm and I'm grateful for that but there's some very weak links that we see in there and and that part of that has to do with the distance learning access to broadband the we have broadband desserts in the state and they're not all where you might think they are senator Chesterfield his explain to me how in the rural parts of her district in Pulaski County there's a broadband desert in that they've been some hot spots have been put on buses and taken out to certain areas so people students in those areas are parents could could access internet and and do their homework center Irvine's told me how the the hot place in the. Mountain View is the parking lot of the McDonald's because. Hello there kids up to go sit in the parking lot and then sit there and do their homework because they don't have a decent connection at home now. I'm grateful that a lot of people are working on the state wide broadband issue but that's not gonna happen. Probably not this school year probably not even the next school year of. Have we put too much. Dependence on. One being able to access online resources to to to meet this. I hope short term challenge. And and to are we putting too much. Responsibility on parents and and I and I'm I'm all for parent and parents being involved in a but I think we all have to admit that some parents just aren't quite is equipped to to handle that role as others and I think I'm being kind and saying that and some let's let's be Frank some don't care and we we we need to educate the kids that parents don't care either and are the parents or have other problems in their lives and and again that's a whole social problem but Do you have a way to. Make sure that these children either because they're not connected or because their parents are less than responsible on their educational front from falling through the cracks and I know you're talking about I'm falling behind what I'm trying that truly falling through the cracks is there a a way to monitor this where will you know. Jimmy over there is really falling behind not just behind that is the whole class is because of the pandemic but but we see the kids are really much more at risk and I'm I'm wondering how that can be addressed and I. Appreciate whatever you have about that thank you senator so I'll dress at last component first that's the importance of learning management system you know you if you think about maybe what a learning management system look like when we were in school and it was the teachers record book and they have the grades what we're talking now about the something that teachers can access is an online tool where they it's it's robust where they can see the level of engagement not just from grades but from if there is a. Creative remote learning they can identify you know what kids are getting on the system what kids are are are getting accessing the content so that that is going to be a critical element of ready for learning. Of is it perfect now and I'll say the same thing I said when I went to the governor's press conference way back feels like five years ago when it was actually just probably in April where I said it's going to be messy you know the this this blended learning online learning this is not something that we I can say we are good at. Yet. But on its size yet. Because there are elements of land learning that's that we are getting better at. As far as a access to broadband it remains an issue and I think the government no one. No one would say that it's not an issue of we have a team don Benton or cyst commissioner for research research and technology has convened a team of the the tech coordinators from the coops and tech coordinators at districts to help assess and look at solutions many of those solutions are very localized because of the patchwork of providers that we have in the state that's that's a barrier that's that's a hurdle we have we have not figured out how to overcome of the. That part of of the challenge of but I do know the governor's made that focus and while we of not deployed anything at this point I know there are groups working in different agencies collaborative flee to identify what those solutions can be and roll them out and I think you're gonna see a layered approach thank you know see a layer of temporary things until we can get some of those more permanent solutions deployed which is you alluded to it it could be a couple years if not longer but that we as part of the district's ready for learning plans they have to account for that they have to identify okay we know their students that are not gonna be able to access or parents that cannot afford of their districts that have created deals with their local providers so that they are actually looking to use some of their cares act funds to help pay for that that service and you know it's not you're not gonna be. getting data streams where you can do games and movies and all that but it is a package that sufficient where you can do your homework so there are a lot of solutions out there there's not one big solution that we've identified yet but it is part of the planning process. And okay yes Senator ivy just reminded me we have on our Ellie A. insights it's new component of our my school info page but part of the work that don Benton did was looking at a blended learning needs assessment we we roll that out state wide so that we could identify what the needs are out there and I'm giving example learning management systems we Google classroom has become a very widely accepted title learning management system many districts are using that already summer are using canvas schoology I think we've seen some reports and Mr forced talked about using schoology little rock school district so that's going to be part of of the blended learning and ready for our red Arkansas ready for learning plan in creating that then the We have a result here as far as access to devices no this is devices isn't broadband access but our districts responded ninety two over ninety two percent of our districts have set all students will have access to devices that they need and of the the rest of them just know that that's something that they have to do to. step up on and some of them are using their ester funds that they're getting at the district level to help accommodate that. Problem is we have districts that reported that that Chromebooks in those type things will are ordered their orders will not be in until. Probably in September. So we know that that's a challenge that many districts replacing. A couple of other things to add to that along with this blended learning needs assessment this is not and information that we've gathered just a one and done thing this is something that can be updated regularly we also and the and blended learning and task force is using this data in determining what districts need extra support and so we're working through the education service cooperative with those districts and able to drill down to understand better what the issue is in that district in places that are going to be more challenge with having access to the internet the and the plans for the blended learning are going to look a little bit different so the online learning may not be synchronous it may not be in real time that those lessons can be recorded information can be appointed for students to take that device that they're gonna have download it work on the lessons and then at an appropriate time be able to access internet and upload the content back to and the teachers so the implementation of the blended learning process will look different depending on the district that's what some port in that we have partners nineteen digital in office for its innovation in education and the co ops that are all learning more about this this is gonna be a year of learning for students and FOR educators and the the way school starts is gonna have to adapt and and evolve as we and as we learn more as we get and better access and as we're able to better determine what those needs are so this this school year is going to look very different than any other we've ever seen in the past lots of opportunities lots of challenges. Thank you senator Chesterfield. Thank you madam chair. What is the average age for teachers in the state of Arkansas. I have I wouldn't know that I have to look that up Senator well the reason I ask is because we don't have a in many instances we don't have the youngest. Teaching force and so I'm concerned as we say we're not going to require a mask for young people. I am concerned about the health and well being of those teachers who are in the classroom is there going to be PP available for all of them so as to protect their health as well as the health of the kids. Yes ma'am. And what kind of equipment are you talking about. Of this the standard equipment the masks the. mask gloves sanitizing equipment and chemicals of those are things that we are working with the the Dawson co op they are the centralized place for taking the orders and dispersing of the equipment out to our school districts we we did that because we knew that they would need of the purchasing power of the collective purchasing power as well as convert centralized distribution point is it's mandated. Which which part for teachers. Is the wearing of mask you say it's not mandated for these kids under a certain age and you're suggesting it is it mandated that individuals in the classroom working as teachers that those were driving the bus that they where the PP we have not issued mandates four mask wearing the guided says it is strongly recommended and while we not saying you got away from. That's why we asked don to come from health to represent the health department on questions of that nature okay done. Don Adams Arkansas department of health so at if this point it is strongly recommended and the districts have the option of requiring that and that's what we would encourage for them to require all their teachers and staff to wear a mask. They do have the flexibility not to do so is that what you're saying if the district decides not to then to require that. Okey dokey as I hear and that's troubling to me I'm gonna take quite frankly that's very troubling to me A I kept hearing the list of individuals or groups that have come to the table to talk about this issue of re opening schools but the one group I have not heard is the providers themselves a broadband. And they've been a part of your conversation. Because it is time for them to step up to the plate it seems to me. And extend their services in the wake of this pandemic so are they a part of the discussion group or but not. The senator the. I am aware that the local level the terror of being conversations with districts and their local providers that I thought I would ask the department of the it and the department of health as we look in rolling out what will be obviously some a lot of internet stuff I have you talked with them as department head I have not no I have not talked with providers of those conversations of our happening at a. my understanding at a higher level with the. Governor's broadband task force okay so. You feel that that will be taking care of their rather than you as if the head of the department of education reaching out to them and saying you are a critical part of this I believe that education is definitely part of the conversation as well as the telemedicine and the healthcare component and as well as the general broader economic issues that are associated with that that's why that question of those questions in those conversations are. Really being looked at by the governor's task force at that higher level so no I don't Ask you are you are you having conversations with any providers. Okay with Arkansas broadband so the not not to the providers directly but to the Arkansas broadband initiative is where we have in our conversations that's rather disappointing A moving to my last question you're talking about serving lunch in classrooms is one of the alternatives that we have is that correct. I read it somewhere in this in all of this stuff one of the things you're talking about is serving lodging classrooms. Of the concern I have is if you serving lunch in the classroom when will teachers have the opportunity to have lunch. Because we have pushed very hard for duty free lunch up for teachers and so what are you what are you talking about when you say that how does that has exposed to look. Senator Chesterfield the and planning document. Odds as a consideration for districts for them to consider serving lunches in classrooms it's not a requirement it is something that that districts might choose to do yes that a and cannot achieve social distancing in their cafeterias or if the time allowed just doesn't make it possible during the day for them and in this is in in conversation with their committee to determine what's going to be the safest thing the sight this way we can prevent congregating of students if lunch is served in the classroom obviously students to have to be supervised again that's going to depend on is Rick scheduling as to who does that supervision at that time however the there was no way for from duty free lunch teachers and who are and on site for instruction will still get a duty free lunch and what it and what it might look like is a modification of other parts of the day the teacher will get a duty free lunch just maybe not at that time will the student's reading in the class ring. Thank you very much thank you madam chair. Thank you was then Was in seat nineteen. You're recognized thank you madam thank you madam chair thank you secretary key for all of your work on that have a specific question about the diagnostic assessments but also kind of begs the question has larger broader considerations I've out students to to our families who choose off site instruction as an option that some districts are providing and specifically the question in regards the diagnostic assessment is is that assessment available for students who choose off site learnings our and able to and you to provide that data to schools even if they'll they'll be and learning at home and then more broadly what do you kind of envision as the ideal interaction between students and families to choose off site instruction and teachers and schools and districts hardy I know many of spring also this providing that an offsite option a blended option an on site option and I've just been getting lots of questions about what what that should look like they from parents and and France were trying to decide so I'd love to hear your and even though the benefits are there for on site learning and all these considerations are for making onsite learning happen how do you see kind of the ideal playing out and FOR the interaction between schools and and kids to choose off site. So for the diagnostic assessments our team is in conversations with all of the vendors so the districts will have the option to extend the assessments to the upper grades from what they've already been using for Kate to or cheese one of the others so we've been in conversation with the vendors to determine and if they can allow that to be taken off side and I believe that we were still waiting on a couple said and. They are okay they will be able to make those available for students who are at home which is very important. And as far as what would be considered ideal I think that really depends on the district and where they are in terms at their infrastructure or their experience with already providing blended learning and a in an ideal sense students being able to still physically interact at some point with teachers whether that. Maybe and you know not every day all day that still able to have and you know interaction on site I think that that is I don't think we you can and FOR. I don't think you can overstate the importance of that human connection however there are parents and students that will cheese A. and entirely virtual option for many different reasons I you know so I think again it's going to depend on and that the school district in those circumstances we know that and one of the challenges in the spring. When we went to remote learning was four and FOR districts to be able to remain connected with all of their students in a lot of that was due to the fact that they didn't have learning management systems where they could monitor progress of students when they not log on north they didn't have and system set up where they were regularly able to video conference with students they've had time to plan now for that so I think that and a benchmark we just be what are the and the protocols that process is you're putting in place so that you have regular interaction with all of your students and what is that going to look like should there have to be remote learning for some or all students. Thank you so much thank you manager. Thank you. Of Representative Allen. One second get you one here one minute. Thank you thank you madam chair assist the pandemic has severely hit our school system they're a lot well In organizations that have been severely more impacted by like the Porsche tunes and minority students. What plans do you all have in place to address those needs. Because this is a proven fact that some of these key it's require more attention and one on one learning and if you are if you don't have the resources or the broadband of the computer system to to keep up that mean that these Keith of falling further and further behind and it's a proven fact that once a child falls behind the further he falls we had a hearty meal so he or she the catch up so what plans do you all have in place. Thank you Representative and I would say that the the plan that that we are presenting this the Arkansas ready for learning takes that into account in that in that you schools can identify what those needs are and respond to those rather than as we did in the spring where we made a a statewide the termination of of closing schools for on site instruction as we work with the health department to better understand the nature of this disease and epidemiology. When we started bringing allowing districts to bring groups back that was one of the first areas that we focused on is when you start bringing groups of students back to onsite instruction it will for summer it was those small groups of students that had the greatest identified need or the students with disabilities that needed certain treatments are or need certain the types of of support and bringing them back in a way that was safe that you know met all this the distancing guidelines met all the limits on a current congregation and those first thing we did to allow districts to bring them back and and I think that just continues in as we move forward with the the fall of twenty twenty one school year bringing them back in a way that and having blended learning blended means that you could have it doesn't mean only digital only online or only in class blended means just what it sounds like so part of what the the guiding coalition that we've assembled to help with the under on with the interrupted learning that was a. Very important part of what they were looking at when we talk about kids getting behind we want to make sure that. We've identified those essential standards so that they get those that they cover those that they know that this is what you're gonna need in second grade to be successful in third grade and all so on so I think just the nature of that planning by itself the resources that were provided it will help teachers address the needs of those students that you mention. Well follow up not only are some of the students behind but it appears that some of the teachers will be to operate from a position of weakness to because I want to know if they have been properly trained phoneline learning and online teaching. Well many of them have it and that's why we've engaged with our partners to help fill in that gap of the it will we have groups like office of innovation in education with the university of Arkansas team digital which is a partnership of the department and our coops but that's what they specialize in in providing that training and what we learned is that uh I when you think about how long those groups have been in existence the the the teachers who have been able to access training work in districts that have chosen to reach out to those organizations through the years and say what we want to develop blended learning or digital learning or some type of innovation now we are in a situation where all all teachers need some level of that and they are ramping up their training sessions doing it online of course in and doing it to in person according to the our guidance but making sure the teachers are able to get that and that's gonna be a big part of the first couple weeks when teachers come back early that's going to be a big consideration for PD that first week there's a lot of PD that happens and school districts and we're encouraging the districts to meet the needs of those teachers during those PT sessions if they need blended learning training the the districts are expected to provide that form as part of the ready for learning model. Thank you. Representative Representative Murdock. Thank you madam chair good morning to used US secretary key in your team there five for an the gentleman from department of health thank you for being here so a lot of things have been covered but I want to try to summarize. These my first about it to Mike in in the good the bad and the ugly of what I see us facing. the good. I'm I'm I'm happy to hear the flexibility and the support obviously we all entering into something this new in we have situations that represent Allah just mention with their districts and situation that we will know are you very very unique and already behind. It's distance digitally behind categorically behind that we have the flexibility and support to make sure that those districts have the opportunity to properly prepare trying except or for this new thing specifically as we talk about you just mentioned PD and and all class a week before school starts we don't start doing PD I promise you that's not enough time. Because obviously the learning curve in some districts are different so as we look at flexibility and we look at supporting districts in their individual needs that S. those request come to you and their unique different cost more that we consider okay we need to do that in this district because of their unique situation and so that the you know with the virtual learning. The inmate in question get paid these teachers when they come on early obviously and and what we should be willing to do that for this additional training is necessary we may need to start in July with some people with some situations I don't know specifically but I know that everyone is not at the same level and I and I and I want to say I know that a week would not be enough for us to really truly train of everyone in this as we try to implement this this this virtual type learning another thing but because of the flexibility in what I'm hearing you saying are you going to support the and that's still goes out of my good category because I think that we can get there if we are as patient flexible in support of as we say we are sometimes we're suggestive and we call that support suggestive is not necessarily support if I don't do what you say thank you so you say you supported me but you don't support me to the extent that Aidid would you say do. But if I am. You know if you if you if I'm in the community and I understand the community's needs that I need you to hear me. That's why the community is there your Representative whomever so I think that's important that we that we pay attention to that. The bad. Is the health. Concerns. I'm saying is bad because I don't know of the other members whose emails may have been inundated over this for the job July we can't such as mine out that no less than sixty emails from teachers across the state. Saying we don't want to go back we're fearful and they're fearful because of some the conversation you have was sent Chesterfield about choice. Meaning this. But distribute use not to mandate mask and therefore. If I'm that if I have to go back to work then I'm susceptible to their choice so now they're choice to fix my health this scares me that's what they're saying. And you guys probably get those emails as well because I think the days this circle eight and so I think we need to. Address that because if we don't I don't care what the governor the legislature who may have FOR mandates if the people on the frontline do not have the confidence. Then what our children going to get. If the a staff is scared and they're fearful that we have to be very careful so we have to somehow. Gain their confidence I don't know all the answers to that but that's certainly a concern. And then glee I definitely want to see this app you've heard me talk about this for ten years now politics. He's destroy good intentions good ideas. I don't want the politics and economics to affect the outcome of the negative way going back to item number one the good I don't want the politics the Oakley to affect the. Or disinfect the good please do not allow for that when districts that have unique situations. Come to us and say Hey we needed addressed is what because you can see it because you don't want to spend is okay. We do. And trust us to do our very very best as we represent those districts and those people come to you that your support them. And that's very important to the continuity as we all going to this stone is a stone. And we all need to be covered as best we can so please as we go through this and there are other things but there being mentioned by other members and I hear what this is saying I think it can happen we have to try to make it happen together in just please this this remember the flexibility and the support and not let the politics get in the way of just helping all that we can. Thank you Representative and and I hope that that The five years that I've been in this role you can you could see that flexibility is something that we have definitely embraced obviously this time it's it's different because you have a different if a different condition that we're facing but but that is something that we've been very consistent on it in our discussions it is because when we did the waivers here we we take a lot of criticism four for the waivers That was an effort to create some standard flexibility for all districts A because we knew they were going to need it what we also said was if you find that you need additional flexibility in an area that we have not identified you need to bring that to a spring that to the state board and let's discuss that so so as far as broad flexibility with policies yes that's definitely something we're we're open to I hope I hope no one took my statement about the the PD at the beginning when teachers come back to that that I was saying that that takes care of it that they will be fully trained at that point in no way would I expect that our experience has been with that working with office of innovation in education the schools of innovation in the district of innovation it takes several years for other for those teams in any of those are teams that vote sixty seven percent or more I believe senator Elliott is that right two thirds vote for school of innovation our more to adopt the school of innovation model and it has taken some districts are as schools years to get proficient in this type of blended learning so we understand that and we're going to provide that the flexibility on what they need there as well and identify when those needs come up that we do what we can to help meet those. You. Representative I can add and. Don it just takes to make this a minute ago and I think he's right in essence all or most if not all teachers are going to be first year teachers next year and we've taken a very strong and stance in the state of Arkansas to ensure that our new teachers get mentoring and support throughout their first three years and I think if we will commit in an adopt the mindset that most teachers this year going to be novice teachers in terms of what how they're going to have to and she if to learning how to eat how to utilize technology in some way to teach their students that just helps to insure that we publish and focus support efforts there so not only will our novice teachers and get the mentoring support our educator effectiveness division is meeting with our T. like great today to talk about mentoring for all teachers and what kind of and supports that can be put in place to extend throughout the year for teachers and how can we create avenues for that on going communication about the challenges that they're facing and the things that they're learning I also talked with the superintendent this morning that talked about the first three weeks of school and in that district and it will be all about processes and procedures for shifting to a blended learning environment so it's going to be all about I mean everything from the issuance of devices to training students and parents on and the learning management system and the policies going three in making sure that everyone understands what you should and should not do is side there they're committed to spending at least the first three weeks at school just really learning about how can we do this have learning how to navigate all of that because I know that once those things are in place the name that infrastructure is there it's going to just promote and the learning process throughout the year so we will continue to work with districts to make sure they understand that is okay. And that is what we want you to do because students have to learn how to learn in teachers have to learn how to teach differently. Thank you represented Springer. Thank you madam chair good morning. I would just like to think of senator Chesterfield representatives Alan and Murdock for their questions because of them with the past is that they've asked you are from the same ones that hat and I would also like to state that I to have received a number of emails from across the state from teachers who have indicated that they don't believe that they are prepared to return to school and I've indicated to them that I support. That is well that I don't think that we in a position that we are actually prepared to return to the type of teaching and learning that needs to take place so my first question is how will you monitor these districts to ensure that your play book. Is taking place do you have a staff of persons from your department who will be readily available to school districts in order to ensure that your play book will take place. Thank you Representative and and good morning to you as well so I'm glad you asked that question because that's an area that more broadly I would say as a state agency we have to be ready to be flexible and adapt it really goes to your question and somewhat to represent a Murdoch's question. What we have things that we spend our funds on state funds federal funds one of those is monitoring of schools and are typical monitoring process of that we've created needs to be different and so to to your point yes our teams that do the monitoring of public school accountability group and others they will be working to support the district they are working to support the districts we have received over nearly a hundred ninety planned this at this point that are being read and reviewed and they will be followed up on as your goes on how many people are in your state how many per persons you have available to do that because this is going to be something different so it is and and I'll have to get back to you because we had a lot of retirements and at the end of June and we're in the process of filling of those positions now so I don't have that number but I'm happy to get that for you because we have a number retirement center public school accountability in. and and I'll give an example two title to funds we we for several years we've had different programs that we've supported with title to finds it that come into the state you we have to be ready to shift what we do maybe for this year maybe even for next year maybe a three year when we don't know but we have to be prepared to shift we can't just keep doing the things we've done in the past because that's what we're custom doing we have to adapt as well as an agency and what comes to monitoring what comes to supporting teachers especially now that something that we are prepared to do and have conversations about regularly madam chair follow up I heard you talk about teachers from across the state that participated in the development of your play book. What about parents and other community persons who what the other persons involved in the. Develop this book the the public was very specific for a as a support for teachers to know what type of lessons that they could create to help address the the interactive learning from the last two years so that was that group was was teachers and principals solely the the other group that we group so we have we have a community family committee. time the committee involvement unit in our that they are working with groups as well I I can get you the details of of the different interactions that we're having but be happy to provide that for you. Madam chair one less one one thank you I guess my last question has to do with and this is a been a concern and I guess it goes to monitoring as well I've had several parents make contact with me with respect to other I think it's already been touched on the fact that they're not willing to send their children to school so we have to monitor and make sure that the districts have teachers available to make sure that their children are taught while they're at home and that they have the necessary resources and I've heard one parent say that maybe they don't want to get the book or the computer because the district is holding them responsible if they lose that tired up that they're going to have to pay for that so should there be some type of funds available to make sure that all the resources are available to the students that stay at home and have to then they choose to do that so I think there there will be an equity issue involved that they're not provided the necessary resources that they need if they choose to stay at home you agree I agree with that one or two percent and I would say that that's that can be addressed in a number ways. At the end of the school year many districts had title one funds that they were going to carry over in excess of what's allowed secretary of us issued guidance early on in the pandemic that allowed districts to carry over in excess of those limits so they they're gonna be carryover title one funds that can be used they're going to be the S. R. funds that can be used for those types of things so funding should not be an issue harkens into the benefits to the credit of have you all here in this body Arkansas is on a. One of the state so I think probably one of the few states that are seeing no cuts in education in the state budget a number of my colleagues implemented the their state budget cuts we we don't see that so yes ma'am we we don't expect that funding to be an issue and if if it comes an issue we would expect those districts to let us know so we can assist. Thank you. Senator Elliott. Thank you madam chair of the commission okay I was just thinking back on your senator key we worked on the whole child hold community legislation how great it would be to have something like that now that would take us a long way down the road I have like the others so many questions from from folks and I think a lot of the questions that I have a ones that could are going to be addressed at the local level so I guess my first thing I would like to know is about the involvement of the people I've been hearing from the most in that span teachers at this point I every district has a of profession has a personnel policies committee should we expect that teachers are going to be involved at that local level through their personnel policies committee. The yes and what I've heard from a number of us districts is that that is happening I know you're hearing I I like you I'm hearing from a lot of teachers of that of that that's not happening I think as we. As we look into what the unique situation some of those districts of may just not be back from the summer renewal hello all those emails came last week we sensed and and I have observed that there are some districts that may be. Trading the summer as normal summers and that they don't really after school's out it's after the fourth of July before there's much engagement that's not our recommendation but that seems to be what's happening but we have other districts that have had very robust interactions and planning I've we've inter had conversations with doctor Duffy Jacksonville Dr Kochhar doctor Jack long amount home and the several others that I've described their process in some cases you have a districts that are paying teachers to come on site to do some of this work so I think what we see what we see and and those emails that we're getting it's just those our districts that have not yet engaged and I'll say it publicly to you to this group and and my friends behind me so that they can spread the word they have got to get engaged they're light and that's why you get a lot of these emails is because the teachers don't know because they've not he started that process we have encouraged them to never stop planning to speak to it from the end of last year so that is something that I would expect Those districts the teachers hearing from the list those districts to get better and get on the stick if they don't up to two it is there to whom should the teachers the parents or whoever to whom should they appealed to make sure things do start moving in the right direction well they're appealing to us other appealing to you and I know when when you get appeals you you are available to me. I know I know I remember that that works. Yeah yeah and that it that is a serious question for them because I haven't had conversations with teachers and but mainly their email that and if they don't do the right things what do we do where do we go to whom do we appeal who makes this right is that is the kind of questions my other question has to do with I I guess this this might be a question more for Mr Adams I don't know it's it's a health question like in cases of teachers if a student for example it gets if a student is. Is tested positive in my classroom was to say. Who gets quarantine how how how far back does that go. Yes ma'am don Adams with the health department we have a criteria for what we consider a close contact and so any close contact to that positive case would be required to be quarantine for fourteen days from the last date of contact that positive case roughly the definition is within six feet for fifteen or more minutes would be considered close contact and that is cumulative time throughout the day is how we define that so we work towards the to identifying who are those close contacts to the positive case in trying to immediately excluding those from the school or whatever environments to start quarantining to and we do recommend they get tested just because they test negative on the front end does not mean they may not develop disease throughout that fourteen days but it is it does give us some information. The what I'm get that so if that's student rode the bus to school. Is that is this the should we consider that out I'm in the class I'm a student in the class was a nineteen other students should get tested these are the kind of concerns that I'm getting from from teachers yes ma'am I think it would depend on the individual circumstance there maybe students on the bus or in the classroom that didn't meet that definition of close contact and if if that's the case they would have to be excluded from school or tested but obviously probably some students will meet that definition and maybe the teacher will to it depends on the the environment of the and the degree of contact whether or not they would be classified as a close contact is this the CDC guidelines. Yes ma'am these are these are broadly accepted guidelines on what is a close contact and lastly it when at the end of the day or sometime during the day students in the classroom they're touching books or touching computers and desk and everything at the end of the day let's just say what happens are there guidelines for requirements for how that room is is disinfected cleaned up of sanitized or whatever you want to call it. Yes ma'am there are accepted guidelines on how to sanitized disinfect house in a frequently touched surfaces but we do know that close contact in breeding each other's air is the primary way that cold fee it is transmitted from one person to another it's not that it can't transmit through services but that's not near as big a concern as breeding someone else's brat the respiratory droplets so what are you saying that they do with the end of the day and that's all I want to know what should happen into the classroom at the end of the day all frequently touch services should be disinfected on a very regular basis. Yes ma'am okay thank you manager. Thank you Representative della Rosa. Thank you madam chair Hi I've also gotten all the same emails I think that I mean they just sent them to everybody that teachers did and I don't think even any of them were even in my district first of all one appreciate the flexibility that you guys reading to schools because what makes sense in one area doesn't make sense in another area and I also think it's very critical to remember that we. We can't stop living because we fear dying kids need education we we can't keep them in isolation we can't keep doing what we're doing you just can't keep doing this forever what point does it move beyond and emergency and become every day yeah so the question that I I have actually current came from an actual constituent in their teacher and they were actually concerned about mental health services because for the last six months kids have been stuck at home some have been in almost complete isolation from the rest of the world they're worried about kids coming back who've been exposed to domestic violence because everybody knows that's gone up since everybody's been trapped with that spouse they thought they liked so much but maybe not quite so. Trap for that long so a it they they have a serious though concern of what mental health services because they anticipate that the needs are going to be greater when kids are coming back then they even were before and we already weren't really meeting them totally before because we've had a lot of discussions this committee that mental health services we need to fund that better and have more people so I'm just curious what with the department's looking to do for mental health services when kids come back. So part of our playbook incorporates a guide for life in that that was something we just rolled out last year that it is is takes into account I'm a number of those concerns and I'll the awareness that that something that is likely to happen especially as it relates to behavior we are including that is part of our preparation our communication the principles communication is superintendents and teachers tech FOR first got some details on. Well in. Even before and even before that and school year ended last year recognizing the need for that support for the mental health and we actually created and some very specific class guidelines and I think they were called safe zones something like that where and I have to go back and look at our and web page resource but we actually did inform districts that they could be allowed to let mental health providers work with students in the guidelines were all there as far as keeping the distance and they have the option of doing either the telehealth were actually physically coming on site so there were districts that have been implementing some mental health services even during that time of closure and then through the summer those those and services were still allowed I do agree that as students come back they're going to be more and more that are gonna be identified so as secretary he was mentioning the god for life is at the time that foundational and that and element for and that the health and well being of students by and districts probably will want to continue to utilize either the telehealth or ensure that providers can access and our students can access services with providers. Just so that I understand because I'm I was kind of looking at it more from a funding perspective because if there's an increased need you're going to have increased need for personnel increased time. Is that something that we can afford with the money that we've been given is it be clued in that or is that something additional it it is included as one of the elements of that districts can spend their ester funds on here's what we expect to happen because there are a lot of buckets that are to be covered by the ester fines and fees you talk about technology. Of food service from that they expended in the previous year that maybe they can't be get reimbursed from the USDA Mental health continuation of operations so yes I mean those are all the pot sick to be covered by but A so district's gonna have to as part of their needs assessment and an ongoing needs assessment if they see some increases they're they're gonna have to look to see what where they're of funds are available do we do we have state funds that could be sent we are reserving some of our ester funds to meet whatever needs that we see that may pop up but at this point we would not have an estimate of what that might be one thing to just to make sure we are The Arkansas where is another element of of mental health that's part of the federal grant that Sam's a grant that we received a few years ago and rolling that out continue roll that out is another resource for mental health support on the funding issue that's something we're gonna be monitoring because we we don't have an estimate right now what that could be. I thank you just one very quick request I am going back to the waivers the guys were discussing I know I got an email on that that kind of outlines that that waivers to may grant and I'm just wondering could I get a list a little more specific because it was sort of a summary at a maybe it was in a different email I don't know but it was sort of a summary that I got I was just wondering if I can get more detail on the duration that the waivers would last in exactly what all they they cover well and it's only for this school year. As for the duration okay we and but we'll get your the rest the information okay thank you. And the district support plans so and the eight it currently up into this point not every district has had to do a district support plan that is put in place this year it's basically a contract that the district is and they're going to utilize the waivers but they're making a contract with the state in terms of how they're going to be used and that that way it's it's that assurance back to us that that I understand and the necessity of the waiver the importance of the waiver and it will be used appropriately. Thank you. Okay let's see seat eighty one who's in that. Was in eighty one. Who is. You're recognized. Thank you very much I know we've talked a lot about a lot of these things and we talked and park in private as well and through emails but I just wanted to say that the I love and support the fact that students can learn anywhere anytime with the right supports but I just want us to to exchange the words student with educators and teaching because educators can teach anywhere anytime given the right supports and FOR ever I think we have expected teachers to do every saying without those supports we're not giving them the wraparound services and now it's even it's happening even more and so we're asking them to learn a new way of teaching and virtual teaching were asking them about mental health to take care of mental health we're asking them to to nurse these kids and and to learn all about the public health and I can tell you as a nurse it takes a long time to figure out how to get kids to to wash their hands and to do all of these things we're just asking that it to clean and sanitize their rooms we're asking them to do all of these things in and addition to their teaching so my question is I guess into my teacher my sister teaches at a middle school where the kids are changing classes all the time where the high school kids are changing classes all the time she spent half of summer in her class ring getting it ready and yet she can't get in the classroom now until a week before the kids come and and that's my issue is timing and it just seems like we're not giving anybody enough time to make the necessary arrangements we comply and all we want I think but until the teachers are in there and doing some of these things how are we how are we expecting our how can we expect them to do all those things are the I too would level listed the waivers up watch the board meeting but I didn't get it. A list of those waivers so I to I think all of us probably would like to see a list of waivers the other thing is PD requirements is there a way to at to change some of those P. the requirements of the things that they've seen every year maybe can be put off for a different year so that we're not expecting a hundred and twenty hours of PD instead of the sixty that the districts require are there some ways that we can modify that that group of requirements And then I guess the the main thing is is there or would there be a way to even delay the kids coming to school for a couple of weeks to make sure that we can get all of those things in place is that something that the districts could pull together and is that something that you know available we have a medical advisory team for the city is that something that the medical advisory teams could help with Making sure that that that that is expressed or or what is the what is the way to get some of those kinds of things done without legislation you thank you absent garner so what will get to Michelle the document so would and you get all the members And the I. think IV was gonna respond in probably talk about PD as well but the as far as the that the. You know governor is said. Start in school at you were a star school on August thirteenth. at the same time you know he recognizes the changing conditions situation with the health conditions as he is proven that he is adaptable and definitely responsive based on the advice from the health department so that's something that will take under advisement I can't certainly couldn't commit to anything but we'll we'll take that request or that under consideration as we look at the balance of everything else that we're as we're preparing dinner the twenty twenty one school year. Representar I thought a lot about and schedules for teachers and for students and and at night education career has been in secondary so you know is it secondary principal the master schedule in the bail schedule are just those are the primary drivers of everything so the conversations that I've been having with with principals and teachers and superintendents really are around these and there's even the on site instruction date is not going to be typical as it has been in the past we have to rethink that and it's so part of what we know can help with safety concerns is requiring less movement of students around the school so those are conversations that I would encourage to continue to happen and think about okay how can we have fewer and interactions between students during the day how do we and how do we even think about what are the supplies and materials that are going to be needed because we know the fewer things that have to be touched and gathered up and means that there are fewer considerations for having to clean I also know that in working with students for years if students understand why things are to being done in a certain way why they're being asked to and to maybe what down their desk when they're going to be leaving students step up and do that date they rise to that level of expectation and so I would just encourage and those conversations if teachers can't be on site right now if they can create virtual PLC's and have those interactions in as a grade level discuss what not we proposed to the school as far as what could art what could schedule look like some maybe instead of going to five different classes in one day. Maybe they only got it too but spend more time in those classes so we're encouraging that flexibility we will continue to work with superintendents to make sure that they're thinking more broadly about that if teachers can't get into their classes until August they are going to feel like they're behind and in many ways they may be behind because the adjustments that need to be made need to be happening now as we're learning more and and the more we have the opportunity to talking to problem solved and the more likely we're going to feel comfortable and confident returning to school. For the professional development I think that this year's rotation of professional development is Arkansas history and so that would be and I'm thinking and FOR just in general that would be the only PD requirement for teachers and and the Arkansas history requirement applies to certain teachers beyond that districts should it be thinking about the professional development that's going to be necessary for the upcoming year for teachers so if districts are requiring professional development that is just routine or deep duplicative then those things we need to know about that so we can have conversations because a lot of times even in school districts it may just be that somebody's not thinking about something and things that already been scheduled and therefore we're going to continue aligned so we would encourage teachers to to ask questions and to advocate for the top of her special development that they need and if they're being asked to do something and that's not needed I would encourage them to ask those questions and from their principles. Thank you. Thank you let's see Representative. Burch. Thank you madam chair thank you for being here and for been subject to all these very important questions one of the questions that have from educators in my area is whether or how to I guess prioritize the turnaround times for the testing because we're still seen three five days turnaround and some of our test in our area but the most recently there was a seventy two hours that's what we have moved up closely so is there any coordination between the health departments and the school districts or is it being encouraged or required to for our teachers for educators for staff for students to whether it's moving in line ahead of time or find in another testing placer tests that it's able to be turned around quickly how do we how do we do that because we get someone who's positive for four days and they don't get their test results back we've just now exasperated the problem problem. Thank you Representative. The vast majority of tests are conducted in outside private lapse. the health department does have a public health lab that has a certain capacity in that it capacity has been increasing over time and will continue to increase in our turn around time at the health department is typically faster at least right now it's faster than the commercial outside lamps. In part the commercial labs are being inundated with samples due to some of the not just growth in the state of Arkansas but around the nation and so they have a backlog of samples so it's not that the test takes a long time to conduct its that the when a new sample comes in it goes in Q. until it can be that can be process so right now the the turnaround time is a lot of the commercial labs are several days and that is not ideal and that does create challenges is far as trying to quarantine and isolate individuals top to stop the transmission if that's if a test is being conducted on a person that was a contact to a case then they're supposed to already be quarantine while they're waiting on those results but in other situations having fast results does help us respond faster the health department lab does test per already top samples son nursing homes jails and congregate settings and other samples that come to the lab so in certain situations we can take samples at the health department to get that quicker turnaround it just kind of depends on the circumstance but obviously the health department and cannot take all the samples because the demand is to hide all the samples that are in the state right now. But it as hopefully if cases go down to some degree then the the commercial labs will increase their turnaround time and they're also increasing capacity as well with time so hopefully that will improve. Fallout manager. So not acceptable is just not that what if the may be the all the to just said is all blah blah blah and we hearing required our teachers to be back in the schools or he cracked requiring this this program how can the department of ed reach out to and or help the school districts maybe even identify right now those testing places that we might be able to prioritize because you're gonna have isolated school districts and hearty the school school buildings can be isolated waiting on test results four days later potentially we need to do better we need to help them identify whether the school district is going to this health department are these kids are in this situation right now and we've require this because of the the school system program that we're we're doing how do we as a state help prioritize and tell her educators that we are working to get them ahead of the the drive a long ones that may or may not have any symptoms or or really care we've got or prioritizing education the state of Arkansas let's prioritize the health and the results of this test we can do better than say a commercial flights going to turn around and three four days and they need to be isolated we can do better than that absent virtue if a from my jump in on that I think you make an excellent point and you know as I said earlier. The help that we had eighty even team members embedded with health department for. Close to three months now I think and this is a topic that we will certainly bring up with the health department teen and look at ways that you know if if there's a possibility that something that will discuss I don't know that we may mistranslated that or how we would do it that we definitely have to look at the logistics of that and if it's even possible that something will put on our list to talk to doctor Smith about. I appreciate that thank you. Thank you it's the. Forty six this. Thank you madam chair in thank you Jenny Kate secretary key and staff I have a question for specifically relating to special needs I have three children I have two children that are enrolled in little rock school district my son was special needs is currently not enrolled in the school district I've had questions from concerned parents with children with special needs about. House is going to affect them that they don't want to bring their children back to the school how will they be able to get therapies and more specifically they do allow their child to go back to school had is therapies work with the therapist go into this classroom what do they do a pull out how does that look and I guess I'm asking this because since I'm I'm familiar with special needs because my son there's different protocols there then were typical students will there be some type of special guidelines or a play book for special needs because you have all kinds of special needs and some of these kids need more specific things than others so have you all. Really looked at that and in this group that you have did you have somebody with special needs consulting you on how that look how does that look. That's an excellent question and and thank you for reminding me because I did meant a failed to mention that group but are special ed team has been and they have an ongoing working group in me even With without a pandemic they have an ongoing collaboration with the special ed educators from all of the state experts on that so obviously that this is been a topic that they've been talking about as well and providing resources and commuting communication with the Ellie A. supervisors around the state specifically are are generally yes we are working and encouraging districts obviously a playbook looks what would look a lot different because of the individualized nature of each student. The I. E. peas we've been encouraging districts to be in very close communication with their parents and the IP committees have to be very close communication with the parents on how do you meet those the needs of those students. In the past co year when we shut down on site as we enter the summer what we started allowing students to come back for individual therapies or or treatments and that sort of thing and then as we go into the next school year so that is an ongoing thing that we are are working with and at school our director of special education is is leading that we can get any specific question he's not here but we can get him in touch with you if you need specifics as as it relates to little rock school district that's something that I'll visit with Mr poured and miss steel Cassander steel to make sure that the communication is getting out because if you're getting questions about that that tells me that they're not quite gotten word out that they need to on those issues so we'll take that back to Mister board and miss Steele. Thank you yes ma'am. Thank you senator Chesterfield. Thank you madam chair just a quick question what is the play book for transporting students because we have some buses that have fifty five sixty key it A are we talking to them about staggering that so that we don't have that many kids all bunched up together what is a play book the transporting kit. We will be issued a guidance on transportation at this point we are not we're not making any. Recommendations regarding staggering one of the things that we have to consider when it comes to transportation is the practicality in feasibility and that's one of the areas that Mister Adams in the team of health department is is helped us understand is as you saw the CDC guidelines back in the spring and there was a great out cry because there were districts have said we can't buy extra buses and and we don't have bus drivers and all these things so an element of practicality in feasibility also has to be included we are expecting of obviously the communication to parents to be if your child is sick or so when symptoms do not put them on the bus of we at some point senator of we we can never give up on trusting people to do the right thing. And and also part of that start with the parents well I mean frankly any of that that's going to start with the parents and caregivers and then extends you know at each step of of the the the delivering those students getting those students where they need to be one what we if we let me just interrupt there just briefly we do know that if parents have to go to work in a child is sick they sent in the school. They've been doing this is time immemorial yes and now we're in the middle of the tent pandemic where the bus driver's life is at stake the other kids lives are at stake it would seem to me that we would have that conversation about how we reduce. So many people in one little space because we're not require him to wear masks a certain age and we we transport key it's collectively those under eighteen and those over team in and we do have the opportunity but disease to be spread among younger key it's because we saying that as well and just cause death so I would just ask that we look at that again and trying to mitigate the illness if we're going to get back to work thank you madam chair well I I don't want to be left that thinking that we have not given any guidance we have given got its regarding school bus transportation we're just not issued a. Issued any directives regarding limits on staggering or obviously recommendations one to a seat for students I mean those are all things that are in place to be implemented at the local level the mask wearing that Mister Adams referred to earlier and that's something that can also apply to district level to school buses. Back on. Okay as far. Just looking for nod their. She finished. Thank you let's see. That. Representative what. Now Dan yes ma'am thank you madam chair I have a couple but I'll get out the queue and get back in what I want to start with with have we thought about how schools will be conducted if one person comes in and is affect is affected whether it be someone at that is a symptomatic or someone that is showing symptoms referred to the bus of somebody showing symptoms not to get on school buses but I think we've seen more than not that this is very much a symptomatic top disease so what happens and and how will a school and be able to function what would be you also directed to that school because we know in the state of Arkansas we don't have enough subs obviously to take care of fifty teachers having to be gone at one moment one day so how does that look for a school and then what about the funding for subs. So yes we are having conversations about what happens if you know and so that's not anything that it's not finalized yet but that is their their conversations or having in trying to develop resources for districts to be able to answer those questions the substitute question is one that where flexibility is has been talked about the number of times since we don't know the impact we don't know the at this point we suspect that that will be an area of difficulty and of those areas that we will have to work individually with the districts as they encounter those situations funding for Serbs again those yeah there you have you have the the funding the state funding you have carryover federal funding and then you have the S. or finding that part of that is for continued off continuation of operations that you know those are all eligible to be used for substitute teachers and substitute bus drivers for that matter so those are all all areas that that's near the qualifies in all those areas funding. Can I have a follow up madam chair thank you when you talk about flexibility Does that look like in the school's policy but I mean how flexible are we being flexible that makes sense. Like you keeps I am flexibility there's flexibility is but whenever you're talking about a teacher leaving perfect what kind of flexibility does that look like. Well I think for us it looks like we're not going to We're gonna help you solve your problem rather than write you up for standards violation that's what I want to know yeah that's what. Madam chair I figure you have several in the queue so I'll get out get back in. Okay so I've had several slippers reach out to me and ask about the virtual learning and would that be core only classes are they supposed to put P. and music and art and things such as that on there also. No we would expect them to have the full range of offerings okay that's what I need to thank you madam chair and we've communicated that okay thank you madam chair. Representative Eubanks. Thank you madam chair but secretary key I apologize that this got asked while I was out but the. Based on the emails that I've gotten the apparently a lot of teachers are concerned about their health and their well being. Are we anticipating a lot of teachers may be going ahead and retiring or not returning to work or if they have sick leave built up taking that sick leave and I guess that would tie in to the sub question and that's where the thing but art are the school districts content in communication with their teachers to find out. What they can anticipate as far as whether they're gonna be returning to work. The answer's yes I mean they districts typically use the spring to identify when those teachers or if those teachers are coming back and then the timelines on retirement the other Sir I can't quote those but there are timelines on decisions making retirement do I anticipate a with just an exodus of teachers because of that I don't. I I I know the teacher there are a number of teachers that are fearful you may have some teachers that that do I don't anticipate it's going to state wide this going to be a mass exodus it could be something that affects the local district a lot more severely depending on the size of the district. And that's an area is just as with the my response represent of what we have to be ready to help identify ways to to help those districts fill in those gaps of with you know with qualified people to be there and then that name we've we've had conversations of about what we can do partnering with our IT prep programs and all those partnerships that we've developed over the years help us now because we've shown that that we're again if flexibility word represent a Vaught but we but because we've been flexible with those and prep programs in helping get their candidates out to schools and in a way that wasn't available in the past we have better tools to help meet those needs if a district doesn't counter you know the you can have a district that has maybe three mid mid semester retirement if they're a core subject areas that are difficult to fill that's going to put a real hurt on the that district in of students so yes I mean we we are looking at ways that we can make those needs if those situations come up. Follow up. So I guess teacher retirement has an informed you that there was a big rush of of people I have I have no no Sir have not gotten that okay. Notification all right thank you. Senator Elliott. Thank you madam chair I don't this this maybe for Mr Adams I don't know but but at four point if there if there are outbreaks of whatever you might call it but if what point. Will we determine whether or not a school should actually remain open. Yes ma'am. I think that will be different for different schools based on this you know a two cases in one school is different than two cases in another and there are other factors that have to be taken into consideration were those cases linked within the school is the transmission going on within the school are they obtaining these cases somewhere else and just happened to be at school so I think on an individual basis will have to look at the community spread the number of cases are those K. case is being transmitted within that school environment and those factors will help us determine whether or not to recommend that school closed down. But there's there are no guidelines right now this for from CDC or any place else the general type of guidelines on other than talking numbers talking percentages for example nothing like not that I've seen a take each school so different in each community so different you have to take all those factors into consideration to make the best decision for that school and and bishop he would you anticipate that the that community is will be notified if somebody test positive out of school for teacher or student whoever. Would you anticipate that kind of information would be shared with community not the person's name offered a perfect just the incident itself. I don't know the answer to that senator I do know that the the protocol that the health department follows we've been communicating that it's it's going to be communicated to the school are non. So then the question becomes do we leave it to that school district to communicate that to the community or has that communicated from the state level that something we will add to our list to talk to the health department about and I think another thing maybe to just within a classroom setting If I don't well I at that point the original question take care that I'm going to the next one right now and don't hold me to these numbers this is what I think I read about eighty one percent of our beds I think I see you beds are occupied now in this state are we anticipate that to be the case It has there been some thought of between of what's happening in the public domain and what might cause build back to create a really big congregate group of folks so how at what point would what's happening in the public domain as the numbers you know keep going up and down go down it and go up might that affect whether or not we even go back to school or at what point we might close our schools no and we just have so many dads. I guess I don't know which one of you can handle that but. I I could to the conversations that are happening now as far as You have the the response to the school district or by the school district in and what happens depending on the number of cases the. The community aspect is a consideration in that but again to the previous question there are no hard and fast numbers on what that means so it's it's a consideration but I I ki I don't think at this point that I could say there will be something that can translate to say if you have this many to cases in the community than that is has this impact on the school again I think that the as I started out yeah we know that the epidemiology in this age group of a of students is far different than the others obviously we can't ignore the the adults the teachers support staff administrators but that's where. Case by case conversations have to be part of the of the discussion but with the department of education be involved with that would you anticipate that you would be involved in I I anticipate that that when it comes to the schools which has as the governor has made it very clear working in conjunction with health department is his expectation of us so yes and and lastly this is this is been brought up to an extent but I kind of. Needed more definitive answer we can get it if. I I talked to a parent who has a child. Who has a compromised health system. Is not necessarily immunity immunity but that's a normal course of things to. And. That child she wants her child to go back to school but the thing that's bothering her the most is. She is very concerned that the Lee she can ask is that the teacher the students at least wear a mask because her child is very much at risk. How do we determine. Whether or not. That child that times health is going to override or. To wear a mask or not when a mask I don't know what to tell her I guess this question what I don't know what the town. With the position that we have taken and and the communication we've had with that this point with districts I would say that parent needs to communicate that to the superintendent of because. I don't expect that we're going to do to change and have a statewide mandate of of masks or or the that's just a stock spec that we're gonna see that a because it is so different in each part of the state but that is something that that local district the local board or local governments needs to take into account and we have been telling teachers we've been telling parents look you can communicate to us and we can send it on to the prints for the that the administrators the teachers in that district but it means a lot more to hear directly from you. because you live there you're part of that community so that that's I mean I I I know that's probably not a that an answer that a hundred percent. This is the issue but I that would be my recommendation that this point. Okay thanks man. Yes. Thank you madam chair of. Of course people with quick fingers I've asked both my question there which is a good thing they're asking in a much better way but represent Burch mention the. Concerned with testing and then senator Chesterfield followed up with confirm busing and. But it is a lot of former teachers here behind me I think around me and ministry leaders but I'm getting I'm going to get the cold sweat while ago I got thinking about. It may be Hey I know what they're gonna guidelines I may have missed the. That was what I'll drop off well now we will be in the garden grandchild that school in in Portland all teacher second ride. But I'm just I would go. Ron these kids through the same procedure we came thirty get in this building every morning. Districts can screen we're not requiring them to screen as with temperature checks and the we if the wrecked the it is just like it has been if your child is sick keep him home if you're sick stay home but no Sir that's that's not the plan unless a district chooses to do that in some districts understand are looking at that in looking at what it would take to to do it but that's just not practical for most NV or feasible for most districts. I just can't imagine having to do it but I can also imagine if you do it what kind of a. vent it will be and it's on a lot of difficult decisions and appreciate what shell bill and I'm glad you got missed five for backing you up a little bit keep you like to. I think we're all is displayed warning for to restore but I'm like everybody else I think a lot of everybody up for almost is to have really serious concerns about where we're heading and and I'm the kind of guy that I want to each required for. But the Richard thank you what you do in center and we appreciate that the I guess one thing that we need to keep in mind is you know. Schools are. All closed now we we have some schools that have I have opened up for targeted activities and of course the triple a and under the health department guidelines have opened up certain athletic activities and and extracurricular activities we're learning from those so every every time we have a situation in a district where there's a positive case that helps us learn better you know how to put these procedures in place and what these policies need to be so I think at the beginning of the beginning of August of you're going to see opening of some of the charter schools I think that a couple of them start August third under their charter they have an early start. Those are things where you know they will open up under the guidance that we've issued and then we'll start seeing and learning if what their experiences are and if necessary make adjustments from that so it is just not widespread but in pockets we're seeing things that we can learn from and again working in conjunction with health department to make revisions as we as the science dictates thank you I know it's difficult job at the. A lot of people got to do but I appreciate you all failed. Thank you madam chair let me to say again thank you it doesn't go unnoticed that you've been living this crisis with everyone else for for all this time and that you're looking out for kids so I appreciate you you take all this this a little bit of a different band but um question with regard to home school in this amazing homes going programs in the state of Arkansas we have amazing parents that are or promoting it and doing great things in that area I also work for DHS for many years where I get to see first hand that it was also a place where some parents were able to skirt the education of their children because we didn't have all the means in place to track these in the event that we see an upswing in home schooling because of this crisis are there any additional resources that the department of ad is either looking to or may be considering putting into place to track where those kids might fall off the radar. I wouldn't say any additional represent of Burch at this point we we have strengthened our home school unit considerably within the last three years and we feel confident with with that component of the agency but I'll tell you what we are seeing which I don't know that we expected but as a result of of legislation over the last few years we are seeing at least in some parts of the state formerly home school students becoming public school students using the virtual options. That districts are providing. And so we we don't have account on the numbers right now I know that at one point last year it in the last nine weeks we were seeing a bit of an up tick in the number of notices of intent. People wanting to home school. I don't think that to its conduct retirements I don't think that that's continued we haven't seen just a huge increase of numbers but we are getting more more anecdotal reports of of students who are opting for those public school virtual options that they can do from home. Follow up please just the logistics of a school district to who saw this children when we last had school and we're on the rules and they're not on the rules anymore how is that tract. So we have in a public school accountability we have team that works with school districts to help identify we're in we do we lose some students so we don't know where they go we've had to work with that borders especially border districts that sometimes the other states are not require part of about help letting us know when those kids show up and one of their districts but we our system is a lot better this year than it was last year with respect to that so I I feel like we are will police to not lose kids just because of at least within the state kids moving districts Representative it it's amazing we have district who have shown up. Children's names have changed three and four times the same kid but their names are changed in upon enrollment and sometimes we lose them we don't lose them anymore because we have are able to. The data is much clearer now and in the system of tracking that day that is much more efficient than it was just a few years ago so. We feel pretty strongly about our our ability there thank you. Okay legislators we are continuing to grow this list it's not getting any lower we still have one more presentation from them and another presentation after this if you've heard your question. In any means please don't ask it again let's try to move this a little faster one question may be too from you if they're quickly and if you've already been heard in the please don't chime back and let you just really really have to we're gonna try is not everybody's gonna leave here in about forty five minutes and I know we have another group is going to present so would love to hear them and let you be able to hear them to thank you. Representative Burch you still on. Not intentionally finished. Okay of represented garner. Thank you thank you very much I'll make this quick I wanted things that has been ask open over again is the potential for waiving some of this state assessment tests or to test that for just has been that kind of thing is that something that you guys are talking about or I mean obviously we need just fire we need the assessment to to fill in the gaps but I think it would be a for morale for teachers as much as anything Something that maybe we should talk about. We have not considered waving the assessment the for next year I think the where we have to have discussions is how it's used in accountability and we are having those discussions young by missing rating and that growth being such a strong component or accountability system now of we're having to. Get a lot of smart people to run some statistical models to see how one years loss of data impacts that and what the outcome on accountability will be so It's it's in conversation great thank you very much thank you thank you madam chair okay hall Representative rye. Thank you madam chairman. John. To I have two things here I'd like to ask you about you know you have the transition from the fifth grade to the sixth grade. And then you also have the transition from the eighth grade to to the ninth grade. I just wonder during those times that we were down. Couple months for those kids that are actually track you know transitioning from those two grades to a higher grade. How can we recapture that John just to get that back into our children just make sure that everything is is gained from that period. Yes thank you absent a ride and and that was one of the reasons that we did that the playbook for learning first because we knew that there are not just academic things that are missed but there are social and emotional components that are missed when a student misses out on you know those rights of passage and it's not just fifty centimeters you got some districts because of of their building structure you have a number of transitions from buildings so but but we also. The reason we ask teachers to come together to do that is because we trust teachers to build overcome those situations because they're going to know Hey this group of kids that I'm getting they missed out on the last nine weeks of of their seventh grader eighth grade year now come at a high school and high schools carry enough for ninth graders so we we trust our teachers are capable and and will do a good job of helping those students overcome that. Follow up please. We'll have okay thank you madam chairman John. Right now this is July seventh so you've got around three to four weeks. I don't know I mean this is just my thinking and not I believe that it's it's okay on this. You have time to test every child and every teacher. I believe. I just wonder if we would be better off to make sure that every child and every teacher there's going back to school. What have testing done that we know that that we would actually know they will clear. That everything was fine and they didn't have any kind of sickness John that district you know once you start the school year because if you at if you have children and you have teachers. That are are you know coming back and used one school might have a thousand children one five hundred one may have for five thousand you know status. It looks like to me on the phone and would be the time to get this straightened out did not know that all of our students and teachers are clear because once they get back in this John your you could you run a pretty good race that you're you're spreading the sickness because only so many folks involved. Well that's that's an idea that I would take back Mr and take back to doctor Smith and and the team at the health department in inquire about the feasibility of that. Okay thank you let's see Representative Vaught thank you madam chair I have to really quick questions one I do thank you all for everything that you've done and you know I want us to go back to school and I like the flexibility I don't have a problem with that but I believe that many of our supers are looking for a strong lead and experts to give them direction so that they're not all cats going in many different directions because once you have cats all going in many different directions if you've got five schools in one district like mine and they're all going in different directions it's very confusing for parents grandparents whoever is in charge of that child so why don't we as a state be more strong and what how we see things like if we're going to start in August why don't we say group A and B. as go on a school on Monday and Wednesday bays going to stand Thursday we're going to deep clean Friday Friday we're going to have a MIA or we're going to do computer work or we're going to do until we see how things are actually going to work that way we're not sending kids to school and then pulling on back out and then the other question that I have and I think you can do both of these is IT have you all or higher ed thought about in the spring when teachers are about to graduate and there have been to do their you know in class when they're doing their last part of getting their degree what is that called only it used to be called. The teaching yes we still call it that okay I did not for sure but have we thought about those kids that are about to graduate who will not possibly be able to do that in class room to finish up their graduation two questions thank you madam chair. I'll I'll take that the first one and. I have a can add onto it and answer the address the second part of. We could do that. I don't think it would be a good idea to do that because we can't make those types of decisions from the department of education or the health department on what is best for a B. Davies for those to for that student body for that community for the economy in that area me that's why many of these these things that we are by necessity have to leave those to the decision making me they make these types of decisions in a in a normal everyday school year this is not a normal everyday school year but with the support and guidance we believe they will make the right decisions for their communities we also know that if if if they don't the community is going to let them know about it. I mean you know you can Ashdown could could be something and people to start Senate ask the males in calling us about it but what are we going to do we're going to call Ashdown superintendent will say Hey what what you know. So I think to have a centralized this is how you are going to do school in the state of Arkansas does not recognize the differentiation between the districts A even in Benton county you have very large districts of of Rogers in Bentonville you have very small districts of Decatur in gentry two to say that you're going to do school the same way it's it's not feasible is not practical that's why we're giving the best guidance that we can give them from the standpoint of of the health the health conditions can I ask something just real quick stop you there for a second before miss IT don't we do that already every school year. Don't we already direct schools how to to do school basically every year we've adopted certain standards and within those standards district still have wide latitude of how they implement those standards okay thank you. Hi. All right to that two more Representative Evans. Thank you madam chair I'm sorry again go ahead and I was going to complete represented votes questions and and also to her first question it the all of the guidance that we had given and we would encourage them with the in local areas to work together so within a within a region of the state there is nothing to say that they couldn't all agree to implement the kind of schedule you describe and they would be much more powerful if it was done at the local levels and and multiple communities so we certainly encourage that encourage them to work together because local school district's policies have to be enforced at the local level and and it's not practical to think that we could enforce those from a state level especially with the different needs of districts across the state. To the question on the student teaching we had to make that adjustment even this past spring because we have a lot of and teacher in terms that it only had a few weeks in the classroom on site and so what they did is they followed whatever their school schedule was in so and whether it was the meaning whether it was I'm coming in and helping to delay it to prepare lessons and go out and deliver packets that a student interns did the same thing that their teachers were doing I have not talked directly to our and colleges of education but I know that there have been multiple conversations about what does the planning look like for that student interns and I think a lot of ways they've gotten to learn a whole lot more about really practical problem solving working with their districts and and that will continue we will not penalize students here in educator preparation programs in terms of if they can't physically be on site and thank you and they will just be experiences experiencing what it's like to be learning how to teach during during a pandemic another and option could be that those interns could help in the on site and to help with student supervision because we may have instances where teachers have to be quarantine but that doesn't mean I can't teach from home somebody said well a guy when we talked about all students can learn anywhere given the right supports and that is true for teachers as well but we now we need people in the classrooms with students but they can be and Sudan turns could really be an added benefit in terms of helping to keep learning going and teachers also being able to interact even offsite. Thank you I'm madam chair Here I've heard a lot this morning by the term playbook and secretary key I know that early on back in March that was something that we heard a lot of is that there's no playbook for this and the situation has been very fluid day by day continues to be and so I appreciate the fact that that you adopted that philosophy of a playbook and put that out there a concern I wanna voice though is is you know I I look at these presentations what's on the screen the handouts that we've been given in and to the push on social media that continually pumps that we're ready for learning but I'm very concerned not to underestimate the the value the flexibility the adaptability and the overall talent of the teachers across state are so I don't think we're ready for teaching. five great concern for that I've seen within my own district where our teachers are not ready and I just I think we're putting an awful lot upon our teachers to accomplish ready for learning instead of the the background then maybe we need to be putting into ready for teaching two quick questions one for the department one for Mister Adams we did check check you do we have a a data source to show what the number of ten year olds that are in the fourth grade versus the number of ten year olds are in the fifth grade. I would have to check to see if it. If we capture the ages I think we do. but I have to check with the data team on that if they have that I'd like to see a copy of that just to it's just to a point of reference for for the district back home and then you talked a lot about to the collaboration the departments have the department helpful in trying to address all the what ifs some of Mr Adams or throw what if out there to you we all recognize that extra curricular is a vital point of learning it's it's a key point to student attendance to a to dealing with behavior in schools quite frankly we just we have a lot of kids that come to school because of extra curricular and that's a broad spectrum depending upon the size of district it could be someone and diesel mechanics or could be and FFA or could be banned or debate or whatever so my question is is is that I have continually seen a lot of non committal so uh from both the department of health and also with all respect the department of ed in well we strongly recommend I've seen a lot of documents to say when feasible and so we're putting a lot of the onus back up on the individual school districts and although I appreciate the flexibility of local control we're putting a lot of the onus of the judgment of the betterment of the health of the district upon that district so my question is this particular what if in my district back home are marching band has upper three hundred students in it. So let's say the second week of the season and on Friday night they do this fabulous performance but on Tuesday seven of those three hundred band members show up symptomatic. What if that happens what's the department of health going to do to my district. Yes Sir that's that's a good question I mean our response would be to immediately start investigating the circumstances and to see you know what the contacts were of those individuals just because they're symptomatic we know that a lot of symptomatic test negative we would want to get those individuals tested we would want to get them ocellated and remain isolated and to will we either got their test results back or the fin if they are there symptoms cleared so we would go in and we would assess to those contacts were we would isolate the appropriate people and then make a decision on you know how many people that was in what further decisions had to be made so one three hundred member marching band who practice together they March together they play together they sit together. There what you're saying is that you would have a teen coming in from the department of health that would take that that that pool of individuals. And you would do an assessment then on that three hundred member marching band that's correct okay thank you. I would just add Representative insists that that is happening in a small on a smaller scale now with the with the athletic activities and other activities that have been opened up in there have been instances in school districts where there have been positive cases and and that process has. Played out and I think in some cases all I'll say One being I think it's Horatio in represent a boss district that up because they went in and they identified all these elements that they look for they were able to. Ratios able to start back up their work outs we've had other districts where there been cases in because of the the findings districts have chosen to. To stop temporarily stopped the work outs so on a smaller scale and that's what I referred to earlier that when every time one of these things occur as we're learning more about the process and how to best scale that process when it does happen and it will happen hope when school starts in August I appreciate your knowledge in that and I think my the reason I have the concern that I do with that is a fact that yes we're addressing that right now when school is not in session and you mention Horatio and I know that that's one of this you know that it's a smaller district and so we're talking about an athletic team that may have thirty forty student athletes on if you coaches maybe a couple of managers. I'm more concerned about what happens the third week of the season when the three hundred member marching band who has. Multiple elements of the entire student population of of my district who are walking the halls transitioning from classes to classes but yet now they're pulled together in one section on a particular night how are we going to be able to manage the the buzz word contact tracing of the entire student body that's coming potential contact with. That group of students. Thank you. Right. Okay last question Representative Murdock. Bond will get you there there you go thank you madam chair and again thank you to you guys for what you're what you're trying to do and going through this again at that does not go unnoticed Speaker playbook and represent Watson represent what rye has basically went there so it shortens my. question and dissertation on sports and Esther extracurricular activities of. Red Representative rye mentions something this really and critically important you get to talking about touching breathing on each other The the post versus the the pre versus the after I think it makes sense. That we test athletes that are going to be in these congregate situations of before and not necessarily after something happens the after something happens allows for it to become a pandemic if you will be for pre vet. We can isolate identify isolate and then take care of those but we you know what football does you know what those types boards with Kay Kay cannon can leaders into so I think it makes a lot more sense and I know which replace the. The guidelines they've given in there they're very wide the you know I think we need more stringent guidelines to protect of the individuals for some from something happened there by love sports we love sports more play ball we want to see Bob played so that sometime these to be taken out of our hands a question I have is if a district. Deems that. It's not safe. Aboard and superintendent deems is not safe for them to play sports would they be penalized. By triple a or eighty if they say Hey we don't think it's safe to do this for the obvious reasons. They would not be penalized by eighty E. I've as far as triple a I mean I I I really couldn't answer that they whatever the rules regulations and are issued by triple a would be something that Mister Taylor would have to address so triple a as not. Well you may or may not know this issued anything on if a a team decides not to participate for health related reasons covert nineteen related reason there has not been any thing put out on that to your knowledge and not to the to my knowledge addressing that particular instance they of simply they've not issued anything they've taken the health department guidelines and adopted those and stress those as far as the work outs now in the limitations to certain activities like for contact sports like football basketball in the limitations there but and there will A wait I know that Mister Taylor is awaiting the next step from or or the next advice from the health department and us on what they can and can't do you are so my last point was to Mister Adams is yes we have the governor has not yet allow for the touching yes he's a lot of work outs in space which is what we supposed to live by today pretty much space and mask is even in the paper today were team is practicing with mask in space but we know for football basketball to ever work we have to come together we got a block tackle we got to do some things that requires so where are we on that in light of what we are with everything what is the progression of that and what is being in almost of the second week of July and football season some people would play in thirty days all right around thirty days from now and maybe a little more. Where are we. Yes Sir the the the current directives do allow limited contact sports but with the full contact sports those are restricted to individual work outs and separations and we have seen like secretary key said in many instances more than just a ratio those that separation when we had a positive really prevented other students from being affected and I think at this point as we see cases elevated in the state there hasn't been any discussion about moving to a different phase as far as contact sports at least I haven't been involved in that that's a little bit outside my area but I have not been involved in those discussions so I think the directives we have now will be in place for at least the near future so if you would take the suggestion back if we if there is a decision made that we're going to do context ports Morgan old football the touching the and prior to that that we take Representative rise up advice in that all those athletes and staff and whomever would be tested prior to so the we don't just walk into a storm that we know they could be there and most likely is there in light of what's happening throughout the state of Arkansas as a report as we look at the transmission of the virus please accept prior to us going to if we go to the next phase that we do require that the testing happens yes Sir will take that under bike yes Sir. Okay we have had a really good session here I hope everybody's questions have been answered I'm sure that there are more but if you have further questions then only need to do is send them to Michelle. And we will get them answered for you but I appreciate we I think we all appreciate very much the company is spending almost two hours three hours with us because this is a really critically important thing for all of us and for the our kids. So we're gonna hope for the very best and plan for the worst thank you. Okay we've got one more presentation here doctor Debbie Smith a vice president government relations for curriculum associates. Is here to have a discussion on diagnostic X. assessments. Action all data and resources to help mitigate potential academic achievement lost during coded ninety. Doctor Smith. Morning everyone can you hear me yes. Great thank you so very much for having me today I'm really pleased to be here I want to also thank Representative Murdock and Cozart as well as inflation Ellie and FOR making this possible and thank you so much to miss John Timothy for making sure that we were asked in writing and ready to go I thank you thank you Mr since we since twenty seventeen have had over half the districts in Arkansas that it and using our materials and resources it route this state we are a publisher of high quality diagnostic assessment as well as curriculum and resource materials so and we're thrilled to be here or on the state approved list for the science of reading we are also the first year on the state request for interim diagnostic assessments and in this first year we've had fifty two districts that have selected us as a partner so we're really excited to be moving forward as well. When we think about what's happening in the world and we look at things you all we're just talking about all of the different things right they're gonna be happening this year in education in our current environment is a lot of the best right this is what we are seeing as parents and teachers and. Can you hear me. Okay sorry. The Arkansas ready learning model by everything that you are doing is a state is really strong in terms of helping to think about how do we manage and support and provide support your districts our students are teachers and appearance in a pandemic when I think about all that we've experienced I'm I have a niece that graduated this year a graduation looked you know somewhat like this then we actually it was all remote right it was all done be is damn when I think about what kids are facing I listen to what you were talking about earlier this morning and I think about just the whole issue a facemask we have a child that has an auditory processing disorder and one of the things that we've been talking about that he's already concerned about is what happens right whether schools online or in person if a teacher has on a face mask mask for one of his peers he relies heavily on lip reading that's going to be a real challenge right so will we be looking at thank shield or there are masks right that provide and little windows the middle so that you can see people's mounts but I sure that because I think they're going to be many things that we're going to continue to find and pop up just like that we've yet to think about. So we we hundred seventy eight days right that's roughly how long the school year is a hundred and seventy eight days we've got distance learning plans that are all over the board the state is doing I think a really nice job of putting together that lay that helping districts to get really focus what districts are dealing with are a lot of different things number one right work kids really engaged when school was out and we had distance learning in place where kids when they get a new learning or was it really practice based on what had already been taught with one hundred and seventy eight days or something that we've never faced before we're looking at a landscape it's really different right so kids are coming back not just for the summer learning loss but also with spring lost and so as we think about where we start you're all talking about this you're doing I think the right thing in terms of having diagnostic assessments for Kate eight for districts to really understand where our students data is such an important place to start it doesn't assume anything right we often say that it's really important to to just kind of recognize that kids are often smarter than we think they are right and using data to see where they are and what they've learned is gonna be more important now than ever before. Spring summer learning loss what I want to do today is shared with you here's some data that really looks at what are we seeing that you can kind of take that data and think about what is needed in terms of our professional development in terms of how we support educators with their distance learning plans right all of those things so as we move forward we start thinking about how do we teach not only just a year's worth of curriculum right state standards that we thought without ground to make up as well. Because we are a diagnostic assessment company but we tie everything to an integrated high quality curriculum need a lot of data that we are able to already begin looking out as we look at what's been happening in the spring and the summer this is a national look but I think we can in really stayed that we're gonna see similar things throughout the year I want you to really look at here is take a look at all look at where students typically start in the fall and then you look at winter and see where it if the we are right as they're working toward their way three with school year gaining that years worth of growth at a minimum that we want them to gain but what we already started to see based on data from spring in terms of instruction and assessment data is that the gap right thank you would normally experience going into the fall is going to be much much larger so as you look at this data and what you're seeing here if you pay attention to the number of points tried or the percentages what you're really seeing is that we're comparing lost right and as to what we typically observe based on the national norms and it shows that that that learning laws is going to be three to four times larger what we don't know is is that really because kids have been out of school so long in there is that learning loss or is it really a combination of that and the kids really were not taught some of the skills that would have been a part of their grade level curriculum the year prior and that's most likely it right because we really were all doing what we called I have many of my friends called crisis teaching right which was just trying to keep working and ensuring as much as possible that they weren't losing what they had are getting this is a huge huge loss of when you think about and you start to work we know how important that your great year is writer kids gonna be ready are they reading at grade level what happens is they meet on a fourth level fourth grade level right we're really start we really believe and know from the date we're seeing that we're gonna see ends that are how. Being in really almost at the same level that they would have been a year prior so that means that not only right do we have to make that or and teach the current grade level that we also about a really look closely at where our kids right and how much ground we have to make up from the prior year I listen to people talking about will it may take you know two to three weeks just to kind of get kids and educators used to what does it mean to teach in this environment and I go back to that hundred seventy eight days and as legislators I would hope right that you're thinking about how do we provide professional development as quickly as possible so that educators have access to you understanding and training right for what does this look like how do we how do we ensure right that we can really help kids and educators make up this broker they're gonna be prepared for that. It is more than one year of grant. So we think about we have an assessment that is called I ready so when we say curriculum associates a lot of times people may or may not recognize that but the notices the I. ready people and we have two models of growth we have two perspectives right so we will get local grant which is when I was showing you some of now which is what is the what is the average credit for a student at a given level right and how do we make comparisons about where they are and what they need we also look at stretch grant and this is really key right every year we do that but it's even more important now so what it does ambitious goals that create stretch grants that we help teachers have a true right now and plan of action to get kids to grade level proficiency and beyond. So one of the things that we've been talking about with educators and districts in your state that are using our products are assessment and our curriculum is to think about what our pre requisite needs so I it would share with you and I have a niece that just returned to swim lessons not long ago and so she had been swimming right throughout the year how they came a quick swim team she was a fairly new swimmer right went back just winning and one of the first things that I had a coach that was Hey you know we like for you guys to do I want you to jump in and you have the backstroke to went into the pool and then do the butterfly back well the prerequisite skills that she needs to have mastered for that really are two things you need to build whoa and she also he's been holder breath or water I sure that because it's similar to what educators are going to have to figure out when they come back to school with kids right if I have to go back and re teach them a quarter and the year standards along with the current grade level standards it's likely going to be really difficult right and really impossible so what we're really focusing on it how do we help just right how do we help them think about prerequisite skills what a look at that right so if I know that I'm trying to teach kids to understand place value what a pre requisite skills that I can really focus on how I help teachers and bill Buckley and forward so that they can help kids B. X. be successful and now what are the or standards that I need to teach I would encourage you as a state right as we're delivering professional development for educators to help educators think through these things and identify what are those prerequisite skills we're providing that in a pre requisite report and it's something that every district is going to need support in dealing so when I think about right understanding hundred stands and why and if the student is unable to add and subtract within a thousand were rounded to the nearest ten or one hundred and they're gonna be challenged with being able to do that ill that's the kind of the. Information that we want to be providing educators with it's the kind of thing that we want to be talking about professional development and ultimately hopefully right providing districts with materials and products like an I. ready product that will automatically students into a learning path and really help teachers make choices about what I teach that's gonna help me get those kids to grade level right we're right really I start. You heard on the department top about windows learning it is absolutely critical and so as we think about blended learning there were many questions about what happens with kids that maybe don't have good broadband and how does not work we traveled to see family a few weeks ago and I'll tell you we were up in the mountains and I've never been so frustrated in my life with not being able to access right when I needed you or certain things I can't imagine as a parent. OC with it's actually now I can't imagine it right and so that brought be in peace is important but in the absence of battery the combined with that having products in the cherry hills that are going to provide that the print materials as well as online materials are gonna be G. right because we have to think about it from an equity perspective how do we ensure that all kids are going to get what they need so we are focused on providing high quality programs that tightly integrate with assessment and instruction but that means that teacher instructional materials right there should be some things that are online there should be some things that thank you eight eight or even based in an online format as well as that personalized learning and that's really going to be key as we're trying to think about how do we help kids they got round right how do we get eight. So that blended learning piece is going to be key when we think about criterion referenced what we really mean by that is you heard the department talk about this IT talked about this you need to be focused on grade level standards they need to be focused on what our state standards we provide that that information as well as armed information you probably have lots of schools that also have that more information that Norman permission as comparing kids to get right now all kids are going to come into this with being somewhat behind right so what we really need to be paying attention to what's where our kids in relation to the standards so that we know what we teach right so having the blended learning in the online materials that you're providing is yes quality is she having this printed materials in online in combination at having strong teacher materials they're going to help them deliver a high quality blended learning experience for kids will be G. as well so the other thing is having an integrated curriculum and assessment program is going to be really important because if you get a school or I remember as a teacher getting a square in my classroom and I had to take that data right and figure out what how do I pledge that in to everything else that the district has given me access to write I don't I do that for each student a high quality blended learning experience for kids is what really take back data points teachers to where you need to go how do I grew my kids right how do why. Begin to provide instruction again right online in person whatever that looks like how it gets on a personalized learning task all needs to be well connected because now more than ever remember we talked about we have basically hundred seventy eight days what we gonna do with that hundred and seventy eight days to make sure that we get everything and that kids are going to need to be exposed to. So what can you do as a policy maker there's a few things right one is to recognize quality what does it mean to have a follow the programmer all the materials are district using quality materials there are some sites like and reports that ARE national that are nonprofit that will evaluate all kinds of products and ensure you also looking at those kinds of things are asking districts to do not right to ensure that when we're choosing beings and we're spending our money are we spending on things that really have a strong research base I'm are we sure that they are quality it really well aligned to articulate eight center at this thing on that grants to grade level getting educators information that's going to get them both from regular rye grass thinking about what is a typical years where the grants to what is stretch right and how do we how do we plan for getting kids to that stretch right goal in order to use some of you Senate right not well using not losing students right we don't want kids to fall through the gaps that I am I read several things that Senate what happens right to this whole generation of kids and we have kids that are going to continue to struggle and not necessarily be of level this is gonna be a really important that all year for all of us with these kids and how do we how do we set ourselves up well to be sure that were really providing quality instruction that blended learning supported she and the PD so you guys talked before about PT in PT requirements and professional development is going to be really important so as I think about what is it me as a classroom teacher each just be as how do I help kids do group work right how do we set that up in my classroom how do I work in small groups versus now we're back in the classroom this week right what is that look like all of those things are going to need to be really have a very strong focus and I fear that if we wait until the week before school starts that's going to be that's going to be a big challenge. So I want to do this really quickly because I know you were trying to get out at noon and so and we want to stop and kind of take a moment and see if you have any questions or there are things that we can answer for you. Thank you very much so doctor up. To the Smith Alan of you have some some of remarks that you'd like to make some questions. The. I think are you is your microphone. The good there you go all right good morning I want to take this opportunity to thank and the members of this committee for hearing this discussion on how to mitigate lost during Kobe nineteen and I want to thank my colleague did B. Smith who's here today and one of the reasons that we wanted to have this discussion we had this conversation with Representative Murdock en masse in this when the kids come back to school this year is going to be I'm precedent loss the literature is now calling it the Clovis slide we used to call it the summer slide that Keith would regress to the moon for a month or so but now it's going to be several months some key aides who did not have access to technology maybe a pool you're behind and teachers when they get ready to start education for the summer and fall will not know where to start unless you have a clear diagnostic assessment early on that will PM point exactly where the gap E. is support each individual check out without that you shooting in the dark and you have to have diagnostic testing I'm so pleased that the secretary up recommended that to you that you need diagnostic testing but with that test once you know where the Gabby is what do you do about it. You also need companies that already had materials that online and ready to go to help you plug that get if not we're going to have these I'm president at losses with Arkansas already struggling ACT forty six in the nation we cannot afford to. I have this gap along with the other things that we have to do so hearing from experts from around the country Debbie did not mention that she was formerly the director of assessment and accountability for the state of Oklahoma and I'm pleased that she's here she's also been a policy director for different assessment companies and we're happy that she's here I'm serve on the council of chief state school officers large scale assist the committee and people around the country are beginning to talk about these diagnostic assessment is going to be important that you have them and that they can do the early on so that parents will know where the kids are even the brightest kids will see some laws so that Kobe nineteen slide won't just be for impoverished Keter kids of color coded nineteen will have no color in the sliding academic progress and so it's going to be really important that we take a look at that and thank you again for having this brief discussion and we are ready for any questions that you might have and before I do that we have a no the member that of the team is in the audience of the Listia Walker and if you have any questions you can answer the mixed with I thank you I think we have one question hold on. Representative Murdock. Thank you madam chair and thank you this doctor Allen for being here and presenting at this to us this opportunity hopefully so you talk about the is the diagnostic assessment for the students of the development for the teachers is that a part of your assessment or what you would do is can assess what they are because we've heard a lot today about teachers being ready to teach in all situations but they have them needing the support and I'm hearing a lot that are teachers really going to need a lot of support as we enter into this storm once again together so. Do you on that type of Support. Yes go ahead yeah yes we do and it's absolutely it's a part of what we do right and so forty percent of our company is actually focused on implementation and support including professional development we have been working all through the summer already offering all kinds it free professional development to educators I share the report the pre requisite report which is a way to really help educators with their instruction that helping them as well we have PT where they will and get more experience and hands on conversations right about how do I really use this in my classroom as well as what is that look like to really deliver instruction in a blended learning format so it is need for educators we've talked you guys were talking about this and rightly so but ensuring that educators know how do I manage right if I'm in a place where I can activity is a fantastic or how do I manage right great great connective itty but what does it look like for me where I've got kids on A. B. scheduled meeting some kids are coming and Monday Wednesday summer Tuesday Thursday or what is that look like right of summer doing morning summer doing after a. All of those things play into you how do you set up your learning so what's going to be direct instruction versus what am I going to have kids work on on there and independent we is that paper based is that online based we offer all of those tools for teachers to choose from but certainly the professional development to support them as they begin to set that up in a way that's going to work for them based on their school structure in this unprecedented time okay and my last at real quick is. As we deal with virtual education the home is important to that do you in any kind of way incorporate how we can best deal with the diversity of of of different homes if you will and how they can be addressed to assist in the process because virtue education is gonna depend on the home a lot in a whole lot about the home dealing with that situation it it to assist absolutely yeah I know absolutely we have three then this last spring one of the things that we did was we made multiple materials free for educators so we turned on our teacher toolbox rate which we provided taken packets that can be downloaded but as a part of that we created materials that were notes to parents right so things when they log in online right things to think about and that's to them or if that they have right if they were working in a paper based and send of materials I think when you talk about how we manage that right how do we think about that we have to be ready for absolutely everything I will tell you while I didn't share and show you data from it today I can say that unequivocally one of the things that we saw on the screen is that when students were testing from home there was definitely and a parent doctor help after ray internally we kinda all that the mom of the month actor right that kids were doing weighing better right then we were seeing them dear when you look at your past when they were testing at home so that prompted us to also put together guidance and some different and screens and things that will come up the best help parents think about you know your child needs to take this assessment on their own right in order for educator teacher back to really help your student your child no right what do they and do they not now so really letting them do that on. This can be important and I think that's that is a good example of all the different things right that we're having to kind of think about trying to it just as we go along but when I when I think about part of what you said here it is right how do we how do we account for kids that have a lot of help and we account for kids that down and I think for districts to you know are choosing additional materials and products one of the best things that I think we can be for kids often times is to give them a book so our partners right a lot of our districts they're using our diagnostic and instruction they also have that book right that they can send home like kids in many cases and I think that's going to become pretty important as well it's not all can work really well all the time thank for everybody. Thank you so much thank you for your presentation. Thank you very much this is a been. Appreciate you all being here this is some very good information from a different angle. Saying after what we've heard this morning from a different angle so I appreciate that very much of anybody else have any other questions. Thank you so much for coming making the presentation we appreciated I think we've all learned a lot today I appreciate everybody hang in in here because I don't think anybody's left except maybe John. Thank you guys thank you thank you very much for being here. Thank you bye bye.