Recommendations & Requirements

Ensure that remote learning plans, revised based on feedback and input from school leaders, educators, families, and students, are distributed to all involved stakeholders in their home language. Create opportunities for ongoing feedback.

Make expectations clear to school leaders and teachers around hybrid or remote instruction that include:

• Best practices for blended or remote learning;
• Grade-level proficiencies;
• Modes of student assessment and feedback;
• Differentiated support for students;
• The inclusion of social-emotional learning;
• Guidance around daily instructional time and workload per different grade bands to ensure consistency for students."

Secure supports for students who are transitioning to postsecondary.

Conduct checkpoints with school leaders around curriculum and instruction and ongoing monitoring of student progress, specifically honing in on the progress of students in need of additional support.

Phases 1-3: Review students’ IEPs, IFSPs, and 504 plans in coordination with general and special education teachers to reflect the child’s evolving needs based on assessment data and parent feedback, and design accommodations and match services accordingly.

• Commence intervention and support services. Plans must include all programs and learning environments, especially
  special education, birth to five services, and
  CTE.
• Establish structures for general and special education teachers to collaborate on delivery methods for assessments and instruction as outlined in IEPs. Consider students’ needs around accessibility and provide assistive technologies, where possible."

Phases 4 and 5: Revise students’ IEPs, IFSPs, and 504 plans in coordination with general and special education teachers to reflect the child’s evolving needs based on assessment data and parent feedback, and design accommodations and match services accordingly.

• Commence intervention and support services. Plans must include all programs and learning environments, especially
  special education, birth to five services, and
  CTE.
• Establish structures for general and special education teachers to collaborate on delivery methods for assessments and instruction as outlined in IEPs. Consider students’ needs around accessibility and provide assistive technologies, where possible."

Remain connected with MDE about policies and guidance.

Ensure that every student:

• Has access to standards-aligned, grade-level instruction, including strategies to accelerate student learning;
• Is assessed to determine student readiness to engage in grade-level content;
• Is offered scaffolds and supports to meet their diverse academic and social-emotional needs"

Conduct a review of each students’ IEP in partnership with teachers and parents to reflect each student’s evolving needs based on time away from associated services including OT, PT, and Speech while school buildings were closed.

Set expectations for schools and teachers to integrate high quality digital tools and resources that are appropriate and sustainable at each grade level, to increase teachers’ and students’ familiarity with online learning in case of a return to remote instruction.

Support schools to communicate regularly with families in their home language about their child’s progress and the targeted plans for students in need of additional support.

Continue to provide professional learning and training through virtual modes for educators to:

• Offer restorative supports for teachers and learning around equity and implicit bias, social-emotional learning, and culturally responsive education;
• Share knowledge, continuously learn, and exchange ideas, successes and failures around remote learning;
• Share information and data about students’ assessment results, progress, and completed assignments;
• Learn how to use the school’s digital systems and tools appropriately and sustainably
• Build capacity around high-quality remote learning.
  Utilize structures, such as professional learning communities, for educators to collaborate on prototypes for a week’s worth of instruction to establish consistency and an appropriate workload.

Provide adequate time for schools and educators to engage in:

• Identify students who did not engage in remote learning and develop a plan to provide additional supports, if needed. Share data and concerns about each student’s growth and needs with students’ assigned teacher(s) for the 2020-2021 school year