Facing internet challenges, some rural Indiana school districts want longer in-person school days

Student sanitizes hands during in-person learning in a Brown County schools classroom
Students attend in-person class at a Brown County school. (Courtesy Laura Hammack/Brown County Schools)

Even though many Indiana districts have reopened campuses, some school superintendents want the freedom to offer fewer instruction days — so that they can better prepare teachers and adapt to the unpredictable constraints imposed by the COVID-19 virus.

They promise not to shortchange students. Seven school systems, including the Indianapolis-based Paramount charter school network, are proposing longer school days while they can safely provide in-person learning. That could free up days for teacher training. 

Indiana requires schools to offer 180 teaching days each year. If the State Board of Education approves the waiver, those seven districts would be able to measure instructional time in hours rather than days. The state board could consider the waiver at its next meeting Oct. 7. 

Brown County Schools, one of the districts seeking a waiver from state laws, wants flexibility in how it will keep students and staff safe if the coronavirus forces more social limitations, Superintendent Laura Hammack said.  

Leaders of the seven school districts, most of them rural, want to have more time to train teachers, particularly in transitioning from in-person to virtual instruction. Offering remote learning is particularly tough in agricultural areas with limited broadband connectivity.

“Really only about 40% of our student population is able to have access to high-speed internet” strong enough to function with school programs, Hammack said. “We want to be thoughtful about how we measure the school year.”

Hammack called the waiver application “thinking outside the box.” 

Scot Croner, superintendent of Wa-Nee Community Schools in rural northern Indiana, said that while 90% of students have internet access, less than 50% have reliable hard-wired internet in their homes. Students may use a hot spot off of a parent phone, or spotty dish-based internet service.

The district serves a significant Amish population, who are not permitted to do e-learning. 

“We have to do a lot more just traditional paper packets,” Croner said, meaning worksheets without much instruction. “Certainly, we can do remote learning and make it count for the sake of counting as instructional days,” he said. But “we had concerns to the level of actual learning kids were accomplishing.”

The Latest

Indiana schools must now have cell phone bans. We want to know how that’s impacting you.

Colorado high school students had big decreases in SAT scores which officials believe are partly due to changes to the test.

The Chicago Teachers Union and charter advocates are stepping up help for school board candidates

The number of Newark Public Schools students in need of special education services is rising. During the first week of school, some students with disabilities missed class due to enrollment issues.

Student attendance has improved incrementally since 2022, but Indiana officials hope more data can help schools identify students with attendance issues and intervene sooner.

Summers are getting not just hotter, but longer. That presents challenges for districts with and without air conditioning.