As communities within our state respond to a COVID-19 outbreak, OSPI and the State Board of Education (SBE) have sent resources to school districts to aid in providing continued educational services during the current school facilities closure.
For updates about providing educational services, visit these pages:
OSPI Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Guidance & Resources SBE COVID-19 Information
Online options: We are monitoring progress on initial assessment options. iReady and eCASAS have remote testing available. Other testing programs are currently piloting remote and online access.
Do you have any online assessment options that you can share with us? Please contact us using the emails below!
Onsite options: There are some physical distancing options that might be available to your program, pending approval from your district administration. Here is the guidance from the “Allowable Building Activities” section (emphasis added for Open Doors application) from the OSPI Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Guidance page:
Per the Governor’s directive, during mandatory closures, school districts are prohibited from providing in-person educational, recreational, and other K–12 school programs using their school buildings and facilities.
Districts will not be prevented from using their facilities to provide child care, for individual staff to remotely lead or develop content for professional learning or staff meetings, to hold Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, to provide direct services to individual students, or for other activities deemed essential and necessary by the district administration.
If districts determine that the use school facilities to provide educational services is essential and necessary under state or federal law, the following guidelines must be followed:
- Consistent with the timeline of the Governor’s Stay Home, Stay Healthy directive, no group meetings of staff, including for professional learning or staff meetings, should occur. School districts should utilize online, phone, or other alternatives to address this need.
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Facilities should only be used for providing direct services to individual students where there is no alternative for the service delivery and both the service is necessary and essential AND the use of the facility is both necessary and essential. This is expected to be an unusual occurrence.
- Facilities are not to be used for providing direct services to groups of students.
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Any gatherings within school facilities must comply with applicable social distancing directives and health guidelines. Districts must continue to monitor and implement guidance from state and local health officials.
In practice, students scheduled for testing one at a time in a large room could work, with all surfaces cleaned and computers/tools re-cleaned after each student.
Students who are unable to test for GED are encouraged to proceed with the GED + (Plus) part of their program:
- What are their interests for post-GED? Have they updated their High School & Beyond Plan (HSBP)?
- Are there studies and certifications per their HSBP they can pursue beginning now? What skills do they need?
- Might they consider pursuing a high school diploma?
Students can complete high school credits and earn their diploma. (GED preparation can count toward high school credits, if your school district policy allows it).
- What are some case management activities you can provide for them in the way of procuring housing, finding jobs, pursuing college admissions, gaining skills in their field of interest?
The waiting for GED testing to re-open is a challenge, but we have many options in our tool chest to keep students moving toward their post-secondary goals.
Note: Pearson Vue has targeted late May for remote GED testing availability.
New guidance is now available for grading high school credits during the COVID-19 emergency:
OPSI student learning and grading guidance COVID-19 Grading FAQs
Some key points from this guidance include encouraging programs to "Do no harm".
- Letter or numerical grading should be limited to A, B, C, D, 1, 2, 3, 4, and incomplete; districts that use a ‘Pass/Fail’ designation for a course, class, or program prior to March 17, 2020 may continue to award ‘P’ grades for those courses or classes.
- Students may not receive a failing or ‘F’ grade. These classes must use an ‘Incomplete’ designation for the remainder of the 2019–20 school year.
This includes credit retrieval, competency, and worksite learning courses that previously used ‘Pass/Fail’ designations.
All transcripts for a grading term, semester, quarter, or trimester that included closure days in the 2019–20 school year due to the COVID-19 emergency will have a COVID-19 designation.
Be sure to collaborate with your district and administration in determining your next steps for grading high school credits.
Do you have students who needed testing opportunities in order to graduate, but those testing options were cancelled due to COVID-19?
OSPI has published this FAQ detailing support for students in the Class of 2020 or earlier classes (2014–19). Questions 10-18 (pages 3-5) explain the Expedited Assessment Achievement (EAA) waiver.
- For students in the Class of 2020, the EAA can waive the graduation pathway requirement or, if applicable, the Certificate of Individual Achievement (CIA) requirement.
For students in the Class of 2019 or earlier classes, it can waive the Certificate of Academic Achievement (CAA) or the Certificate of Individual Achievement (CIA) requirement.
(Excerpted and condensed from OSPI's "Supporting Migrant/English Learners through school closures", Appendix C.)
Social-emotional learning (SEL) is broadly understood as a process through which individuals build awareness and skills in managing emotions, setting goals, establishing relationships, and making responsible decisions that support success in school and in life. The Washington State Social Emotional Learning Framework describes six social-emotional learning competencies, including self-awareness, self-management, self-efficacy, social awareness, social management, and social engagement.
Supporting students’ social-emotional needs requires educators to intentionally create learning environments that validate student participation and voice, respect diverse views and opinions, promote respectful language and action, and create a sense of community.
When supporting students through continuous learning, it is important to work from the lens that “kids do well if they can.” Ideas for supporting social and emotional learning during continuous learning include:
- Begin lessons with routine opportunities for students and staff to check-in with how they are feeling and what they need to be mentally ready to focus on work.
- Select culturally relevant reading content that can provide opportunities for students to learn how others manage their emotions in a variety of situations.
- Teach explicit strategies for conflict resolution and anger management, ask them to share when they used the strategy and how well they worked.
- Teach students to identify the emotion they are feeling, and possible strategies for successfully managing it, e.g., it is okay to be angry, but it is not okay to hurt people or things.
- Debrief student communications that involve social/emotional struggles as an opportunity to use and reinforce previously learned language and coping skills, e.g., what happened, how did it make you feel, did you get a desired outcome, what else could you have tried.
- Introduce students to a variety of apps or online sites to help them manage or monitor physical and mental health, e.g., fitness tracker, apps to support sleep, meditation, yoga, taking breaks.
- Provide and teach students strategies for self-calming and managing anxiety, e.g., quiet time, painting, singing, listening to music, drawing, writing, exercising.
We are working on providing guidance for summer apportionment for Open Doors programs, and expect to have an update available in the May newsletter.
These updates will include Face-to-Face options, IAP counting, Weekly Status Check documentation.
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GATE Equity Webinar Series Regular monthly webinars. Information and registration available through the GATE website.
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RAPSA Webinar Serving At-Promise Students During Covid-19 Crisis: How are you handling Graduations and other Senior Activities? Friday, May 1, 2020, 11:00 am. Register here.
2019-2020 Newsletters
August: Standardized Testing & Continuous Enrollment September: Annual Reporting October: Student Engagement for Retention November: HSBP & Graduation Pathways December: School Improvement Plans & Choice Transfer January: Student Success through a Growth Mindset February: Washington School Improvement Measures March: Open Doors and COVID-19 School Closures
Contact Liz Quayle for 2018-2019 or 2017-2018 newsletter topics.
Liz and Laurie are telecommuting during the current closures.
To reach Liz, use the email and phone contact information below. To reach Laurie, please use the email below, or call her cell at 360-878-1342.
Please note that we cannot currently provide more specific guidance about the school closures than the information posted on the OSPI COVID-19 Guidance and Resources pages listed above.
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