By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
With severe flooding one day and snow, ice and frigid temperatures the next, Kentucky students are subject to multi-day hiatuses from their schooling, putting many districts in danger of not complying with the commonwealth’s law.
Typically, public schools are allotted ten Non-Traditional Instruction days, which is “a program that encourages the continuation of learning on days when the entire district is closed,” with NTI days counting towards the required 170 student attendance days and the minimum 1,062 instructional hours.
Barren County Schools has used five NTI days, Glasgow Independent Schools has used three and Caverna Independent Schools has used seven.
Kentucky House Bill 241 aims to alleviate public schools by lengthening school days. According to the bill, a district can attain the 170 days by adding time to attendance days with the provision that “a day shall not exceed seven hours of instructional time.” On Feb. 20 the bill was “posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for…Feb. 21” with an amendment that allows the commissioner of education to approve up to five disaster relief student attendance days.
Due to the bill also being a disaster declaration, it will go into effect upon its passage into law.
