(WXYZ) — Michigan's state superintendent is raising concerns about students spending less time in classrooms due to legislative changes that could reduce in-person instruction days.
Watch Whitney Burney's video report:
Dr. Michael Rice says that while state law requires students to receive 180 days of instructional time each school year, recent policy changes have significantly reduced actual classroom time.
"The concern is that our young people need time, not simply for academics, hugely important, but also the social-emotional interaction that they have with their peers in schools. So critical that they get the opportunity to interact with their fellow students, that they get to practice," Rice said.
Rice points to two legislative changes that have reduced classroom time. In 2019, lawmakers allowed teachers' professional development days to count as instructional time even though students are not present on these days. Then in 2023, the legislature permitted up to 15 virtual school days annually.
These changes, combined with nine days that can already be forgiven for things like inclement weather or power outages, could reduce students' in-person learning to as few as 149 days per year.
Rice expressed particular frustration with the 2023 decision to count virtual days as equivalent to in-person instruction.
"It's hard to understand why, in 2023, our state legislature decided coming out of a pandemic that virtual days were every bit as good as in-person days. We had just come out of pandemic. We had just tested this hypothesis and found that as a rule, remote or virtual days were not as helpful, were not as impactful," Rice said.
While Rice acknowledges the importance of weather-related cancellations and teacher development, he believes the teacher training days shouldn't come at the expense of in-person learning time. He hopes state legislators will reconsider both policy changes. It's unclear if there is a particular piece of legislation being considered currently by state lawmakers.
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