Remote Learning Rules and Reminders
ISBE and IDPH's Part 5 Guidance, last published August 9, 2021, required all schools to return to fully in-person learning:
"provided that, pursuant to 105 ILCS 5/10-30 and 105 ILCS 5/34-18.66, remote instruction be made available for students who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine or who are not eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, only while they are under quarantine consistent with guidance or requirements from a local public health department or the Illinois Department of Public Health."
Part 5 Guidance, pp.4-5 (with emphasis added). The guidance limits remote instruction only to those students who are unvaccinated or unable to be vaccinated and subject to quarantine. While Part 5.10 of Title 23 of the Administrative Code provides broad latitude to Boards, during the Proclamation of a Disaster, to create remote learning plans, the limitations of such plans or their application during the 2021-2022 school year have not yet been tested. School Districts that have approved e-learning plans pursuant to 10-20.56 of the Illinois School Code (105 ILCS 5/10-20.56) may have the ability to avert making up emergency days, but it is not clear how remote learning applied to the broader population of students will be treated at this time. Generally, emergency days must be made up pursuant to 10-19 of the School Code (105 ILCS 5/10-19), which, of course, carries with it bargaining implications.
In addition, school districts who have a policy permitting remote educational programs pursuant to Section 10-29 of the School Code (applicable to address individual student learning needs with specific learning goals among other school responsibilities) should ensure that any use of remote learning consistent with those programs is consistent with the school's board policy (to the extent it exists) permitting remote educational programs.
Schools are well-advised to carefully consider remote learning plans in cooperation with their teachers and unions, and to make decisions only after understanding consequences after communication with the local regional office of education and ISBE.