It has been widely reported across California, and likely something you’re struggling with yourself if you’re on the inside of a District or School site: the new independent study law, designed to eliminate last year’s distance learning model, is NOT working for students who need a short-term plan while they quarantine because of Covid-19.

Independent study has been around for a long time, geared mostly for the rare elite athletes, child actors, and the like. In that model, parents (or expensive private tutors) are present to monitor progress and teachers create packets of work and check-in periodically. The newly added requirements still expect a lengthy paperwork application, a reassignment to a different teacher, and then add weekly live check-ins and limited caseloads for staff.

The program is simply NOT working for short-term quarantine situations. Students are missing instruction and districts are racking up a lot of absences.

The Legislators’ intent made some sense at the time, but that was prior to the surge in the COVID-19 Delta variant. Now, we’re seeing hundreds or even thousands of students, depending on the size of the district, who are out on short-term quarantine. By the time arrangements and paperwork are confirmed for Independent Study, the students are back in the classroom. In many cases, the days out of school are counted as absences, affecting both student access to a quality education as well as the bottom line for District budgets.

There are several other facets to this story and the Cal Matters article, linked below, covers them well. There’s also some talk in Sacramento about making adjustments, but nothing solid yet.

Click HERE for the Cal Matters article written by Joe Hong.

TRiGroup, Inc. Advice:

Keep an ear open for potential changes coming to the Independent Study Law. And, keep a watchful eye on your local numbers, including quarantines, reported absences, and verified infections. The best way out of this situation is to prevent the infections as best as possible. If your District hasn’t yet mandated vaccines, do so as soon as possible. Even though the Governor just announced a student vaccine mandate statewide, that won’t take effect until at least next summer and he’s encouraging local action sooner.