The Anchorage School District said Thursday that it would no longer rely on remote instruction on days when schools are closed due to weather, after Alaska Education Commissioner Deena Bishop told districts earlier this month to reconsider the practice.
Anchorage Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt announced the change in an email Thursday. He said the district had enough school days on its calendar to allow for two weather-related school closure days without requiring make-up days. But if schools are closed for more than two days, the district would add additional in-person instructional time to meet the minimum number of school days required under state law.
State law requires a minimum of 170 days in session every school year. The Anchorage district calendar includes 172 instructional days.
Anchorage has historically made up school days by converting one of 10 in-service days to an instructional days; extending school days for several days or weeks; adding days to the end of the school year; or converting vacation days to instructional days.
The change marks a return to the district’s pre-pandemic practice regarding weather days. After 2021, the district began using “remote learning” on days when schools were closed due to inclement weather. But Bishop said during a state board of education meeting earlier this month that the practice was harming students by reducing in-person instruction time.
Bryantt said that in the future, the Anchorage School District would indicate ahead of time what days could be used as instructional make-up days if weather forces school closures.
“I believe this will be a helpful adjustment for our community that will enhance transparency and allow families to plan ahead,” he said.
The change in Anchorage — Alaska’s largest school district — comes after the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, which is the state’s second-largest district, said last week that it would follow Bishop’s request and suspend the use of remote learning days.
Schools in both Anchorage and Mat-Su have made regular use of remote learning days in recent years, including several times earlier this year.