(INDIANAPOLIS) – For a second straight year, schools which took some of their classes online due to the pandemic won’t lose money over it, under a bill headed for the House floor.
Indiana law says if more than half your classes are held online, you’re a virtual school and receive less money. That created problems when school started last fall, with illnesses and quarantines causing a wave of e-learning days.
House Education Chairman Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis) says even Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner wasn’t immune. In the first two months of the school year, he says Jenner’s daughters spent four weeks in e-learning due to quarantines.
Behning says legislative leaders realized even before the session began that the quarantines could cause a repeat of the virtual-school dilemma. The Senate has already passed a bill unanimously to make sure schools get their full funding. The House could vote next week.
On Thursday, the Indiana Department of Health announced it’ll no longer require students and teachers who test positive to quarantine, effective Wednesday. The department points to declining case numbers and a large number of cases with mild or no symptoms. The department still recommends a five-day quarantine after a positive test, and an additional five days of wearing a mask around others. And it says students should still stay home until they’ve gone a full day without a fever.
