{"id":115122,"date":"2026-02-16T10:39:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/115122\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T10:39:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:39:22","slug":"pa-education-advocates-caution-against-too-much-remote-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/115122\/","title":{"rendered":"Pa. education advocates caution against too much remote learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month\u2019s historic snowstorm<\/a> sent schools across Allegheny County online, in some cases for an entire week.<\/p>\n

WESA tracked remote learning across the region as crews worked to clean up snow-covered roads in the days that followed the winter storm. On Friday, Jan. 30, 33 school districts and charter schools \u2014 more than half of public schools countywide \u2014 opted for remote learning.<\/p>\n

For some students and families, these remote days were a welcome continuation of classroom lessons. For others, however, online and asynchronous instruction meant missing the essential services they rely on to access their right to public education, protected by federal law.<\/p>\n

Pam Harbin, a former Pittsburgh Public Schools board member, runs the parent support hotline offered by the Education Rights Network, a parent advocacy group based in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe heard from so many families\u2026 on our hotlines during remote learning, and the stories show us that remote learning doesn’t affect all students equally,\u201d Harbin said. \u201cIt lands hardest on the students who are already the most vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania schools can offer remote or virtual instruction as long as they meet the number of school days or instructional hours required by state law, according to Department of Education spokesperson Erin James.<\/p>\n

Schools must provide students at least 180 days of instruction, or 900 hours of instruction for kindergarten and elementary students. For secondary students, the number of instructional hours required is 990 hours.<\/p>\n

State law allows schools the discretion to configure their school year however they\u2019d like, James said, as long as they continue to meet all state academic standards and students\u2019 individual instructional needs.<\/p>\n

But Harbin says not all instructional hours are created equal. Remote learning across the region varied greatly during the snowstorm fallout, with some schools teaching students over live video, while others prepared lesson packets for students to complete on their own time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are completely different experiences,\u201d Harbin said. \u201cAnd for many students with disabilities, the difference matters enormously, and it directly impacts whether a student can participate or benefit from instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitigating the impact of remote learning<\/p>\n

Research<\/a> shows that remote learning during the pandemic was a primary driver of widening achievement gaps between high-poverty and low-poverty schools, as well as by race.<\/p>\n

But other studies show shorter, more temporary disruptions to in-person learning \u2014 such as snow days<\/a> or teacher strikes<\/a> of less than two weeks \u2014 don\u2019t lead to significant learning declines.<\/p>\n

Still, Harbin said that schools that go online without carefully considering how they will meet the needs of students with disabilities and other vulnerable groups are setting families up to struggle.<\/p>\n

PPS is still making up the more than 600,000 hours<\/a> of learning time students with disabilities missed out on during the pandemic. More learning days lost, Harbin said, could add to that total.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law is clear, if a student with a disability can’t participate in or benefit from the way instruction is being delivered, the district is breaking its legal promise to that child and the family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The commonwealth\u2019s Department of Education advises that, prior to making instructional changes, schools should consider how they will impact special education programs, access to meals provided in school and before- and after-school care.<\/p>\n

Some districts, like Deer Lakes and Sto-Rox school districts, offered families grab-and-go breakfasts and lunches while schools were operating remotely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose schools that have pre-planned for those situations are those where the students end up being the most successful,\u201d said Hetal Dhagat, a senior attorney with the Education Law Center in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

But Dhagat said schools around the region would be prepared for these disruptions if they met with families in advance. She said that\u2019s especially important for students with disabilities, who often depend on individualized, in-person support during the school day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve seen better results when the school stays in communication with parents and students with disabilities, explaining, if they can, what’s coming up in advance, and then afterwards being able to discuss with the [Individualized Education Plan] team if make-up services are necessary,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

After-school providers like the Boys and Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania say better coordination between districts and community partners would also help ensure students can participate in remote instruction.<\/p>\n

Rumors of an ICE agent approaching Taylor Allderdice High School\u2019s campus in Squirrel Hill last week had students and teachers on high alert.<\/p>\n

In the days following the recent winter storm, the Boys and Girls Clubs opened two of its clubhouses, in Millvale and Somerset, to working families who needed childcare while schools were remote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they are in our clubhouses for the flexible instruction days, they have that hands-on support from our staff,\u201d said Kara Petrosky, the organization\u2019s vice president of programs. \u201cAnd they also have that in-person social connection with their peers, which enhances that learning experience for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where the program\u2019s facilities couldn\u2019t open, staff reached out to students to make sure they had support while online.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pandemic really showed that the lack of social connection had a significant impact on the mental health of our teens,\u201d Petrosky explained. \u201cTo make sure that they’re okay and to help support them in ways that they could right through that social connection was really important and continues to be important.\u201d<\/p>\n

What counts as learning time\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2019, state lawmakers revised the state\u2019s school code to allow districts to take up to five flexible instruction days<\/a> each school year, to be used during weather emergencies and other disruptions.<\/p>\n

These days can be online or offline, or some combination of the two. Before enacting a flexible instruction day, districts must first provide the state with an implementation plan, examples of lesson plans and get their school board\u2019s sign-off.<\/p>\n

About a quarter of Allegheny County schools took at least one flexible instruction day after last month\u2019s storm, according to WESA\u2019s tracking.<\/p>\n

Many other districts, however, announced simply that schools would be operating remotely, without pointing to a specific, state-approved flexible instruction plan. Steel Valley, Gateway and Sto-Rox school districts switched between the two, taking flexible instruction days on Wednesday, Jan. 28 and remote learning days later that same week.<\/p>\n

The Department of Education has issued little guidance pertaining to the rules districts must follow when they want to implement remote learning beyond their five allowed flexible instruction days.<\/p>\n

A presentation<\/a> from the department\u2019s School Services Office last year states only that schools \u201cmay vary instructional time models, with the use of virtual or remote learning, if approved by the governing body of the entity, and if instruction is provided by certified educators.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what policies regulate remote or virtual learning, Department of Education officials pointed only to the state code outlining the required instructional hours and days schools must provide.<\/p>\n

Districts could satisfy those requirements by extending their school calendar into the summer. But that could come at a steep cost, said James Fogarty with the nonprofit A+ Schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a big fiscal cost if you have to extend the school year by a few days,\u201d Fogarty said. \u201cYou’re paying your staff to do that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fogarty said having the ability to use virtual instruction flexibly makes sense for districts given the tightening budgets they face, despite the downsides.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think, at times, it’s sort of a necessary evil that we have to kind of address within the context of the current policies that we have at a state level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Harbin said she would like to see the state expand the number of flexible instruction days schools are allowed to take. That way, she said, schools would be held to the same standards during remote learning as they are on flexible instruction days.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlexible instruction days work because they require planning, board authorization, limits on the number of days and annual reporting to the Department of Education. There’s public notice and accountability built in,\u201d she said. \u201cAny alternative method of delivering instructions should operate under the same rules.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month\u2019s historic snowstorm sent schools across Allegheny County online, in some cases for an entire week. WESA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-115122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-pittsburgh","9":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","10":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}