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2/12/2025 12:56:50 AM
Breaking News

Goodbye, AMI; snow days are back


Goodbye, AMI; snow days are back



Sophia Campbell delights in a snow day
Matt Campbell

Buried among all the negative elements of the LEARNS Act is a bit of good news for trainees and moms and dads: no more spending snow days inside, slogging through packages of homework.

According to an October 26 opinion from Attorney General Tim Griffin, under LEARNS, districts might continue to utilize approved alternative techniques of instruction (AMI) on days when weather or other emergency situations need closing schools to in-person direction. According to Griffin, those AMI days will "most likely not" count "toward the 178 days or 1,068 hours of 'on-site, in-person instruction' needed for a school district to be eligible to receive LEARNS funds for instructor income boosts." That means most school districts will likely choose not to utilize them.

Griffin reached this conclusion based on a plain-language reading of the LEARNS Act, he said. (Attorney General viewpoints are not binding law, however Arkansas courts typically treat them as convincing.).

State law presently sets 178 days as the minimum number of needed, in-person educational days, and does not forbid districts from having more, so there would be nothing preventing a school from utilizing both AMI days and end-of-year makeup days. Nevertheless, Griffin notes, "as an useful matter, most school districts probably will not use Commissioner-approved AMI days if those days can not likewise count towards the funding requirements.".
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Regardless of the possibility that AMI days would not count towards the needed number of days for a district to receive LEARNS funds for teacher incomes, the Arkansas Department of Education is not informing districts how to proceed.

Are likewise in the finest interest of their students.".
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For the most part, school administrators have actually currently accounted for this change in the law, and a minimum of some have abandoned AMI days completely.

" It is my understanding that AMI days can be used, however we would still need to be open and on-site for 178 days regardless," said Star City Superintendent Jordan Frizzell. "With that stated, we would not utilize AMI days in the event of harsh weather condition, and would make any days up at the end of the year." The Star City School District already has 5 inclement-weather days built into their calendar at the end of May, Frizzell kept in mind, though "anything beyond that would go into June.".

For that reason, Magnet Cove "did not submit, as we have done over the previous numerous years, an application of a district-wide AMI Plan for approval to the ADE.".

Meadow Grove School District is taking the same technique, according to Superintendent Lance Campbell, who kept in mind that his school also did not send an AMI proposal. "We are on a conventional calendar this year," said Campbell, suggesting that any snow days "will have to be made up at the end of the year and could press us into June.".
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Lucas Harder, Policy Services Director for the Arkansas School Boards Association, said that the ASBA notified its members about this change back in the Spring, when districts were making their 2023-2024 calendars, and he is not aware of any schools that plan to use AMI days this academic year. "They do not want to put their financing at danger," Harder said.

In the last few years, schools in Arkansas have actually closed for one or more days for flooding, snow and flu. Permitting AMI days to count toward the minimum number of days required in an academic year suggested that those days did not have to be comprised at the end of the year. This modification in the law under LEARNS implies that administrators will now have to weigh the potential concern of extra school days in May and June when choosing whether to close schools this year, whatever the reason for the closure may be.

Nonetheless, none of the people who spoke to the Times about this were worried that the possibility of extending the academic year into June would affect whether districts cancel school in case of severe weather condition.

Kimberly Mundell repeated that" [d] istricts need to constantly prioritize the security of trainees when making decisions about the instructional day, and it is necessary to keep in mind that districts have the versatility to adjust calendars and schedules as required to make sure safety while likewise fulfilling the minimum training hours requirement.".

Superintendent Frizzell was unequivocal that he "would use the very same caution that I would have before in figuring out whether or not to close school, even if that means having to make up the days at the end of the year." Superintendent Thomas echoed this belief, stating that Magnet Cove "will constantly err on the side of trainee safety, and not have school when bad weather condition is threatened." (Thomas kept in mind that Magnet Cove, like Star City, currently has 5 snow days built into completion of the 2023-2024 calendar.).

In Prairie Grove, Superintendent Campbell is being proactive about resolving this concern for the 2024-2025 school year. "Our school day is currently 36 minutes longer than needed.

Campbell wants to flow two proposed alternative calendars to the Prairie Grove School Board in the coming weeks and, if the board concurs, to have the new alternative calendar settled by the December board conference.

Whether other school districts take the exact same method stays to be seen. In the meantime, nevertheless, it looks like snowed-in kids no longer need to fret about those dreaded AMI packets.

That is something for which every parent can be grateful.

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Elwood Hill
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Elwood Hill

Elwood Hill is an award-winning journalist with more than 18 years' of experience in the industry. Throughout his career, John has worked on a variety of different stories and assignments including national politics, local sports, and international business news. Elwood graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in journalism and immediately began working for Breaking Now News as lead journalist.

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