Jasper City Schools has identified key prevention strategies are essential to safe delivery of in-person instruction and help to prevent COVID-19 transmission in our schools:

1. Correct use of masks
2. Social distancing to the greatest extent possible
3. Handwashing and respiratory etiquette
4. Cleaning and maintaining healthy facilities
5. Rigorous isolation measures when needed
   

Health equity considerations in prevention strategies have also been identified:

• Federal and state disability laws, to the extent applicable, require an individualized approach for students with disabilities consistent with the student’s IEP or Section 504 plan. Teachers and school leaders must remain aware of their obligations under federal and state disability laws and should also consider adaptations and alternatives to prevention strategies, while maintaining efforts to protect students, teachers, and staff from COVID-19.
• CDC’s K–12 Schools COVID-19 Prevention Toolkit and the Alabama Department of Public Health's Toolkit for Schools, includes resources, tools, and checklists to help school administrators and school officials prepare schools to open for in-person instruction and to manage ongoing operations. These tools and resources include considerations for addressing health equity, such as class sizes, internet connectivity, access to public transportation, etc.

The Jasper City School System is one of the few systems able to have face-to-face, traditional school all of the 2020-2021 year.  We did provide a virtual option and approximately 17% of our students took advantage of this option.  However, the last nine weeks of the school year we required all students to return to face-to-face instruction.  This was extremely valuable in that it allowed our teachers time to evaluate learning loss in our virtual students and develop a plan for the upcoming year.  We encouraged all students not on grade level to attend our summer programs, specifically designed to address learning loss. Approximately 200 students attended these programs (elementary (90), intermediate (40), jr. high (20) and high school programs(40). 

Our plan to address learning loss due to instructional time is based on the following elements:

• Identify missed learning standards and content that are prerequisites to future learning

Begin by determining key learning standards and content that are prerequisites to future learning and might not have been fully mastered by students. For example, a student will not succeed in Algebra II without first mastering Algebra I, while European history can be taught even if some content from U.S. history was not taught or fully mastered.

• Create intervention schedules to address missed learning standards and content that are prerequisites for future learning

For subjects in which prior-year content is a foundational prerequisite to future learning such as math, it will be critical that all students have extra instructional time to cover missed chapters or learn missed concepts alongside current-year content.  Data from the previous school year, summer school data, and assessments during the first several weeks of school will be used to identify students needing intervention during the school day to address missed standards and content.

Students of all grade levels who continue to need extra help to address prior learning gaps and fully master new content will benefit from having extra instructional time built into the schedule in addition to core content instructional time.

• Provide quality evaluation and assessment components to maximize impact

In contexts of disruption, it is critical to ensure that learners, the broader education community and the system can monitor learning progress in a timely manner and adapt pedagogical processes accordingly. Prior to introducing remedial measures, diagnostic assessments are essential in ensuring that students’ needs are fully met. As the student receives support, ongoing formative assessment provides opportunities for powerful feedback loops to both student and educator. Finally, ongoing monitoring and evaluation efforts of the policy itself at institutional and system level will help hone the approach to optimize impact.

• Prioritize Students’ Social-Emotional Needs

• Mental Health Needs--The pandemic has worsened a growing student mental health crisis.  Students must be emotionally and mentally able to learn.   Ignoring students’ needs at the expense of catching them up in school would seem to be a backwards approach to student success. They may not be able to fully engage with curriculum until they address their own emotions.  Adding additional mental health support is critical in the success of our academic program for students suffering with unmet mental health needs. A Mental Health Coordinator, an Assistant Mental Health Coordinator, a Mental Health Case-Worker, and multiple partnerships that provide contract personnel will be utilized to meet the growing social and emotional needs.
• Dyslexia Interventionist - Will be working with students who are identified with targeted multi-sensory intervention to address learning loss.

• Provide quality professional development--High quality professional development will be provided to assist in training math and instructional coaches, and teachers in best practices for closing the achievement gaps.
  

• Provide additional personnel to provide instructional coaching, English Learner support, special education support, and additional teachers to offset large class size--we will hire an additional history teacher at the Jr. High School to aid overcrowding in the classrooms.  We had already added local units to support Math and English but history classes remain overcrowded.  We will also hire a music teacher for the Jr. High School to help with enrichment for those grade levels. Instructional and math coaches will be added to assist teachers with learning loss.  A special education Learning Gap Coordinator will also be used to assist Sped Teachers best serve their students and identifying strategies to aide in overcoming learning loss.
  

• Provide quality after school tutoring and summer school programs--We propose to provide after school tutoring and summer school for all students who need additional support.
  
• Learning Gap Coordinator--A coordinator will be hired to assess learning losses and insuring needs are being addressed.  The Learning Gap Coordinator will assist the Curriculum and Instruction Director in monitoring at-risk programs, interventions, and budgets.