Austin Public Schools are piloting a program aimed at having children still learn even if there is a school closure.

Under the plan, once the district has already had two closures, such as snow days, students would do pre-assigned classwork at home during the snow day.

This means the district does not have to extend the school year or cancel existing days off to meet the minimum state standards for learning days, Director of Human Resources Mark Raymond said.

“When you run into snow days, those come off your calendar, but they don’t adjust those state minimums,” he said.

Extending the school year could affect when seniors graduate, Raymond said.

For a lot of families, graduation plans are set out long in advance, with people coming to town for graduation, dates of graduation parties set and vacations planned, he said.

Depending on when the snow days happened, extending the school year may not even replace classes a student missed. One scenario Raymond pointed out was that a student has one class in the first semester and there are snow days in December, but the added days come when they are in a different class the second semester.

Last legislative session, the state passed a one-time bill forgiving four snow days due to a large amount of severe weather. Relying on the Legislature to do this again was not something the district wanted to bet on, Raymond said.

“It’s happened one time in the history of the state of Minnesota,” he said.

Part of the legislation also said districts claiming the four days should look at flexible scheduling options to deal with school closures in the future.

Raymond said the district worked to develop plans for students to learn things outside of the traditional classroom setting while they are at home.

Students in Pre-K through fourth grade may have things like reading assignments, working with younger siblings or interviewing older relatives like parents or grandparents.

“We’re trying to create those authentic learning opportunities that can take place at home,” Raymond said.

The idea behind the program is not to just give the students some worksheets to do, he said.

Older students would use their school-issued devices to complete coursework at home. Students who do not have internet access at home are able to complete their work offline and upload it once they come back to school, which they currently do now for homework, Raymond said.

“We’ve been really cognizant of having it so internet access at home is not a deciding factor in whether or not a student can participate in this,” he said.

The program is not just for snow days, but also other types of closures, such as for flooding, he said.

The key factor when the district is deciding whether to close school is if it is safe for students to get to school, including by walking in some cases, Raymond said.

“That’s the only part that is taken into consideration,” he said.

More information about the flexible learning days and what students at specific schools would be working on can be found at www.austin.k12.mn.us/Pages/flexlearningdays.aspx.