New Code Orange will require students to work from home during most inclement weather days

[Updated] Snow days will nearly be a thing of the past for Prince William County Public Schools students.

Superintendent Dr. Latanya McDade announced a new snow day policy, introducing a Code Orange classification to the color-coded system the division uses to indicate the severity of weather-related closures. When McDade issues a Code Orange alert, school buildings will be closed for the day due to hazardous outdoor conditions that would hamper children’s safe travel to and from school.

Instead of going to school, the division will require students to log on to a laptop from home to complete independent coursework, called asynchronous learning. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, all students attended classes online after Gov. Ralph Northam shuttered public school buildings.

The division won’t require teachers to work on Code Orange days this year. However, beginning in the 2022-23 school year, McDade will require teachers to provide live instruction when she issues a Code Orange alert.

Overall, the new orange alert replaces one and two-hour delays, which the division phased out with this move. “Due to the ongoing national shortage of bus drivers, [Prince William County Public Schools] continues to have a number of double and triple bus runs. These runs make it logistically impracticable to have delayed openings,” McDade states.

The government school division will continue to issue Code Red alerts, said McDade. However, “Code Red Days” will be fewer and far between and most commonly given when weather conditions cause utility outages, making it impossible for students and teachers to work from home.

At the onset of the pandemic, school divisions across the state made strides to provide new and used laptop computers to children who state leaders forced to learn from home. “We have also made significant investments in technology support for our students, teachers, and staff,” says McDade.

Last month, the County School Board approved the division’s 2022-23 calendar. Students will begin the year before Labor Day, something the division began in 2019. The school year ends June 15, 2023, and includes “two full weeks for winter break and incorporates additional holidays that reflect the diversity of the PWCS community.”

About 89,000 children attend Prince William County Public Schools, about 3,000 fewer than before the pandemic. It’s the second-largest government school division in the state.

In March 2020, Virginia was the first state in the U.S. to close schools for the coronavirus. Initially, Northam ordered a two-week shutdown of public schools.

The move sent school divisions scrambling to purchase new and used laptop computers for students to use a home. While county school administrators allowed children back into school buildings for a hybrid schedule this time last year, the majority of students at Prince William’s government schools returned to the classroom this past August.

On August 26, the Virginia Department of Education released the long-awaited Standards of Learning test results. After nearly a year of remote learning, as many expected, most students performed poorly.

“Virginia’s 2020-2021 SOL test scores tell us what we already knew–students need to be in the classroom without disruption to learn effectively,” Superintendent of Public Instruction James Lane stated in a press release. “The connections, structures, and supports our school communities provide are irreplaceable, and many students did not have access to in-person instruction for the full academic year. We must now focus on unfinished learning and acceleration to mitigate the impact the pandemic has had on student results.”

Since students’ returned to the classroom five days a week, the school division continues to focus on tutoring children to make up for the lost instructional time.