To: District Superintendents
From: Dr. Carey M. Wright
Date: October 6, 2020
Re: School Closures
The MDE has received numerous questions regarding whether the State Board of Education(SBE)/Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) will require school districts to make up missed school days for weather-related closures, given the SBE’s 10-day waiver for COVID-19-related closures. Following Miss. Code Ann §§ 37-13-63 and 37-13-64, the SBE/MDE will not require school districts to make up missed school days for weather related closures; however, funding will be impacted if more than 10 cumulative school days are missed due to inclement weather and/or COVID-19.
Background
At the August 27, 2020 regularly scheduled meeting, the SBE approved a waiver of up to 10 school days in accordance with Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-63(2) for the 2020-2021 school year for all local school districts for COVID-19-related alterations. However, the SBE stated that this does not permit districts to reduce the number of school days later in the school year. The basis for the 10-day limitation was to ensure no impact on funding.
Now that the 2020-2021 school year is underway, some districts have closed in preparation of tropical storms/hurricanes, or after sustaining damages from same. Districts may face more additional weather-related closures due to the impact of future tropical storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, snow/ice, etc. These closures raise the question of whether the districts are required to make up the days missed due to weather-related closures.
There are two statutes involving the academic school year term, school closures and the exemptions from the 180-day scholastic year requirement, Miss. Code Ann. §§ 37-13-63 and 37-13-64. While Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-63 contemplates several reasons for school closures and the potential for an exemption to the 180-day requirement, Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-64 deals solely with weather-related closures.
Under Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-63, the SBE has discretion on whether to approve a school district’s exemption from the 180-day requirement if certain criteria are met. Conversely, under Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-64, school districts are not required to obtain approval of the SBE to be exempt from the 180-day requirement so long as a superintendent was authorized by his/her local school district to close schools due to extreme weather conditions. Said another way, the SBE cannot mandate the 180-day requirement if the superintendent was authorized by his/her local school district to close school due to extreme weather conditions.
In Executive Order 1476, the Governor, pursuant to Miss. Code Ann. §§ 33-15-31, 33-15-11(b)(9), and 33-15-11(c)(1), authorized and empowered the SBE to suspend provisions of any regulatory statutes and to make, amend, and rescind such order, rules and regulations that it deems necessary to assist MS public schools to cope with the COVID-19 emergency. The SBE did that by providing an up to 10-day waiver for COVID-19 alterations of the mandated 180-day requirement. This waiver of strict compliance does not extend to non- COVID-19 related matters.
Through its waiver, the SBE dropped the school year term requirement down to a minimum of 170 scholastic days. This limitation, at up to 10 days, has no impact on a district’s MAEP funding. However, in both statutory schemes regarding school closures/exemptions of the 180-day requirement, a school district shall NOT receive payment from the MDE for per pupil expenditures for pupils in daily attendance more than 10 days. School districts shall not receive funding for the days missed, in excess of the 10 days. The legislature made it clear, in both statutes, that scholastic years should aim to stay above 170 days. The 10 missed days are not treated in isolation or as separate 10-day pots; rather, the 10 days are cumulative. Therefore, should a school district use up their 10 COVID-19 days, any additional school closures days for weather closures that are NOT made up will not receive their funding for those canceled school days. School districts that elect to not make up these days will need to rely on another source of funds to cover certain expenses (i.e., employee pay).
Back in spring 2020, following Governor Reeves’ declaration of a State of Emergency, Governor Reeves declared that “strict compliance with the 10-day limitation on per pupil funds paid to Mississippi schools district from the State Department of Education established in Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-63(2) would prevent and hinder the implementation of necessary closure of Mississippi public schools and other measures necessary to cope with the COVID-19 emergency.” Governor Reeves further declared that, “pursuant to Miss. Code Ann. § 33-15-11(c)(1), the 10-day limitation provision is temporarily suspended and the payment of such per pupil funds shall be calculated and paid concurrent with the direction of schools closures …ordered by this Executive Order.” This waiver of the 10-day limitation, tied to funding, ONLY applied for the 2019-2020 school year.
To summarize, while the SBE cannot require the districts to make up the days missed for weather-related closures, if the districts have reduced their calendars to 170 days for COVID-19-related alterations, have additional closures due to weather conditions, and elect not to make-up those days, the MDE’s payment of per-pupil funds to the districts shall be modified accordingly.