Will DCPS go 100% virtual ahead of future storms?

“They just jump on. They have the live lessons with the teachers,” said Seconder. “Which is amazing. It’s just like they’re at school, but they’re just at home.”

But other parents say they ran into issues along the way on Thursday.

Tonya Delgado says her son couldn’t log in to his classes through Duval HomeRoom, or Microsoft Teams, on Thursday morning.

“We started trying to log in around seven, and we tried until eight, and at eight, I just gave up,” said Delgado. “Because I mean, 45 minutes later, and we just haven’t been able to get anywhere with it.”

DCPS said students should have been able to access Thursday’s assignments through their phones.

But a DCPS teacher who spoke to Action News Jax anonymously raised concerns about communication to parents and access to technology. The teacher said only 10 students in their class of 30 showed up today.

“… I know they all have phones, but not everybody has an unlimited data plan,” the teacher stated.

Action News Jax sent a list of questions to DCPS by email asking about the decision to go virtual on Thursday, access to technology, and whether the district would shift to online learning ahead of future storms heading our way.

DCPS Chief of Marketing and Communications, Tracy Pierce, addressed our questions.

“Secondary students received technology either this year or last year to participate in remote learning,” said Pierce. “Many elementary students kept their laptops and hot spots in the event of a COVID impact that would require quarantine. There was no threat from the storm when students left school Tuesday for the Veterans Day holiday. When the storm threat emerged yesterday, there was no time to do any further technology distribution.”

Pierce tells us the district went through several communication channels to reach parents about the shift to online learning.

He says DCPS tried to make assignments easily accessible by mobile phone.

“For this storm, we created ways for families to access assignments with the most universal form of technology available – the cellphone,” said Pierce. “It is common for families to interact with teachers and schools through apps on their phone. Assignments and activities have also been posted on the district website. In addition, those lesson plans have also been emailed to principals who may share them with students via email, school websites, digital school newsletters, and social media …”

DCPS says students who had difficulty accessing online classes on Thursday due to tech issues, will be able to submit work after today to demonstrate attendance.

“Students will be able to submit work assignments to their teachers to demonstrate attendance in school today,” said Pierce. “If any students could not access the assignments, they could receive the hard copy Friday, and if submitted by Monday, these students would be considered present.”

Pierce says decisions on whether the district will shift to remote learning ahead of future storms will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

“… Our response to this relatively minor storm should not signal anything for the future,” said Pierce. “Every storm situation is different – intensity, timing, need for shelters, evacuation orders and many other variables play into decisions. Through the pandemic, we’ve built an outstanding ability to shift quickly to online learning, an ability that continues to improve. In this case, it made sense given the type of risk this storm posed, particularly to student transportation.”

Delgado says she’d like to see improvements to the online learning systems before DCPS decides to go virtual ahead of another storm.

“If you’re going to go to a virtual platform, really just making sure that all the kids are registered for it, and to make sure that they could actually get into it,” said Delgado.

Students are expected to return to their normal schedules on Friday.