The Indiana Department of Education is withholding federally funded coronavirus relief grants from schools that also received money through the federal Paycheck Protection Program, according to school leaders.
Several Indianapolis not-for-profits are creating a multi-site community child care network that will provide free e-learning supervision for students whose schools are operating remotely this year.
The cancellation of the fall season promises to wallop businesses who count on those fall weekends for survival, and the economic impact likely will measure in the tens of millions in many of the small towns across the sprawling conference.
Michael A. McRobbie will continue leading Indiana University through the upcoming academic year, in which the school must contend with the unknowns presented by the coronavirus pandemic.
Purdue University Head Football Coach Jeff Brohm said he believes football can be played safely in the spring and again next fall if university presidents and medical teams agree.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb on Wednesday announced a plan to avoid a situation in which school systems that choose not conduct in-person classes due to pandemic concerns receive less than 100% of expected funding.
Exactly when a season could be played in the spring is likely to be determined by the status of the pandemic and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Would anybody in college sports want football treading on basketball’s main event?
It’s the largest student quarantine in the state reported so far, topping the roughly 48 students affected in the Lanesville Community Schools in southern Indiana’s Harrison County.
Is this a good time for college students to take a “gap year,” instead of returning to campus in the midst of a pandemic—or paying for remote instruction? Podcast host Mason King asks IBJ columnist Peter Dunn about that and other issues facing students, recent grads and their families.
But the leader of the Indiana Senate doubles down on his statement that he can’t guarantee full funding for schools that don’t offer an in-person option for students.
State auditors said Daleville Community Schools failed to hold Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy to their charter contracts, review the schools’ finances, or press for improvements.
Indiana Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray sent a letter to school leaders on Thursday that said there’s “no guarantee” schools that choose not to resume any in-person classes due to health and safety concerns will receive 100% of expected funding.
If schools choose to reopen knowing the potential health risk, it raises an important question: How liable are school districts if a student or teacher contracts COVID-19?
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick addressed the media Thursday by video to answer some of the biggest questions about schools reopening.
The union—which statewide represents around 4,500 educators and school support staff—made its call for schools to open only if coronavirus cases are under control and schools have the needed safeguards.
The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, predicts record back-to-school spending this year, but other retail experts foresee big cutbacks.
After several years of building up its pre-K program, Indiana is now poised to evaluate the success of On My Way Pre-K. But the coronavirus could make it difficult.
Meanwhile, parents and caregivers of football players at an Indianapolis high school have been told to monitor their children after a player at Warren Central tested positive for the virus.
As schools across the country announce their plans for the fall, working parents are forced to choose from an array of bad options: Send your kids back to school, if it’s open, and risk coronavirus exposure—or keep them home with little or no supervision as you try to simultaneously parent, do your job and monitor your child’s online schooling.
What we knew before the pandemic, but now understand in new and meaningful ways, is the importance of partnerships, many of which have been nurtured over the span of years. Collaboration among all stakeholders and most importantly schools, will be essential in order to “reopen” Indiana’s schools and support our workforce economy in the most efficient and effective way.
