Classes suspended by emergency: four weeks of printed assignments

It is a protocol law. It orders the Department of Education to adopt, by regulation, all the machinery needed so learning does not stop when academic work is interrupted under an emergency decree and order of the Governor. The protocol must cover preparations before the school reopens for making up instructional time, the education process, and the resumption of formal education, and it aims to guarantee two things: the educational community’s socio-emotional support and recovery, and curricular adaptation of content according to each school’s particular emergency situation. The law also incorporates non-formal education, allowing more flexible use of space, time and available materials and resources according to each school’s situation. The minimum standards it rests on, per the law itself, are the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the "Education for All" Framework for Action (Dakar, 2000) and the Sphere Project’s Humanitarian Charter.

Puerto Rico’s public education system. The law is titled and expressly defined for that system: it does not reach private schools, whose policy on suspensions depends on each institution. The trigger is an emergency decree or order of the Governor of Puerto Rico as a corollary of an atmospheric event or similar phenomenon that interrupts classes; per the statement of motives, the protocol activates from the moment the warning notification is issued.

• That there is an emergency decree or order of the Governor over an atmospheric event or similar phenomenon interrupting classes in the public system.Verified against the official source
• That the student is in Puerto Rico’s public education system: the law does not cover private schools.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: In August, ask whether the material is printed

   It is the step almost nobody takes and the one the law makes checkable. Principals shall have the material available before the first week of August of each school semester, and it is each principal’s responsibility to instruct the counsellor, the social worker and every teacher to print the materials for their areas during that first week of August, so they are on hand when an emergency arises. Materials are distributed through DE Digital, the tool the Department uses to circulate educational information.

2. 2

   Step 2: When the emergency is decreed, collect the assignments

   The protocol is implemented automatically when the decree is issued: you do not have to request it, though knowing it exists helps you ask. Assignments are distributed and include educational projects adapted for different levels. The law is explicit that they are delivered on paper — a decision taken deliberately after María, when there was neither power nor internet.

3. 3

   Step 3: Count four weeks of work

   The parameter is concrete: teachers must hand out assignments sufficient for four (4) weeks. If what you received covers a few days, that is the reference with which to ask at the school.

4. 4

   Step 4: Hand it in on return: it counts for grades

   When classes resume, students hand in the assignments and these are subject to evaluation and corresponding grading by the teacher. It is not optional busywork for the wait: the law conceived it as part of the course, to keep the educational process active, ease integration into the next chapters of each subject and avoid extending the academic year.

The school and its principal are the point of contact: by express text, having the material available and instructing the printing falls on the principal. If the school does not respond, the ladder is the Regional Education Office and then the Department of Education at de.pr.gov. The law creates no new office and no complaint line for this matter.

• Waiting for the hurricane to pass to ask: the material must be printed from the first week of August.
• Accepting assignments sent only over the internet; the law requires them in printed form.
• Treating the assignments as optional: they are handed in on return and subject to evaluation and grading.
• Settling for a few days’ material when the law’s parameter is four (4) weeks.
• Assuming it applies to private school: the law is defined for the public education system.
• Looking for the protocol’s content in the law; it is in a regulation of the Secretary that goes through the Legislature.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico

  Educación

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Puerto Rico Department of Education

  Educación

  de.pr.gov