On March 27, Governor Cuomo issued Executive Order 202.11 which directed schools to remain closed until April 15–an additional two weeks beyond the April 1 end date of the initial closure. The order stated that no school district would lose state aid for providing fewer than the required 180 days of instruction as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, as long as it provided continuity of instruction, meal service and childcare called for by prior executive orders and continued to exhaust remaining snow days and/or vacation days first.
The New York State Education Department has since issued a memo of clarification that directs school districts to continue to provide remote instruction, meals to students and childcare for essential workers every weekday through the April 14 extension to receive waivers from the 180-day instructional requirement–even if they had been scheduled to be on spring recess during that time.
Since our District revised the 2019-20 school calendar and moved snow days, April Recess and Memorial Day holiday to cover the period of March 17-30, we have met NYSED’s requirement for the 180-day waiver to retain state aid.