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Computer hack complicates e-learning at Valparaiso schools | Education

Berta said the district currently is seeking outside technological assistance to halt the attacks and prevent further complications.

He said numerous parents with information technology experience, whose children attend Valparaiso schools, also have volunteered to help.

“The primary job right now is trying to put up a defense system so this outside hacking cannot occur,” Berta said.

He said the school district also has been in touch with the Valparaiso Police Department, and will be getting touch with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to help catch the hackers and seek criminal charges against them.

More importantly, however, is getting the system back up and running so parents can be assured remote students are once again learning alongside their in-classroom peers, Berta said.

“We’ve had parents asking, ‘What’s going on? Why is it that my child is sitting at the computer and all of a sudden there’s nothing there,'” Berta said.

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Savannah public schools will be thousands short of its order of computer devices when classes start – News – Savannah Morning News

As Savannah-Chatham County public school students return to school via online learning Wednesday, not all of them will have a computer or tablet to access the virtual education platform.

Supply chain issues have delayed the delivery of approximately 14,000 devices ordered by the district in June, school officials acknowledged Monday.

“We are not going to have enough devices for the start of school,” said Stacy Jennings, the district’s director of communications. “Everyone who needs a device will get a device, and they will get that device as soon as it becomes available.”

The School Board authorized the purchase of 14,000 Chromebooks and 7,000 iPads this summer. The district had received only 8,000 Chromebooks and none of the iPads, as of Monday. The iPads are primarily for pre-kindergarten through second grade students.

Laptops and tablets have been in high demand across the country since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as

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Metro Atlanta schools struggling with computer, Wi-Fi supplies

The dash for laptops, tablets and Wi-Fi hot spots comes as districts are preparing for what could be a long slog of distance learning with a patchwork of solutions to meet the computing needs of students. Some of that requires new spending.

Atlanta Public Schools, for instance, announced last week that it would lease 40,000 Chromebooks and iPads over the next five years for nearly $25 million. In the meantime, it is distributing older Chromebooks to students — machines that had previously been restricted to school buildings.

ExploreFollow the AJC for up-to-date education news

DeKalb County last month said it, too, intends to purchase new Chromebooks for all its 102,000 students, but did not provide details on the cost or how they would be funded.

Clayton County’s school board in May approved $36.8 million to lease 38,000 laptops over five years that the district expects to get in September.

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Back to school? Despite CDC recommendations, most major schools going online as COVID-19 cases spike

As COVID-19 cases rise in most states, the prospect of in-person learning this fall at the country’s major school districts is becoming increasingly remote.

So far, nine of the top 15 school systems by enrollment plan to start the fall semester online, with two more currently planning a hybrid of in-person and online classes, according to Education Week magazine’s reopening tracker. Other top districts shifted school schedules later, hoping for cases to decline or for teachers and administrators to have more time to plan for the school year. 

As back-to-school season approaches, it’s highly likely the majority of big districts will start learning remotely while they work out plans for socially distant reopenings, said Annette Anderson, deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools.

The biggest factor: whether the community where the school is located is seeing infection rates decrease, said Kristi Wilson, superintendent of the

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Trade schools might be a better option than colleges. Here’s why.

In July, Jessica Galvan, a 25-year-old resident of Springfield, Ill., started a cosmetology program at Midwest Technical Institute, forgoing a chance to attend a four-year college to obtain a bachelor’s degree. Though a prior conviction dissuaded her from even applying to a university, Galvan, who learned about Midwest through a family referral, found the trade school to be a better educational option based on one reason alone: the school provided her with a hands-on experience that she could apply in a potential career.

“I picked trade school over college just because it’s more hands-on and less time actually,” she told In The Know. “I really didn’t even look into college, like the four-year or anything.”

Galvan, who initially started taking classes virtually amid a pandemic but is now receiving instruction in person, said she takes one class every day from Tuesday to Saturday. The class only consists of five people,

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Arizona won’t make schools reopen in mid-August

PHOENIX — Arizona’s governor says public schools won’t be required to reopen for in-person learning as expected in mid-August as the coronavirus pandemic continues at a high level.

Gov. Doug Ducey said Thursday that the state Health Services Department will develop a set of scientific guidelines that school districts and local public health officials can use to determine if it is safe to reopen classrooms.

The governor also says bars and gyms that he ordered to close a month ago won’t be allowed to reopen.

Arizona has topped 3,000 deaths from the coronavirus and has nearly 153,000 confirmed virus cases.

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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— Trump administration’s $21 million gamble on heartburn medication as virus remedy fizzles.

— Virus sends jobless claims u p for first time since March

— White House drops its bid for payroll tax cut in COVID-19 rescue package

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Open schools for younger kids, top pediatrician says

Kindergarten teacher Holly Rupprecht carries plexiglass panels to her room at Zion Lutheran School in Bethalto, Ill., on Monday. (Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
Kindergarten teacher Holly Rupprecht carries plexiglass panels to her room at Zion Lutheran School in Bethalto, Ill., on Monday. (Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

WASHINGTON — Younger children pose a smaller risk of catching and transmitting the coronavirus, a top pediatrician told Congress on Thursday, providing a scientific argument for why elementary schools could potentially open in parts of the country next month.

“School systems may consider prioritizing the return of younger children and taking additional measures to ensure physical distancing and the wearing of face coverings among older children,” Dr. Sean O’Leary told the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education on Thursday morning. 

The hearing was titled “Underfunded & Unprepared,” a sign of how House Democrats, who control the chamber’s agenda, view the matter. 

O’Leary, a vice chair for infectious disease at the American Academy of Pediatrics, also cited a South Korean

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Back to school? Most major schools are heading toward online class as COVID-19 cases spike

As COVID-19 cases rise in most states, the prospect of in-person learning this fall at the country’s major school districts is becoming increasingly remote.

As of late Wednesday, 11 of the top 15 school systems by enrollment were already either planning to start the fall semester online or in a hybrid of in-person and online classes, according to Education Week magazine’s reopening tracker. Still other top districts have shifted school schedules later, hoping for cases to decline or for teachers and administrators to have more time to plan for the school year. 

As back-to-school season approaches, it’s highly likely the majority of big districts will start learning remotely while they work out plans for socially distant reopenings, said Annette Anderson, deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools.

The biggest factor: whether the community where the school is located is seeing infection rates decrease, said Kristi

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Software
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Schools Can’t Reopen Safely Without A Lot More Money. Congress Is Running Out Of Time.

WASHINGTON ― In a matter of weeks, millions of children will head back to school in the middle of a pandemic, leaving millions more parents filled with anxiety about risking their child’s health ― not to mention school staff ― to get an education.

Public schools cannot safely reopen without a massive infusion of emergency funding from Congress, which is already dangerously late to this. Think of all the things a single school needs: Hand sanitizers and disinfectant wipes for classrooms. No-touch thermometers. Regular deep cleanings, which means hiring more custodial staff. Ensuring that every school has at least one full-time nurse (25% of schools have no nurse at all). Someone on every school bus to screen kids’ temperatures before boarding. Gloves and masks for staff. Masks for students who don’t bring one from home. Resuming before- and after-school child care programs with new cleaning protocols.

That doesn’t even factor

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Case of teen jailed for missing online classwork shows how schools and courts oppress Black students

While school districts all over the country grapple with how to best educate youth this upcoming academic year during a global pandemic, one Michigan teen sits in a juvenile detention center with no prospect of returning to in-person or remote learning anytime soon. The 15-year-old, identified only as Grace, has been in jail since May because she violated the terms of her probation by not completing her online coursework, according to a new report co-authored by ProPublica Illinois and the Detroit Free Press.

Grace, who is Black and has diagnosed ADHD, was on probation for fighting with her mom and stealing a cellphone from a classmate. After her school transitioned to remote learning on April 15, Grace said she felt unmotivated and overwhelmed by the work for her school, located in the predominantly white community of Beverly Hills, Mich.

That’s true of many students displaced from their schools, but, calling

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