Education department drops first-ever report on COVID-19's impact in SD schools

For the first time, the South Dakota Department of Education has released a comprehensive report of findings on the impact of COVID-19 on the state's K-12 education system.

Data shows a majority of schools experienced learning loss, and less than half of schools required masks as a COVID-19 mitigation strategy.

The report, released Thursday, is based on surveys sent to all 830 public, private and tribal schools in the state in May. Of those, 801 schools responded.

Data from the report will drive the conversation in an upcoming summit where education leaders and other stakeholders will discuss solutions for improving student and family engagement, addressing summer and after-school programming, and bolstering the education workforce.

That summit is set for Aug. 4. More details have yet to be released.

Here's a look at the top takeaways from the report: 

SD students and learning loss

Schools indicated they measured learning loss through assessments, evaluations and observation. But exactly how many students lost learning?

When students weren't caught up and experienced learning loss, school leaders intervened by contacting parents first. Other interventions included sending school or district staff out to a student's residence, and other strategies, according to the report.

Twenty-three percent of schools report "few" students – three to 25% of students – experienced learning loss. On the other hand, nearly 23% of schools also report "most" of their students – 76 to 97% of students – have caught up from that learning loss.

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What was mitigation like across SD?

More than 64% of schools – 520 schools – encouraged the use of masks. And 46.4% of schools – 372 of them – required masks.

The top 10 mitigation strategies employed by South Dakota's school districts included the following, in order, according to the report:

1. Cleaning frequently-touched surfaces in school
2. Encouraging families to symptom check before school
3. Educating teachers, staff and families about when to stay home or keep children home
4. Hand washing and use of hand sanitizer
5. Cleaning shared materials
6. Discouraging shared materials
7. Limiting non-essential visitors
8. Cleaning frequently-touched surfaces on school buses
9. Contact tracing and case investigation
10. Assigned seats on school buses, at lunch, in the classroom

Sixty-four public, private and tribal school systems across the state – 270 individual schools – participated in sentinel surveillance testing programs offered by the South Dakota Departments of Education and Health.

The program was designed to identify potential virus spread in the school setting by testing asymptomatic individuals on a weekly basis, but data from the DOE shows the average rate of incidence for adults in the program was 1.5% from August to May.

This latest DOE report also includes data it and the DOH previously released about COVID-19 cases within the state's K-12 schools.

More:'We made it work': How South Dakota managed a full year of in-person learning during COVID-19

The report shows a spike in cases in mid-November, approximately the same time the state experienced the worst spike of COVID-19 cases.

In-person versus virtual

Of 801 schools across the state completing the survey, almost 90% of schools reported most students attended in-person instruction during the 2020-2021 school year.

How did schools deliver remote instruction last school year? Schools used multiple options with existing district curriculum, including:

• 69.9% of schools surveyed used instructional management systems like Canvas or Google Classroom when they went remote.
• 61.5% of schools used video conferencing like Zoom into classes.
• 46.9% of schools used one-on-one remote support from classroom teachers.
• 44.9% of schools used paper packets sent home from school.
• 38.7% of schools used education websites or education applications.
• 25.8% of schools used one-on-one remote support from other teachers.
• In 13.7% of schools, students learned via other students, parents or other people.
• 7.5% of schools used other methods of remote instruction not listed.

How many schools offered full-time virtual learning to students? A majority of them – 58.9% – provided that option for the entire school year. And data from the DOE suggests there was a reduction in demand for virtual learning from fall to spring. Nearly 20,000 students used virtual platforms in the fall, and 14,000 used it in the spring.

More:Students, staff 'may choose' to wear masks in Sioux Falls School District classrooms this fall

By school, 293 did not offer any full-time virtual learning platforms; 472 offered full-time virtual learning in the fall and spring; 31 schools offered virtual for the fall only and 5 offered virtual for the spring only.

Schools helped provide internet access by giving out hot spots for home use, parking lots with Wi-Fi, community facilities with Wi-Fi, paying for at-home internet or working with the community to lay land lines, according to the DOE report.

To ensure all students had internet access, the DOE partnered with the Bureau of Information and Telecommunications and local companies to bring broadband connections to 624 households, which impacted 1,103 students.

Data even shows that districts served far less lunches and breakfasts last school year than in the pre-pandemic school year of 2018-2019. That year, more than 16.3 million lunches and 4.5 million breakfasts were served. Last year, 14.4 million lunches and 3.7 million breakfasts were served.

Enrollment shifts 

The DOE reports unexpected enrollment shifts for the last school year, both up and down.

Only 25 districts saw fall enrollments "within 1%" of their average trend from the three prior fiscal years, according to the report.

"In other words, very few public districts saw the enrollments they would have expected in a normal year," the report states. "Whether any of these enrollment changes mark the beginning of new trends has yet to be seen."

Enrollment shift impacts will be addressed by a one-time redistribution of $11 million in state aid to general education, the report states, which went to all public school districts to aid with staffing, employment contracts and food service.

Teacher support

Eighty percent of schools declared some or all school staff as "essential employees," sometimes even exempted from quarantine from a close contact as long as they remained asymptomatic.

Additional expectations of teachers last year beyond their traditional duties of teaching included the following:

• 57.1% of schools reported teachers had to cover other classrooms when teachers were ill because substitutes were hard to find.
• 52.8% of schools reported teachers provided all lesson plans and resources on online learning platforms.
• 48.3% of schools reported teachers taught both in class and online simultaneously.
• 40% of schools report teachers taught face-to-face and recorded lessons for students learning virtually.
• 34.7% of schools report teachers covered other classrooms during planning time.
• 22% of schools report teachers took on other non-teaching duties.

Schools supported teachers by personal encouragement, monetary bonuses for extra work, offered professional development on distance and remote learning or best practices, offered professional development related to mental health and self-care.

Only 31% of schools responding to the DOE survey said they allowed teachers to work remotely due to high-risk issues.

And 24% of schools responding said they allowed staff to flex schedules (extra time off, early release, professional work time).

See the full report below.