UPDATE MARCH 18, 2020

Dear Parents & Guardians

As we prepare to embark on this grand adventure of digital and non-digital learning we at Valley Academy ask for your patience and communication. We probably will not see every need and are asking that you communicate with me directly so we can make sure all of our children are taken care of during this time of need. 
Lunch

• Our lunch program will proceed as normal with a drive up service at our school. This will start Monday March 23rd from 11:00-1:00 Breakfast for Tuesday can be picked up at that time.
• Lunches/breakfasts will be delivered to bus stops starting on Tuesday March 24th based on needs. Please fill out the attached form so we know your needs.
• We ask that you DO NOT leave your vehicle during pick up times. We will have someone guiding traffic, handing out materials (lunches, Chromebooks, packets, etc...) to your car window, answering questions, and directing you back out.
• Please follow the orange cones and employee directions as you enter the property through the main parking lot entrance. You will be directed around to the back of the school where we will have more room to guide your vehicle around to the correct spots for pickup.

Chromebooks and/or packets

• Starting Tuesday March 24th we are asking for an adult to drive through our pickup area at Valley to receive your child's chromebook and other material. No walk-ups and no students please.
• In order to accommodate all traffic we will be sending a schedule for pickup times based on your child's grade level. 
• If you have more than one child attending Valley, we will let you choose what grade level one of your children belongs to and pick up all material then.
• We ask that you DO NOT leave your vehicle during pick up times. We will have someone guiding traffic, handing out materials to your car window, answering questions, and directing you back out.
• Please follow the orange cones and employee directions as you enter the property through the main parking lot entrance. You will be directed around to the back of the school where we will have more room to guide your vehicle around to the correct spots for pickup.
• Schedules will be emailed to you

Office Hours

• Our office will be open for phone calls only. The hours are 8:00-3:30 Monday-Thursday and 8:00-1:00 on Friday PLEASE call for questions and do not come in.
• Individual tutoring and in-person accommodations will be on a person-to-person need. They will be set up by the individual teacher and or the SPED Director; when arriving for these needs please use the outside doors and instructions from these people.
• ALL paperwork, registrations, etc... should be left in our dropbox(big black mailbox) by the front door.

Special Education

• Judy Johnston, our Special Education Director will be contacting all students via email with more specific plans for accommodations.

Counseling

• Our school counselor Laurie Harper will be reaching out to all parents in an email with the invitation for all students to connect with her if they are needing to.
• Laurie will also be contacting the students that she has worked with in the past to see if there is still other needs she can help with.

Teacher hours of Instruction

• To be in compliance with the "no mass gathering"  we are trying to stagger the instruction times of all teachers in the school; we will be sending out a schedule for the time that teachers will be logged in and instructing online. This schedule will be sent on Monday March 23rd and classes will begin online starting Wednesday March 25th.
• We will have a paraprofessional included online with most classes in case there are questions or accommodations needed.
• Google Meet will be the platform teachers will be using. Your child will need to log into his/her Chromebook with their school email in order to use our secure server. They will receive an invite from their teacher in an email.
• We will be running a short trial sync Tuesday afternoon for all students to make sure we can all access the Google Meet together and work out any and all bugs before Wednesday. More details on this will be emailed to you on Monday March 23rd or included with your pickup on Tuesday March 24th.

Internet Accessibility

• TDS Communication is offering free 60 day internet for low-income families. Low income verification will be required from TDS. Call 844-684-1387 for more details
• Infowest is offering reduced monthly fees for new customers. Valley Academy Charter School will also help low-income families if they incur any charge with Infowest from now until July 1, 2020. You may pay nothing if you currently do not have internet access and qualify for free school lunch. Contact Tracy Stevens at 435-680-8526 for more info and qualifications.

Please email me if you have any questions.

Tracy Stevens

UPDATE MARCH 13, 2020

Parents & Guardians, 

We are continually monitoring the coronavirus and working with state and federal officials to know the best response to a possible school shut-down or quarantine. Currently we are being very proactive in our preventative awareness, education, and cleaning. We hope we do not see a case in our area, but we still need to be prepared and ready just in case. 

This communication is intended to provide an update on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease.  Click HERE for more about COVID-19

What’s happening now:

• As of February 29, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has tallied 69 confirmed and presumptive cases in the United States.
• No case has been confirmed in Utah. (One person has been quarantined in a UT hospital as part of a transition plan to his home in St. George.)
• The Utah Department of Health is working with local health departments and healthcare providers throughout the state to monitor the situation.
• President Trump appointed Vice President Mike Pence to head up the federal response to coronavirus and has asked Congress for $2.5 billion to manage the response.

What you can do now as an Parent/Guardian:

• Make sure you are aware of the disease, and are communicating to your children good hygiene habits, such as the ones that can be found in this resource “Reduce Your Risk” attachment.
• Key habits include the following: stay home if you or your child are sick, cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze, wash your hands regularly, avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth, and clean and disinfect surfaces, especially if someone is ill. 
• If you know of a family where a language other than English is the primary language,  please let us know so we can consider translating the flyer or communicating directly with those families (if we have not already) in their native language; let me know if that is the case and I will help.
• If you do notice an employee, parent, or student who has flu-like symptoms (cough, fever, etc.) and who has direct or indirect connections with people from areas with coronavirus, please notify the school director asap so he can reach out to the Utah Department of Health at 888-EPI-UTAH (888-374-8824).
• In case of a pandemic in Utah and/or our school, we are going to start to plan ahead. Planning for the worse case scenario BUT hoping for the best is a smart plan that falls under our jobs to make sure the Valley emergency plan is in effect. Our school emergency plan (for possible short term or long term school closure) includes the following for each employee overseeing students:

1. Have some sort of communication set up with parents (email list, Google Classroom, text apps, etc.)
2. Be ready to give instruction digitally. This means you can post assignments, grades, instructional videos, or other needed items as deemed necessary.
3. Have back up substitute plans in case you are absent and your students are not.
4. Have access to ALL of your teacher accounts at home; this allows you to teach from home if needed via videos.

What’s ahead:

• The Utah State Board of Education relies on the State Department of Health and local health departments to work with district and charter schools to provide guidance, if cases are discovered in Utah.
• If cases become severe enough and widespread enough to close schools to prevent further outbreak, the Utah State Board of Education is in a position to grant waivers to the 180-day rule, but will be asking district and charter schools to continue to provide services to students that do not contradict Health Department directives. We will also be encouraging schools to make the best use possible of electronic resources to serve students in accordance with Administrative Rule R277-419-12(5).

Where can I get more information:

• Latest information from the Utah Department of Health: https://health.utah.gov/coronavirus/latest-information.
• Latest information from the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html.
• Information from the CDC for schools: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/school/index.htm.
• CDC school guidance in case of pandemic: https://www.cdc.gov/nonpharmaceutical-interventions/pdf/gr-pan-flu-ed-set.pdf.

Necessary student data means data required by state statute or federal law to conduct the regular activities of the school. 

· Student Name, Date of birth, and Sex

· Parent and student contact information and Custodial parent information

· A student identification number (including the student’s school ID number and the state-assigned student identifier, or SSID)

· Local, state, and national assessment results or an exception from taking a local, state, or national assessment (click here for more information on assessments)

· Courses taken and completed, credits earned, and other transcript information

· Course grades and grade point average

· Grade level and expected graduation date or graduation cohort

· Degree, diploma, credential attainment, and other school information

· Attendance and mobility

· Drop-out data

· Immunization record or an exception from an immunization record

· Race, Ethnicity, or Tribal affiliation

· Remediation efforts

· An exception from a vision screening required under Section 53G-9-404 or information collected from a vision screening described in Utah Code Section 53G-9-404

· Information related to the Utah Registry of Autism and Development Disabilities (URADD), described in Utah Code Section 26-7-4

· Student injury information

· A disciplinary record created and maintained as described in Utah Code Section 53E-9-306

· Juvenile delinquency records

· English language learner status

· Child find and special education evaluation data related to initiation of an IEP

We may only collect optional student data with written consent from the student’s parent or from a student who has turned 18.

· Information related to an IEP or needed to provide special needs services

· Biometric information used to identify the student

· Information required for a student to participate in an optional federal or state program (e.g., information related to applying for free or reduced lunch)

Certain sensitive information on students collected via a psychological or psychiatric examination, test, or treatment, or any survey, analysis, or evaluation will only be collected with parental consent. You will receive a separate consent form in these cases. See our Protection of Pupil Rights Act (PPRA) notice for more information.

We will not collect a student’s social security number or criminal record, except as required by Utah Code Section 78A-6-112(3).

We will only share student data in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which generally requires written parental consent before sharing student data. FERPA includes several exceptions to this rule, where we may share student data without parental consent. For more information on third parties receiving student information from us, see our Metadata Dictionary. 

Student data will be shared with the Utah State Board of Education via the Utah Transcript and Records Exchange (UTREx). For more information about UTREx and how it is used, please visit the Utah State Board of Education’s Information Technology website.

The collection, use, and sharing of student data has both benefits and risks. Parents and students should learn about these benefits and risks and make choices regarding student data accordingly. Parents are given the following choices regarding student data:

· Choice to request to review education records of their children and request an explanation or interpretation of the records (see our annual FERPA notice for more information) 

· Choice to contest the accuracy of certain records (see our annual FERPA notice for more information), potentially leading to the correction, expungement, or deletion of the record

· Choice to opt into certain data collections(see the section above on optional data collections)

· Choice to opt out of certain data exchanges

o Information that has been classified as directory information (see our directory information notice for more information)

o Parents of students with an IEP may have their information shared with the Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities (URADD). If included in this data exchange, parents will receive a separate notice within 30 days of the exchange, informing them of their right to opt out, per Utah Code Section 53E-9-308(6)(b) 

· Choice to file a complaint if you believe the school or its agents are violating your rights under FERPA or Utah’s Student Data Protection Act. If you have a complaint or concern, we recommend starting locally and then escalating to the state and US Department of Education

Valley Academy Charter School kelly@valleyacademycharter.com

tracy@valleyacademycharter.com

The Utah State Board of Education

Report your concern with the USBE hotline

The US Department of Education

Report your concern here

In accordance with Board Rule R277-487-3(14), we have adopted a cybersecurity framework called the CIS Controls.