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New Jersey lawmakers propose longer school days to make up for lost time during pandemic

Lawmakers propose longer school days to make up for COVID learning loss
Lawmakers propose longer school days to make up for COVID learning loss 02:18

NEWARK, N.J. -- To make up for students' lost time during the pandemic, New Jersey lawmakers are proposing a bill to require longer school days or even school years. 

Even though children are back in school, it hasn't been easy getting them back on track, CBS2's Jenna DeAngelis reported Monday. 

"I feel like they are still trying to catch up," said Lucelia Lemes, a parent. 

Lemes is among those supporting a proposed bill that would buy more time in school for some New Jersey students. 

"I see that as an opportunity to actually really catch up with what they have lost," said Lemes. 

"This is a good moment to kind of fix the issue and trying to work with parents and with children," said Carolina Home, from Newark. 

The bill would establish a 3-year pilot program that increases the length of the school day or school year to help with learning loss from the pandemic. 

"The loss was greater in the urban areas with low-income, minority students than the suburban students," said State Sen. Shirley Turner. "Many of them didn't have the computers at home." 

Turner, who is sponsoring the bill, said 20 districts would be chosen by the Department of Education, including five each from the southern, northern and central regions of the state. Five more would be picked based on academic need, focused on state testing results, graduation rates and dropout rates. 

Each district would get up to $1 million annually to cover the costs. Turner said the plan could be paid for with funding from the American Rescue Plan that was given to the state.

"This bill is in reaction to what we have seen during the COVID pandemic when our students were out of school for more than a year, and we know now that there was severe learning loss and we need to do everything we can to recover that loss," said Turner. 

"Paterson could certainly benefit from this program. It just does need to be well planned," said Rosie Grant, executive director of Paterson Education Fund, a nonprofit community-based organization.

"We ought to think about what are some of the best practices in after school programming and how do we prepare our staff for this? How do we make sure staff and kids don't burn out, but are really engaged?" said Grant. 

"We have 180 days in a school year but the students need something beyond the 180 days, and something beyond the five or six hours a day if we're going to recover their learning loss," said Turner. 

Sean M. Spiller, president of the New Jersey Education Association, is apprehensive given the current staffing situation. 

"I think primarily we've got to address the fact that in the school days they have right now, they're missing out on so much instruction because we can't fill positions with educators. We've got to address that need first, or we're just chasing our tail here," said Spiller. 

If the bill passes, Turner said it would likely begin with the 2024-25 school year to give enough planning time for the DOE and districts involved.

We reached out to the DOE for input, but have not heard back. 

Click here to read the bill. 

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