Loudoun Co. students to teach themselves remotely on some days due to teacher shortage


  • Loudoun County calls the self-taught days “Asynchronous Learning Days.”

Worker shortages in the professions of teaching, health care and first responders are reaching critical stages in some areas.

Loudoun County, Virginia public schools are asking students to teach themselves “remotely, on their own schedules” during two days the first week of November due to the “ongoing shortage of classroom and transportation substitutes.”

The school system has given the self-teaching, lack of in-class instruction days a name: “Asynchronous Learning Days.”

Parents will have to go to school to pick up any school breakfasts and lunches on those days.

You can read the Loudoun County Public School announcement below:

Our focus at LCPS continues to be on delivering education to students in-person; however, if something impacts our ability to deliver on this focus, we want to be proactive so families may plan. We have taken a close look at how the ongoing shortage of classroom and transportation substitutes may impact school operations during the week of November 1-5. During that week, there are two instructional days, a teacher work day where students are off and two holidays where schools are closed. 

In preparation for anticipated substitute coverage shortages during that week, the two instructional school days on November 3 and 5 will now be asynchronous learning days. Students will accomplish assigned school work remotely, on their own schedules. Teachers will use these two days as planning and work days. School meals will be provided onsite for pick up on Wednesday, November 3, and Friday, November 5.

There is no change to the published calendar/schedule other than November 3 and November 5. 

The full schedule beginning October 28 is as follows: 

Thursday, October 28 – Regular school day as scheduled 

Friday, October 29 – STUDENT HOLIDAY (County-wide Staff Development)

Monday, November 1 – STUDENT HOLIDAY (Planning/Records/Conference Days)

Tuesday, November 2 – STUDENT/STAFF HOLIDAY

UPDATE: Wednesday, November 3 – Teacher Planning Day / Student Asynchronous Learning Day

Thursday, November 4 – STUDENT/STAFF HOLIDAY

UPDATE: Friday, November 5 – Teacher Planning Day / Student Asynchronous Learning Day

Thank you for your patience as we all work together during this time of ongoing challenges to help our students learn. 

Best wishes, 

Scott A. Ziegler, Ed.D.
Superintendent 


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1 thought on “Loudoun Co. students to teach themselves remotely on some days due to teacher shortage”

  1. I was a substitute teacher in LCPS for many years, up through last year. Some of my assignments have been spent in front offices where one learns how the administrative system works. This is not a “teacher shortage”. per say.
    The only reason they can make this call 3 weeks out is that so many teachers must have put in for personal leave and they do not have a substitute pool large enough to cover the amount of teachers who have requested the Wed and Fri off. So rather then saying teachers cannot use their leave that week, they say my kids have to stay home and lose 2 more days of instruction. My kids who had to already be quarantined two weeks ago since one of them had COVID.. The healthy ones had no symptoms but because they have not taken the vaccine (all but one old enough to receive) they had to lose 10 days of school, where no distance learning instruction was provided. Now if my children had the vaccine and no symptoms, they could have gone to school. Where is the science in that?
    I’m simply a very frustrated parent who sees the school system not following science, not properly instructing my children, not complying with an IEP of one of my kids, and then received the above email…as a parent who said they’d never homeschool again, it is something we are seriously reconsidering.

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