SALT LAKE CITY A district court judge has ruled that the Salt Lake City School District s sole reliance on virtual learning does not violate students constitutional rights.
Third District Judge Adam Mow denied a motion for preliminary injunction seeking the reopening of Salt Lake schools for an in-person learning option four days a week, noting that the group of parents who filed the lawsuit failed to meet their heightened burden for a mandatory preliminary injunction that would alter the status quo.
With a nod to local control of schools, Mow wrote, Under Utah law and Utah State Board of Education guidelines, elected local district school boards have the authority to make that decision for their respective students. Clearly, some students in Salt Lake City School District have struggled with online instruction, which has resulted in academic, emotional, financial and other issues. But this court s task is not to determine whether the board made the best decision or to substitu
Legislative leaders once again use budget hammer to mandate school priorities.
(Trent Nelson | Tribune file photo) This Sept. 18, 2020, file photo shows Meadowlark Elementary School teacher John Arthur, Utah s teacher of the year, interacting with his 6th grade students on Zoom, in Salt Lake City. Utah lawmakers are concerned about students falling behind because of pandemic-forced remote learning and are mandating that $274 million in federal COVID aid be used exclusively to help these struggling students.
| Jan. 29, 2021, 1:14 p.m.
Utah lawmakers are so determined that federal coronavirus relief funding for Utah’s schools goes toward helping students who have fallen behind due to remote learning that they’re mandating that local districts can’t spend those funds on anything else.
Salt Lake City parents lose their legal fight to reopen schools. But not for the reasons you might think.
Decision comes after parents asked to force Salt Lake City School District to reopen.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Teaching assistant Becca Stevens holds the door open for returning Escalante Elementary students in Salt Lake City, January, 25, 2021. Salt Lake City School District began reopening all of the district s elementary schools to in-person learning on Monday. And a judge has declined to grant an injunction that would force it to open to more students or to move faster in reopening.
| Jan. 29, 2021, 12:57 a.m.
, The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting in-depth on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on education.
When the Salt Lake City School District announced all classes would be online this fall, Molly Pearce immediately knew she had to literally map out another option.
Helping her four school-age children learn at home last spring, after Utah’s schools closed abruptly to slow the spread of COVID-19, was “disastrous,” she said.
“Computers crashing and the websites not working, passwords not working … My legs hurt by the end of the day from running from computer to computer,” Pearce said. “And the stress level of myself and all of my children and my husband, who has been working from home, was incredibly high.”