UPDATE: On-Demand LBUSD Video Webinar On Independent Study Offers Details; LBUSD Staff Proposes Independent Study With Undefined "Opportunities" For Synchronous Teacher Interaction At Various Grade Levels, Less Specific Than LAUSD's Policy

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UPDATE: On-Demand LBUSD Video Webinar On Independent Study Offers Details; LBUSD Staff Proposes Independent Study With Undefined "Opportunities" For Synchronous Teacher Interaction At Various Grade Levels, Less Specific Than LAUSD's Policy

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(Aug. 16, 2021, updated 7:05 p.m. from 3:15 p.m. breaking) -- The LBUSD School Board Aug. 18 agenda (which became visible online Aug. 16) includes a policy item for Board approval on independent study (for parents not wishing to put their children in reopened classrooms with uncertain student and teacher vaccination status.)

Staff's proposed independent study policy (in full at this link: includes the following verbiage lifted nearly verbatim from AB 130 (budget trailer bill signed in July by Governor Newsom.)

LBUSD staff's proposed independent study policy is less specific and less substantive than LAUSD's independent study policy (details below.) It isn't the full hybrid schedule LBUSD offered last year but it does differ from the categorical denial of any online component indicated Aug. 12 by Deputy Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Brown.

UPDATE: LBUSD staff provided a pre-recorded virtual webinar -- which went online at 6 p.m. Aug 16 and is now visible on-demand below -- that describes LBUSD staff's proposed independent study program.

LBUSD staff's proposed independent study program and underlying policy will come to LBUSD's elected School Board at its Aug. 18 meeting, at which time the Board will hear public testimony may or may not make changes to what LBUSD proposes.

LBUSD staff has proposed that at the School Board's Aug. 18 meeting, the Board should approve an independent study policy (legalistic document) that includes the following:

"[LBUSD staff proposed verbiage] The Superintendent or designee shall ensure that students participating in independent study for 15 school days or more receive the following throughout the school year: (Education Code 51747)

"1. For students in grades transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, and grades 1 to 3, opportunities for daily synchronous instruction.
"2. For students in grades 4-8, opportunities for both daily live interaction and at least weekly synchronous instruction.
"3. For students in grades 9-12, opportunities for at least weekly synchronous instruction."

The LBUSD staff proposed policy leaves a key term ("opportunities") legally undefined.

By comparison, LAUSD's offered independent study option is more specific than what LBUSD staff proposes.

[LAUSD verbiage]
For Elementary grades: 3 hours per day daily live instruction with teacher, the remainder independent work when not learning with teacher.
For Secondary grades: Three 70-minute periods per day (with at least 40 minutes of direct student-teacher time per period), the remainder independent work when not learning with teacher.

LBUSD's elected School Board could vote on Aug. 18 to tweak LBUSD staff's proposed verbiage to more closely resemble LAUSD's independent study policy, or make other changes, if the Board wishes.