Attendance will be taken and live virtual classes will be in session for Federal Way students this fall.

At Tuesday night’s Federal Way School Board meeting, the school district shared the proposed reopening plan with the board. The board members approved the plan on Aug. 11, and the reopening plan will now be submitted to Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction for approval.

“I feel like we are uniquely positioned in Federal Way to make remote learning truly one of the best models across the state,” said Superintendent Dr. Tammy Campbell.

More than 100 community members and stakeholders helped devise the FWPS handbook, which outlines the upcoming year’s health guidelines, resources and plans for layout of school days. The handbook will be made available to the public by next week.

FWPS announced on July 22 that the district would begin the school year in an entirely online model, based on data from Public Health – Seattle & King County.

“Our plan has significantly improved from our spring,” said Deputy Superintendent Dr. Dani Pfeiffer. “The spring was really us building the plane while flying it … we recognized we could do better and this plan is the result of that.”

Feedback from families, parents and students asked for more structure and consistency, graded assignments, and rules for the Zoom classes among other items. Pfeiffer said attendance will be taken, instruction will be delivered live and extensive resources will be provided to both staff and families.

Remote learning comes down to students engaging with teachers in direct daily instruction, regular feedback, supporting families and working to ensure equity, Pfeiffer said.

What will school days look like this fall?

This synchronous instruction, including daily plan lessons and live instruction, will be four days a week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday). For asynchronous instruction, students will engage in studying, homework or independent practice assigned by the teacher.

Wednesdays will be reserved for targeted skills and small groups to improve academic areas with intentional focus on social emotional learning content.

At the high school level, students will engage in a 4×4 schedule of four classes per quarter. Quarters one and three will have periods 1, 3, 5, and 7. Quarters two and four consist of periods 2, 4, 6, and 8.

Middle schoolers will engage in four classes per semester. Elementary school students will have morning or afternoon sessions that alternate between synchronous and asynchronous learning.

In addition, FWPS is transitioning to streamlined communication tools. Therefore if a parent has children at different schools, they won’t have to learn two separate systems.

In the coming weeks, families will be contacted to gauge technology needs along with each family’s willingness to participate in remote learning.

For more information about beginning of the school year with remote learning, visit fwps.org.