LEA Planning Team: Christopher Cowart, Superintendent - Melissa Lewis, Director of Assessment and Accountability - Jaime Handlin, Director of Curriculum - Morgan Bennett, Director of MIS/Technology - Gerie Forde, Coordinator of Federal Programs - Charles Bowe, Charter School Principal - Jennifer Pittman, Charter School Principal. The desired outcome/goal of this plan is to effectively educate students in the absence of normal school operations and/or learn-from-home scenarios (such as COVID-19 quarantines). The critical success factors used to determine achievement of the plan will be as follows: 1. Internet access outside of school district facilities and access to functional internet-connected devices for all students and staff. 2. Access to food commodities needed for continued school lunch program functionality (resilience in the face of food shortages). 3. Access to high-quality consumable instructional materials for learning at home. Action plan/steps to address the CSF's are: 1. Provide professional learning to all school personnel on the processes, procedures and expectations during school closure. 2. Communicate with all stakeholders the processes put in place by the LEA in the event of a school closure to ensure continuity of learning. 3. NSIT standards shall be incorporated into district technology planning and disaster recovery documents. 4. Monitor the implementation of school closure plans by developing a monitoring schedule. Evaluations of the effectiveness will be measured by quarterly surveys administered to collect input from administrators, school staff, parents and students to reflect on protocols and practices with the intent for systemwide improvement in the event of a school closure.

The desired outcome of the School Board of Levy County is to provide students with accessible materials and instruction to support continued learning in the absence of direct instruction or in person learning. Our goal is to continue to provide learning opportunities to avoid any learning loss by students and to continue to close the gap in learning from previous learning losses. Canvas and Google Classroom are both being utilized currently. Google Classroom was used in the district prior to the pandemic and Canvas was implemented as an additional LMS in the summer of 2020. The district will have a cross functional team consisting of persons from the district technology and curriculum department, school based administration, teachers, parents and students to monitor the performance of the LMS, identify strengths and weaknesses, and problem solve solutions to ensure the LMS is being implemented with the highest effectiveness. The LEA will facilitate professional learning on the use of the LMS and the integration of student lessons for all teachers grades VPK-12. We will identify lead teachers to be the point person(s) at each school to support LMS implementation and troubleshoot with teachers on a more direct basis. Virtual professional learning offerings will be provided on various days and times to ensure teachers with varying schedules have the opportunity to attend the professional learning. We will ensure that administrators are also supporting the implementation of the LMS by having them trained and building a unified expectation as a district for all school personnel.

The LEA will provide progress monitoring surveys throughout the school year to identify the needs of teachers in the implementation and use of the LMS. The results of such surveys will then drive the professional learning offerings for the LEA and schools specifically. Professional learning opportunities will range from beginners to advanced use of the LMS. Professional learning will be offered multiple times and days to differentiate for the teachers and staff, allowing them to meet the needs of their schedule. Learning will be based on teacher and staff needs determined from progress monitoring surveys. LMS integration will be thematically included in other content training and planning meetings to ensure continuity. Professional learning for educational staff will be continuous and ongoing throughout the school year, differentiated for all levels. These trainings will be planned during District Instructional Team meetings and as well as School/District Administrator meetings. The District Instructional Team includes the Director(s) of Curriculum, ESE, Accountability, MIS Technology and Finance, Coordinator(s) of Early Childhood, Foster, Homeless, Federal Programs, English/Language Arts/Science and Math and ESOL. All professional learning will end with an evaluation for educational staff to give feedback on the effectiveness of the learning. These results, as well as feedback from the LMS monitoring team will be used to adjust future professional learning provided. Results from progress monitoring surveys will also be used to determine effectiveness.

The needs of educators relative to online and hybrid teaching experience and expertise consist of the need to build foundational pedagogical skills for quality online and/or away-from-school instruction. In addition, we need to develop methods for collecting and sharing quality online and/or away-from-school content. With the implementation of LMS, the district will take the survey results to determine the level of expertise of educational personnel. We will work with school administration to review current instructional staff and identify which have advanced, developing and beginning skill levels at online and/or away-from-home instruction. This will be the framework to begin our professional learning plan for use of the LMS. Upon the identification of those with best practices for distance/hybrid education delivery, the LEA will develop a cohort of instructional leaders who will help develop guides and resources for using the LMS. In addition, this cohort of instructional leaders will help develop the professional learning opportunities we provide the staff throughout the year in implementation of the LMS and effective strategies for distance/hybrid education. The district will provide professional learning to all staff, through the development with the instructional leader cohort, of the best practices for hybrid teaching. These best practices will be broken up into elementary best practices and secondary best practices as there is a differentiation in engagement and abilities of students. Schools will be provided the training for lead cohort teachers to facilitate on their campus and/or offered by district staff when it best fits into their professional learning calendar. A survey for students will be provided each semester to determine delivery methods and strategies that engaged students. The evaluation results of the survey will help determine the need for different/additional strategies of implementation by teachers in their instruction while providing hybrid instruction.

Being a rural county, about 70% of our students lack the technological capabilities to engage in virtual learning. Due to this, we need to ensure learning continues without internet capabilities. We will provide learning through tutorials for parents and independent practice in the form of paper packs. Teacher cohorts will work together to create these parent tutorials for units of instruction based on each grade level's curriculum maps. In addition, for those with minimal technology capabilities, a bank of instructional video lessons on grade level content lessons will be provided to parents for learning support. The district will provide multiple means of communication between schools, teachers, students, and families. We will do this through the use of Remind 101 communication system, Skyward Messenger, Social Media (Facebook), phone calls, emails, and the district website. The district will also provide a parent and families “Guide To At-Home Learning”. This guide will provide parents with example daily schedules for their child specific for their grade level, at home learning rules, do’s and don’ts, how to manage testing from home with testing security, and the etiquette one should maintain when engaged in online learning and at home instruction. Within the “Guide for At-Home Learning”, a section will be dedicated to families on how to best serve students with Individual Educational Plans, 504 Plans, and ESOL Plans. We will identify how families can provide specific accommodations students may have in their plan and how that would be addressed in the home setting and how it is addressed on the virtual platform. In addition, copies of students’ plans will be made accessible to parents at all times for them to reference. Any learning supports that need to be accessible in the home that are accessible to the student in the classroom setting will be provided for use at home to the extent feasible by the school and district. Staff will be notified of protocols via school administration communicating expectations for providing services and accommodations. The district will provide schools with contact logs to ensure all students are being communicated with on a regular basis. This means of communication will not be limited to just academics but also to address the students social/emotional and physical wellbeing while engaging in learning from home. In addition, school counselors will maintain communication with students for whom a need for regular outreach already existed, as well as initiating communication with any students that teachers have a concern. Non-classroom teachers who support intervention or special education students, will also engage in communication with those students to offer the additional support that they would have received if in school for learning. Instructional teachers and paraprofessionals who support special student populations will be required to keep a log of times and notes reflecting engagement and support to students and families. There will be a minimum required contact with these special student populations to ensure the support is being provided and the students plan and basic needs are being met. This means of communication will allow teachers to work on the student’s individual plan goals, as well as provide the families with any additional supports the student may need at home to be successful.

Technology Staff Members: 1. Morgan Bennett, Director of MIS/Technology 2. Joseph Locke, Coordinator of MIS/Technology 3. Lawrence Frields, Coordinator of MIS/Technology. After a self-evaluation of current technology infrastructure and robustness, it was determined that there is a need for a secondary, load-balancing circuit for the district network in order to prevent prolonged network service interruptions. The LEA will contact L3Harris.com (an MFN-2 provider from FL DMS), Unity Fiber, and/or SETEL to get a/an quote(s) for a load-balancing second circuit. The district will continue to use the North East Florida Education Consortium (NEFEC) as a resource. Review pros and cons of establishing a second circuit, vs. other potential upgrades that could improve network robustness (e.g. - generator backup on school-level MDFs). The School Board of Levy County maintains approximately 100 wireless access points (Kajeets) for student checkout, and has applied for an additional 920 such devices using the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF). ESSER-II funds are also being used to purchased a backup generator for district core network components. The goal of the School Board of Levy County is to acquire a sufficient number of additional chromebooks to maintain a 1:1 student-to-device ratio for all students in grades KG-12. The Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) has been utilized to apply for an additional 1888 chromebooks in an effort to meet this goal. After a full inventory of current devices was conducted in June/July 2021, 1888 was the number of devices that was determined to be needed in order to return to 1:1 student-device ratios district-wide. The goal of the LEA is to maintain a sufficient inventory of wireless access points (Kajeets) to make one available to any student that has been quarantined due to COVID-19 and who does not already have internet access in the home. To that end, the ECF has been leveraged to apply for an additional 920 Kajeet wireless access points. This number was based on publicly available statistics at https://thefloridascorecard.org/pillar&c=0&pillar=3. The LEA will ensure all assistive technology devices required by individualized education plans and/or 504 plans shall be available and operational for students working at home and meet compliance requirements with FAPE. The School Board of Levy County maintains full compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), per federal e-Rate program requirements. Kajeet wireless access points maintain content filtering as part of our existing service plan contract. The LEA shall review options for using the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) Round 2 and/or other funding sources to fund filtering options for students using district devices on private networks. School staff shall be identified that could function as helpdesk support during school closures, and a training shall be developed to prepare these individuals for Tier 1 support. The LEA's existing IT staff (school lab managers, district techs, district IT coordinators) can function as Tier II and Tier III support using the district’s existing Incident IQ ticketing system.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NSIT) Cybersecurity Framework shall be reviewed and used to revise and update the School Board of Levy County Information Technology Data Loss Prevention Plan, Technology Plan and Disaster Recovery Plan. Charter schools submit their ICPs to the District and are reviewed to ensure compliance with cybersecurity standards. The LEA's Technology Data Loss Prevention Plan, Technology Plan and Disaster Recovery plan contain elements to ensure continuity of business operations. SBLC will review and update existing Information Technology Data Loss Prevention Plan, Technology Plan and Disaster Recovery Plan to reflect the needs of remote learners. Charter schools submit their ICPs to the District and are reviewed to ensure compliance with cybersecurity standards related to incident response. SBLC will review and update existing Information Technology Data Loss Prevention Plan as it related to cyber security-related policies and procedures. The LEA's MIS/Information Technology department has secure standard operating procedures that are periodically reviewed. These shall be aligned with NIST standards aimed at safeguarding the district’s information systems and IT infrastructure. The current plan of actions and milestones for cyber security improvements are as follows: 1. The SBLC Information Technology Data Loss Prevention Plan, Technology Plan and Disaster Recovery Plan shall be reviewed and updated to incorporate current NSIT cybersecurity standards by October 31, 2021. 2. All Skyward Student, Skyward Business, and Google systemwide users will use multifactor authentication by December 31, 2021. 3. The School Board of Levy County will continue to retire electronic devices (i.e. - Chromebooks, chromeboxes, desktop computers, ipads) within 6 months of the end of their posted end-of-service-life date.

The district will have a communication team, the District Instructional Team, to facilitate the dissemination of critical information through the use of multiple communication systems including but not limited to Remind 101, Skyward Messenger, U.S. Postal Service, social media and face to face communication. School administrators will lead school-level messaging. The district will have a communication plan for when a student is learning at home. This communication will include the district’s procedures, parent/guardian procedures and student expectations to support learning from home. This communication will be available to all families during the school year as the need arises. The School Board of Levy County will work with the area SEDNET Coordinator to identify key multi-agency contacts that can be utilized by families, educators and families. Virtual learning is challenging for many learners but can be even more challenging for our special education students with learning and social emotional difficulties. The research suggests the following that we embrace. -A daily routine, establishing a set time for each activity and ensuring students are well aware of when educational activities will occur. -Specialized instruction and more scaffolded support, such as having tasks broken down for manageable chunks, visual aids and frequent check-ins to ensure the students are on track. -Use individual and small group break-out rooms on Zoom, "Go to Meetings" " Canvas" etc.. -Students can be given reading assignments at their instructional level, alternative assignments that meet the same learning standard. -Extend opportunities for learner to learner engagement and social skill development. -Embed UDL Framework that leads to greater accessibility and success for students with disabilities. -Consider Assistive Technology ( AT) as appropriate. -Monitor student progress and intervene expeditiously when problems arise.

The following school operations are impacted through school closure: Food and Nutrition Services, Transportation, Maintenance, Finance, MIS/IT, and Personnel. All School Board of Levy County personnel are identified as essential workers (critical infrastructure employee) in closure events. Charter schools shall provide an individualized Instructional Continuity Plan to the district for review and approval. School Board of Levy County staff will maintain revised work schedules and feedback on performance of duties in the event of school closure. Food distribution shall occur on a weekly basis for all SBLC households. Both bus routes and school-based pickup lines will be utilized. Households shall receive 1 week’s worth of food at each distribution, contingent upon USDA procedural approval. Special education services and accommodations will be provided to the extent possible by ESE teachers and support personnel to assist students per their IEP. Documentation will be collected to ensure tracking of such services is provided to identified students. The LEA will collaborate with Local interfaith councils and church leaders, local county and city organizations, rotary organizations, NGO’s, and educational foundations shall be contacted to provide support in areas of need to provide comprehensive support to students and families during school closures.

Emergency and Ongoing Communication Stakeholders: 1. Administrators: Minimally monthly meetings, emails. 2. Staff: Staff meetings, email. 3. Parents: Remind 101, Skyward Messenger, District Facebook Page. 4. Students: LMS Messaging, email, Remind 101, Skyward Messenger, District Facebook Page. 5. Community Members/Business Partners: Local Emergency Operations Center and County Health Department emails, District Website, District Facebook Page. Roles and responsibilities of school personnel assigned to communication: 1. School Administrators and office staff- Share district and school messages clearly and consistently with all stakeholders. 2. Teachers- Continuous communication with parents and students using LMS, Remind 101, and Skyward Messenger/emails, and phone calls. Daily instructional activities to meet instructional minutes is expected of instructional staff for students. In the event of a closure, communications on a continuous basis with all stakeholders. A minimum of weekly communication will be administered from district to school administration and then to school level staff. Communication will be provided to the public on the School Board of Levy County website (www.levyk12.org) in addition to announcements provided on district and school social media sites. Communication will include instructional continuity plans and what students, families, and staff should expect from the district and schools. This will include, but is not limited to, academic support, technology tips/resources, operations (Food and Nutrition Services, Transportation, Maintenance, Finance, MIS/IT, Personnel, and Student Services).

Levy's ICP was submitted on 9/29/2021; Resubmitted 11/30/21