Governor Larry Hogan announced over a month ago his new mandate to require Maryland schools to start after Labor Day.  On Tuesday, Governor Hogan revised certain parts of this new requirement.  The mandate will remain the same, but getting a waiver to start before Labor Day or end after June 15 will now be harder.  Before, in his initial announcement, Governor Hogan stated that schools could receive a waiver if they presented “compelling justification.”  Now schools may only receive a waiver if they are a charter, low-performing, or at-risk school with an innovative schedule (such as year-round or extended year schedules) or if a district has had 10 or more emergency or weather-related closings a year at least twice in the past 5 years.

The amendment comes as a response to state board members voicing concerns about how long and how many people it would take to oversee and approve waivers.  The state Board of Education voted last month, and reached a unanimous decision to ask state staff members to set guidelines for what waivers could be approved.  Governor Hogan clarified what he meant by “compelling justification” to keep waiver applications from overwhelming the Board of Education and to make it easier to approve or deny permission, though Hogan claims that it was introduced to try and keep approvals timely.

The overall feeling of the Boards of Education, state and local, is that Governor Hogan is trying to prevent schools from applying for mandates as they struggle to create a schedule that fits the timeframe.  Frederick County Public Schools don’t qualify to apply for a waiver, so it is unclear what will haven if extra snow days are used next year and whether it would require another waiver.  They are also concerned about summer learning loss, or when students lose important information from the last school year over the break.  The concern is that the longer break will cause students to lose more information and lose ground academically.

State officials are also concerned about the mandate.  They see the mandate as overstepping its boundaries.  The state Board of Education is trying to figure out if they can take Governor Hogan’s mandate to court and have it overturned.  It is likely that a court would find Governor Hogan guilty of exceeding his authority on this particular issue.  Officials are still reviewing the mandate to see if they could sponsor legislation to overturn Hogan’s decision.  For now, though, it is still law in Maryland to start after Labor Day.