e-Learning

Public Act 101-0012 o​f the 101st Illinois General Assembly permits local school districts to establish an e-Learning plan to address student learning in a remote environment. Niles D71 will utilize e-Learning to provide meaningful education to students during emergency days. Since we are a 1:1 District, students already have considerable experience with digital learning.  This plan allows our teachers to develop engaging and meaningful lessons that students can complete outside of school while complying with the statutory requirements.

All teachers created plans to continue instruction through our e-Learning program. Daily learning activities for grades K-2 are included in a “Home Learning Kit.”  These Kits will be sent home with students. For grades 3-5, these Kits contain a mix of online lessons and paper activities.  All of the activities for students in grades 6-8 are posted on the e-Learning page of the District 71 website.

Parents and students may email teachers questions about the assignments at their teacher’s school email address during regular school hours.  Some teachers may provide additional opportunities to interact electronically during the school day. While teachers will use different methods to deliver instruction, all assignments will be meaningful and will keep instruction moving forward.  

Student Electronic Use Policy

We also want to remind you and your children of the School District’s Acceptable Use of Electronic Network Policy, Board Policy No. 6:235. While students are engaging in distance learning and are using the School District’s technology, we continue to maintain the expectation that they use it appropriately. We encourage you to monitor your child’s presence on technology as well and contact us regarding any concerns of misuse. 

Student Confidentiality

During this period of distance learning, your child’s teacher will likely use a combination of live streaming technology such as Google Meets and Zoom to conference with your child or with children in a group.  Additionally, there may be assignments delivered through electronic platforms. 

During live streaming instruction, it is inevitable that the teacher and other children will be able to see the area of your home surrounding your child and any activity that might be occurring in the background. We do not believe this to be a breach of confidentiality, but want you to understand that, in order to offer this opportunity, we cannot prevent this from happening. We also cannot prevent people from other children’s homes from viewing the instruction or interactions taking place over video streaming services. This intrusion is unfortunate but is not avoidable considering our current circumstances. 

We do ask that you do not video or audio record these lessons and that you make all attempts to respect the privacy of all students participating in distance learning with your child. 

Student Attendance

Student attendance will be determined by the student’s completion of the learning activities performed on these days.