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Districts that reduced school days to cover budget holes will need to add them onto the next school year under the order.
Oregon school districts would no longer be able to shorten the school year to cut costs, avoid layoffs and plug budget holes under a new order from the state’s governor.
Gov. Tina Kotek presented the order to the State Board of Education at its monthly meeting Thursday, April 16, and asked the board to approve temporary rules requiring schools that have already cut school days this year for budgeting to add them back by the 2027-28 school year.
She then asked the board to change state rules regarding instructional time, no longer allowing districts to cut instructional hours or to count teacher professional development or parent-teacher conferences as instructional hours.
“Too many Oregon students are not getting the time in the classroom they need to succeed,” Kotek said in a news release. “We cannot expect better outcomes if we continue to give our students less time to learn.”
Oregon has one of the shortest school years in the country according to a recent ECONorthwest analysis commissioned by the advocacy group Stand for Children. And Oregon students have some of the highest rates of chronic absenteeism in the nation, according to a recent analysis from the University of Oregon.
Portland, West Linn-Wilsonville, Reynolds, St. Helens, Lake Oswego and Beaverton schools have all cut school days during the most recent school year for budget reasons, according to OPB reporting. Portland’s cuts were made to help cover a $14 million budget shortfall.
Kotek in an FAQ accompanying the release of the order suggested she is open to tapping the Education Stability Fund to help districts with one-time budget issues so they can comply with the order. The governor has the power to declare an economic emergency and tap the fund, as does the state Legislature if two-thirds of each chamber agree to it.
Under the order, even the districts that cut school days but still met or exceeded the minimum hours of instructional time — 900 hours for kindergarten through eight grade; 990 hours for ninth through 11th grade; and 966 hours for high school seniors — would still need to make up those cut days by next year.
Kotek is also ordering the immediate end to the state Education Department’s use of instructional time waivers that allow some districts to fall below the mandated minimum instructional hours, unless there is a declared emergency.
