By Antoinette Grajeda, Arkansas Advocate
Arkansas school districts have already begun helping students meet a new community service graduation requirement as state officials work to approve the program’s final rules.
Under the LEARNS Act, a sweeping new education law, Arkansas students must complete 75 hours of community hours to graduate, starting with this year’s freshman class.
De Queen superintendent Jason Sanders said 9th grade administrators and teachers have built time into the school day throughout the year for community service opportunities as well as after-school opportunities to meet the requirement.
Students at De Queen Junior High, which serves 8th and 9th graders, have participated in campus clean-up days, volunteered at sporting events, worked concession stands, served meals at a chamber of commerce banquet and visited nursing homes, Sanders said.
“We understand there could be extenuating circumstances for some students and are waiting for guidance from [the Arkansas Department of Education],” he said. “It is really hard to say how difficult implementation is at this point because we are still in the early stages of this LEARNS requirement. We should be able to know more in due time.”
Details are on the way following the State Board of Education’s approval of draft rules for public comment on Thursday, more than a year after the passage of the LEARNS Act.
The proposed rules, which mirror language in the LEARNS Act, will have a 30-day public comment period and feedback will inform any changes. The final rules must again be approved by the state board and then by lawmakers.
Unless another effective date is specified, the rules become effective 10 days after filing with the Secretary of State’s office.
Since the 1996-1997 academic year, Arkansas law has allowed students to receive one graduation credit for completing a minimum of 75 hours of community service. Under the LEARNS Act, the graduating class of 2025-2026 will be the final group eligible for the credit.
Arkansas Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Stacy Smith said Thursday that the new graduation requirement will help students have pride and connection to their communities. She also said the rules provide flexibility for local districts to determine what qualifies as community service.
“We do believe that school districts need to know their students and they need to have the ability to make some individual decisions, and they know their communities and their resources and places that students have the opportunity to go and do community service,” Smith said.
While the proposed rules allow districts to decide what counts as community service, the policy must be posted to the district website, require an adult sign off on the student’s community service hours and include preparation, action and reflection components required for a student to receive credit.
Service activities can be completed inside or outside of Arkansas and before, during or after school hours.
When designing community service activities, districts are required to address student safety and ensure partner organizations have the infrastructure to accommodate students by ensuring student safety and privacy, as well as provide necessary equipment and training, according to the draft rules.
A minimum number of community service hours are not required for each grade unless they are transferring into the district. The minimum number of hours for transfer students is 15 hours for 9th grade and 20 hours for 10th through 12th grade.
Rep. Tippi McCullough, a Little Rock Democrat and former educator, said she’s not against community service, but she is concerned about students who face challenges at home or have extra familial duties like caring for siblings.
“I think for a lot of families that requirement will put a certain kind of strain on the family and on the kids just because of these advantages some families have over others,” McCullough said. “Whether it’s money or whether it’s their life situation or whatever…I do think it will be much easier for some students to achieve that than others.”
The proposed rules allow the service requirement to be waived for extenuating circumstances on a case-by-case basis. A parent, legal guardian or 18-year-old student may petition the district for the waiver and a public school board must take up the request at its next board meeting. The chief executive officer of an open-enrollment charter school must take up the request within 15 days of receipt.
Extenuating circumstances may include a major illness of a student or family member, a student who is “medically fragile” or with a disability under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Smith noted that a student does not automatically qualify for an exemption if they have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), a written education plan for students with disabilities.
“Again, it’s about individual students, and [districts] working with families and working with their students and the schools to determine what’s appropriate,” Smith said.
Additional extenuating circumstances include a student experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, or if the student is a major contributor to family income.
It’s not uncommon for students to contribute to their household’s income in high-poverty areas like the Newport School District where nearly 76% of the district’s 1,125 students qualify for free and reduced lunch. That number was as high as 100% in 2018 and 2019.
Newport School District Career and Technical Education Coordinator Amanda Brogdon said many of Newport’s students work, but she doesn’t think they’ll have trouble meeting the requirement.
The district has focused on community service for some time, but Brogdon said they’re increasing opportunities and providing more guidance to keep students on track with the new requirement.
“Giving back is very important and it’s a very important civic lesson I think to teach our kids,” she said.
The proposed rules require districts to maintain a system to record community service hours, which will be reported to the education department annually. Districts must also report if a student was granted a waiver and the reason for the waiver.
Brogdon said a coordinator in Newport already tracks students’ community service hours in a shared Google spreadsheet, and this year, students have earned more than 2,000 hours.
By volunteering at community events, Brogdon said students can build relationships and network with local leaders. Volunteer opportunities can also expose students to potential careers.
For example, health occupation students who participate in a blood drive twice a year get to learn about the medical field while earning community service hours, Brogdon said. These students also lead “an awesome teddy bear clinic” where they show elementary school students how to administer shots to the stuffed animals or check their heartbeat.
“That’s getting young kids excited about careers in the medical field, a very very important field…we are exposing those kids to early careers and it’s a great thing,” she said. “It’s a really good thing.”
The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy. Images: Mayberry — Arkansas House of Representatives; Davis — Arkansas Senate; Hester — Batesville School District.
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