The Kansas State Department is allowing schools to forgo the Daily Log requirement as of 12:30 p.m. Monday, if schools can provide a parent assurance document proving students are engaging outside of the school building. 

The move comes after overwhelming opposition to the logs from parents, students and teachers. 

The logs were unpopular with students for a number of reasons, chiefly, because the logs force people to work a certain number of hours a day. This made it harder to get ahead on work for fear they won’t have enough to do the next day, meaning if students understand the lesson and get it done quickly they have to find ways to fill-out the time.

The Mentor conducted an Instagram poll asking students what other than logs could determine whether students were engaged. 6 students responded to the survey.

“Just finish the work assigned,” junior Tushar Ghatty said in the survey.

They also seemed pointless to some, as paperwork to record what students already doing doesn’t necessarily help them engage.

“Students who do their work will and students who don’t won’t,”senior Colin Hollenberry said.  The log doesn’t change that,”

The new guidelines allow parents to sign one form essentially saying they will participate in their students’ education and help them keep up with their classes outside of school. There will be one form for each parent, meaning they won’t have to fill one out for every student enrolled in the district.  There are concerns that parents will not be able to actually fulfil these guidelines, especially if they are working during the day.

“And I know there could be some concern from families that says, ‘Well, you know that a parent could be at work’… So we’re in a difficult situation where parents need to be at work and tending to their career, but they’re also still providing that oversight along with the teachers at the school,” Head principal Micheal Dorst said. “There is no other time in our history that I think parents have had better access to their kids through our technology. Now, of course, it would be preferable if all students were able to be in school. It would be preferable if parents were able to be home with their students.”

The timing for when the logs will be phased out or when parents will receive the forms is not yet certain, although it’s expected to be very soon. 

“I would say, if people mentally say ‘I’m absolutely going to sign it,’ then I would say don’t worry about learning logs,” Dorst said. “Don’t let learning logs be something that consumes your time; I would focus your energy and your thoughts on learning rather than learning logs.”

The school will need to get all of the parental assurance forms signed by the spring audit. They do not, however, need all of the forms signed before phasing out the logs. They also don’t expect getting the logs sign to be a massive challenge.

“I’m going to speculate that we’ll probably see a very rapid response on the student and parent side on getting this signed,” Dorst said. “Because I think …  that nobody wants to continue to have anything to do with learning logs.”