School instructional hours executive order meets resistance by State Board of Education

Gov. Tina Kotek announces her executive order to protect school instructional time to the media while accompanied by (from left) Stand for Children Executive Director Sarah Pope and parent Kate Lupton. (Photo by Jake Arnold, OSBA)

Oregon's urgency to address its public education system's failings exploded into the State Board of Education meeting Thursday, April 16.

Gov. Tina Kotek appeared before the board in person to announce an executive order aimed at protecting instructional time, blocking schools from reducing school days to meet budget challenges. The order's suddenness and far-reaching challenges stirred consternation and hard questions about why now and how it will affect school budgets.

After pointed questioning about the budgetary and labor law realities of teacher and school staff scheduling, the Oregon Department of Education rewrote the proposed rules over a lunch break. The state board then adopted temporary rules to immediately implement only part of the governor's order. The board has 180 days to come up with permanent rules.

The State Board of Education meeting already promised wide-reaching school impacts with agenda items on the introduction of performance growth targets related to the state's Education Accountability Act and new rules for accounting systems. The temporary rules discussion for instructional time pushed everything aside.

Years of Oregon's poor public education performance compared with other states have fueled calls for action. State graduation rates, once the focus, have slowly been improving, but attention has shifted to Oregon students' math and literacy proficiency rates.

"Accountability" was the focus in 2025. "Instructional time" has risen to the top this year. Everyone agrees Oregon's students deserve more time in the classroom, but days cost money.

OSBA Executive Director Emielle Nischik said a conversation about giving students more time in class is long overdue. She pointed out that instructional time is already part of Division 22 standards being reviewed as part of the rule-making process for the Education Accountability Act.

"We should allow that systematic process to continue rather than picking off pieces with little warning and less input from those closest to the work and just two months left in the school year," Nischik said. "We need an informed, thoughtful, data-driven policy process to deliver the outcomes we want for students. Right now, we have a system that is disjointed and swerving for special interests, and we are seeing the results of that incoherence."

People not directly involved with the day-to-day operations don't have the full picture, she said.

"Our school boards want to give students every minute they can, but budgets only stretch so far," Nischik said. "The length of our school year is a function of long-standing school funding decisions."

Kotek fought for a significant increase in the State School Fund in 2025 and to protect school funding in 2026 as the state faced a budget shortfall brought on by federal policy. She acknowledged during a news conference Thursday that many districts were still struggling, though.

More than a dozen districts have publicly announced budget shortfalls this year. More than 80% of school district budgets is dedicated to staffing, and much of the rest is for fixed costs. When districts don't have enough revenue, staffing is inevitably affected.

School leaders say furlough days can be the least bad of distasteful options, providing flexibility to get through rough patches. Layoffs remove adults from buildings and end programs that can be difficult and expensive to restart. One-time furlough days that prevent layoffs are less disruptive for students and allow schools to preserve programs and staffing.

At least four districts have recently announced furlough days that affect instructional time. Kotek said she needed to act now to protect instructional time so more districts facing tough budget decisions don't go down that path.

"There is urgency because school boards are making decisions this month and next about the upcoming school year," she said, adding, "We simply cannot backslide on the instructional hours we have. We don't have enough of them, and we certainly can't go backwards."

The temporary rules supporting Kotek's emergency order prohibit districts from cutting "student instructional time." The new rules define "student instructional time" as bell to bell, a broader definition than the "instructional time hours" in statute that counts planned learning activities or assessments. Districts that have already instituted cuts this year or for next year have 90 days to submit a plan to restore the time by the start of the 2027-28 school year.

The rules also prohibit the Oregon Department of Education from granting waivers for schools to operate below minimum instructional hour requirements except for a national or state emergency.

Kotek was accompanied at the news conference by Sarah Pope, executive director of Stand for Children, a nonprofit education advocacy organization. Stand for Children has been leading the charge on instructional time. According to Stand, only three states mandate less time in class than Oregon.

Comparing instructional time is complicated because of different states' definitions of hours and days. Oregon requires 900 hours of "instructional time" in K-8, 990 hours for grades 9-11 and 966 hours for grade 12. State rules allow school districts to count up to 30 hours of staff professional development and up to 30 hours of parent-teacher conferences toward the time requirement.

School districts in negotiation with their unions set their own calendars, and the number of days and hours varies as much as several weeks across Oregon.

Kotek's emergency order also calls for an end to counting professional development and conferences toward instructional time.

The state board balked, though. Board members pointed out that many districts' teachers and classified staff have contracts that say they will be paid for professional development and parent-teacher conferences. If that time isn't counted as instructional time, then days must be added to the school calendar, days that staff must be paid for and that would need to be renegotiated in contracts. The emergency order does not include the tens of millions of dollars necessary to add around 60 hours of work to current contracts or the time to rewrite those contracts before next school year.

La Grande School District Superintendent George Mendoza, a board ex-officio member, said he is all for adding instructional time but not just for time's sake. Cutting staff numbers or curtailing their pay to add time risks the quality of students' experiences, he said. Other board members echoed his concerns.

"We need quality instruction," Mendoza said. "We need adequate staffing. We need student safety and conducive learning environments to ensure that learners thrive. You need that first before adding time."

The rewritten temporary rules did not include the provision against counting professional development and conference time. The state board indicated it would consider further rules during the permanent-rule-making process. Haley Percell, OSBA's chief legal officer and deputy executive director, recommended school leaders should talk to their legal counsel if they have questions about the executive order or rules.

Drishti Singh, a Lake Oswego senior and a state board student adviser, was among those thanking ODE for reworking the rules. She said schools are a community, not a corporate workplace, and the quality of the relationships is more important than the time.

"There are so many young, bright minds in our state, but they need patience and care over forced hours to be properly prepared for their futures," she said.

At the same meeting, the state board discussed two more major changes that will have significant impact on districts' budgets and operations. The board adopted a rule to create a uniform budget and accounting system. It will require significant time, training and system investments from districts.

The board also considered new Statewide Performance Growth Targets related to Senate Bill 141, the Education Accountability Act. The targets call for significant improvements in student academic measures, but there is little detail on how districts will reach those targets.

Source: Oregon Department of Education

Stacy Michaelson, OSBA Government Relations and Communications director, was among the education advocates who testified seeking greater clarity about how the targets fit with previous state goals.

Michaelson said after the meeting that the whole day was emblematic of the challenge school leaders face with constantly shifting demands and inadequate resources to meet them.

"We want longer school years, higher achievement and more data, too," said Michaelson. "Those are systemic problems, and they require systemwide thinking with real state engagement and support to reach solutions."

- Jake Arnold, [email protected]