Frequently Asked Questions

If a student requires assistive devices to access distance learning at home, HDESD staff members must follow CDC guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting items (including soft porous surfaces, hard surfaces and electronics) in preparing equipment for pick up by or delivery to a student. Families should be notified that HDESD staff are following CDC guidelines to prepare equipment, but that we are not able to guarantee that all equipment will be 100% virus-free. As an additional precaution, families should be advised to review and implement the CDC guidelines for disinfecting and cleaning in the home environment, and provided with the link or a printed copy of those guidelines. For equipment pick up or delivery to a family, all recommended social distancing and other safety measures should be employed. Finally, every effort should be made to ensure the equipment is received by the student or his/her family. This means if you drop equipment off at a doorstep, you should wait in your car to personally observe it is retrieved.

We understand some providers are concerned that checking equipment out to students for use in their homes is inconsistent with licensure requirements, particularly where there is a need to train, supervise and/or monitor the use of the equipment. While we encourage providers to check with their own licensing boards/agencies for specific guidance in light of the distance learning mandate, no provider is expected to engage in activity that may compromise his or her licensure. These considerations should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and all cases should be well documented. 

We are committed to following Governor Brown’s executive order to Stay home–Save Lives. 

While we are open for business, our buildings are closed. In certain cases, and if it is required to provide essential services, you can seek permission from your supervisor to schedule a time to go into your building. Mandatory social distancing is required.

The CDC and  Central Oregon Public Health Officials are advocating that all residents begin wearing a cloth mask to cover their mouths and nose in public in addition to physical distancing measures.

• U.S. Surgeon General’s no-sew face covering: YouTube Video
• St. Charles Mask Sewing Instructions: PDF

We have custodians cleaning our buildings more frequently, but in rare cases when you need to come in, we ask that you wash your hands when you arrive and before you leave, wipe down surfaces you have touched (desks, door handles, light switches, etc.) and continue to maintain physical distancing from others.

If you are part-time (between .5 and .99) you will be furloughed for the entire 8 hours of the assigned day regardless of how many hours you were scheduled to work on that day. If you were assigned less than 8 hours that day, you will work with your supervisor to adjust your hours for the rest of the week. Please connect with your supervisor right away if that is true for you.

Summer break will not impact Work Share eligibility for part time employees. The 12 month eligibility window starts on the initial hire date. All employees that don’t meet the 12 month criteria will not be furloughed. Ineligible employees were not factored into our daily savings.

We believe that this will impact your unemployment benefit. The HDESD will be required to report weekly on any additional wages/incomes for individual employees. It is our understanding that this data will be used to determine the weekly unemployment amount.

This is an organization -wide furlough. The specific furlough days are predetermined  and cannot be individually determined by employees. 

You can choose not to use vacation days on June 5th and 12th and your supervisor can then assign those days as furlough days.  If possible, you would then work with your supervisor to find another time to use the vacation days this year.  There is no question that furlough days make fitting in all of our work harder.

The 12 month eligibility starts on the initial hire date.

If you are currently receiving PERS benefits you are ineligible for this furlough. Please work your regular scheduled hours through the furlough days.

While we are doing our best to mitigate the impact of this decision on our services to kids, we know that you may already have things planned during the scheduled furlough  days. Unfortunately, you will not be able to attend meetings, take calls or respond to emails , during a  furlough day. This   will challenge relationships, productivity and patience.  We know this won’t be easy. 

Your supervisor will work with you to ensure that someone on your team from a different furlough group is assigned to attend the meeting on your behalf to support your students, families and district partners. 

You will not need to file a second application to access the additional $600/week. If you are eligible for unemployment, the $600 per week will be automatically included in your Unemployment benefit.

Staff safety and well being continues to be our priority. Our plan is to develop a system that integrates with the district’s system and closely aligns with the protocols we have previously established for equipment return.   HDESD staff members will be advised to follow CDC guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting items (including soft porous surfaces, hard surfaces and electronics) in preparing equipment for pick up by or delivery to a student.

We are following Governor Brown’s guidance that, “employees in at-risk categories, or who have an at-risk member of their household, should not be required to physically report to a worksite.”

If you consider yourself or a member of your household to be “at risk,” please contact our Director of HR, Jayel Hayden to confidently disclose your concern.

We are following Governor Brown’s guidance that, “employees in at-risk categories or who have an at-risk member of their household should not be required to physically report to a worksite.”

If you consider yourself or a member of your household to be “at risk,” please contact our Director of HR, Jayel Hayden to confidently disclose your concern.

We are committed to following Governor Brown’s executive order to Stay Home–Save Lives.

Additionally, we are following Governor Brown’s guidance that, “employees in at-risk categories or who have an at-risk member of their household should not be required to physically report to a worksite.”

If you consider yourself or a member of your household to be “at risk,” please contact our Director of HR, Jayel Hayden to confidently disclose your concern.

If called upon to provide emergency childcare for healthcare and essential-services employees, HDESD will follow the Early Learning Division’s protective guidelines to ensure the health and safety of staff and children in care. These guidelines include providing necessary personal protective equipment (PPE).

While school districts and ESDs have been ordered to stand ready to support our community in this way, we are still learning about the specifics of the local need and timing of that need.

These are unprecedented times, calling for innovation and adaptability as we work to keep our children and ourselves safe.

If called upon to provide emergency childcare for healthcare and essential-services employees, HDESD will follow the Early Learning Division’s protective guidelines to ensure the health and safety of staff and children in care. These guidelines include providing necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) and following safety protocols.

The initial funding for SSA was based on an estimate of how much the State thought the Corporate Activity Tax (CAT) would generate. At the state revenue forecast in May, it was projected that the CAT would bring in $1.2 Billion rather than the $1.6 Billion that was originally budgeted.  That will impact many of the programs being paid for out of the CAT, but it’s much better than initial concerns about how bad the economy would impact the SSA.

If you are facing unique circumstances,  there are specific federal leave protections in place to support you. Your  supervisor and our HR Director Jayel Hayden are available to help you navigate these protections. 

Yes, PDUs can be awarded for professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students occurs within learning.

The provider of the training can complete a certificate of completion for the participant indicating the number of PDUs (hours) earned. Please contact Jayel Hayden with your specific questions regarding PDUs.

Our Family Access Network (FAN) program offers assistance, support and hope to Central Oregon families in need by connecting them with crucial resources. FAN is unique to Central Oregon and FAN advocates are assigned to all public schools in Deschutes and Crook Counties. Here is a list of contact information for each Advocate in each Central Oregon community.  

For community members, without children under 18,  who have unmet basic needs, please refer them to Thrive Central Oregon. 

Please communicate with your supervisor when you know that a family/student is served by more than just you within the ESD.  Work with your supervisor to develop a communication plan with the other providers so that families receive more coordinated communication.

As always, we will do our very best to meet families where they are socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, culturally and linguistically.

We will use a variety of communication strategies to ensure that connection is maintained. Including, but not limited to. phone, video and image-based communication.

While this is an unsettling and disorienting time for all, this is particularly true for our most vulnerable children and families. 

As before, our job will be to do our very best to meet families where they are and provide connection, support and resources as best we can within the current restrictions. Staff who usually work directly with students and families will be connecting with those students and families remotely. This will be a collective and imperfect effort.

We will be doing everything in our power to get the families we serve the devices and internet access they need during this time. We know that many, but not all families have this access.

As you learn about specific technology needs that families have, please share the details with your supervisor and together with the tech team and interpretive services we will reach the best possible solution.

Initially, we will connect with the families via phone and video to learn where they are and how we can provide the most appropriate support at this time. When ready, we will design creative ways to enhance our coaching, teaching and learning under current constraints.

We are committed to following Governor Brown’s executive order to Stay Home–Save Lives.

While we are open for business, our buildings are closed. In certain cases, and if it is required to provide essential services, you can seek permission from your supervisor to schedule a time to go into your building. Mandatory social distancing is required while there.

Our IT and legal departments have been working to provide comprehensive guidance on how we can safely and effectively engage with students and families via live video. Please review these documents:

Criteria & Process for meeting with students and families via live video

What to do with the live video recordings

While not all staff are or could be served by BendBroadband or CenturyLink, we have learned that both of these companies have temporarily stopped disconnections, will waive late fees, and are not charging data cap overages for the next 60 days.

80-90% of our staff are covered at home with high speed internet, so we are designing solutions case-by-case, as we are made aware of staff technology needs.

Please reach out to our tech team using the live-chat feature in the bottom right corner of this page.

We will be doing everything in our power to get families the devices and access they need during this time. We know that many, but not all families have this access.

As you learn about specific technology needs that families have, please share the details with your supervisor and together with the tech team, we will reach the best possible solution.

As it becomes clear which new tools are needed for us to be as efficient, excellent and equitable as possible, we are committed to making what is needed available.

Connecting with families, students and each other is going to be a central task of the coming weeks and likely months. Please work with your supervisor to secure the tools you need to be successful in this work.

You may use your personal cell phones to connect with families. If you would prefer to “mask” your number so that those you are calling cannot identify your number, please reach out to our tech team using the live-chat feature in the bottom right corner of this page.

We will be doing everything in our power to get the families we serve the devices and internet access they need during this time. We know that many, but not all families have this access.

As you learn about specific technology needs that families have, please share the details with your supervisor and together with the tech team and interpretive services we will reach the best possible solution.

You may use your personal cell phones to connect with families. If you would prefer to “mask” your number so that those you are calling cannot identify your number, please reach out to our tech team using the live-chat feature in the bottom right corner of this page.