Hotline staff hopes you and your loved ones are doing well and staying safe!
As all TN school districts are closed and students are working from home, here is how Hotline has responded to the “new normal.” We wanted to ensure that we can continue to assist students and their guardians in the coming weeks and interject some normalcy and academic support during this stressful time.
To that end:
1) We have worked closely with ENA, our phone provider, to make our phone lines mobile. ENA has provided us with free access to their SmartVoice Go app that is allowing our teachers to log into Hotline phones from the safety of their homes. Many have expressed how thankful they are to still be working with our students while maintaining their supplemental income.
2) We have contacted all of our partner districts to let them know that we will remain open and that, from their students' perspective, everything will remain the same (phone numbers, access to technology features during sessions, etc.). We have also requested that they provide us with the resources they will be providing their students and families as they are moving to distance learning. You can check out the current district resources here.
3) In communication with school districts, primarily Shelby County Schools and Metro Nashville Public Schools where our teachers work, we determined that until schools resume their regular hours, Hotline is adjusting its hours to be 2pm–6pm CST. We want to make sure students are able to access our teachers at the time that is most convenient for them.*
4) We have been cultivating a general resource page that provides students and families with a variety of FREE, easily accessible, educational resources. You can check it out here. If you have other websites that you know of that you feel we should add, please let us know. If you know of families who might need these, please share them!
Multiple school districts, teachers, and parents have already thanked us for being here for their TN students during this challenging time. SCS has already made Hotline one of the programs mentioned in their latest updates section. One parent sent us an email saying, "thank you so so much. a lot is going on and kids have a hard time when many things change really fast. Thanks so much for keeping your phone lines open." After reviewing our resource page, a teacher sent, "Oh, this is super. Excellent. Thanks so much. I just love it."
We feel blessed to be able to stay in relatively normal operation during this time of uncertainty and changes.
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*As of August 2020, new Hotline hours are 3pm-8pm CT