Raleigh, NC – The North Carolina State Board of Education and the Department of Public Education adopted a new statewide guidance on Thursday to reopen state public schools, which would encourage remaining school districts in remote education to open classrooms to the students.
No one voted against the measure, which was part of several voted at the same time. It takes about a year after schools close due to the spread of the new coronavirus and the subsequent pandemic in the United States.
The resolution, which is not legally binding, adopts the guidance of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ new StrongSchoolsNC toolkit, launched on Wednesday.
Nearly all North Carolina public school districts offer at least Plan A (minimum distance) or Plan B (6 feet away) for learning or plan for later this month, according to the Carolina School Councils Association From north. This does not include autonomous public schools.
Schools must still offer a distance learning option only for students or parents who wish to continue to have one.
The new guidelines do not allow students from 6th to 12th grade to move to Plan A, but recommend a return to face-to-face learning for five days, when possible, from 6 feet away, which most elementary and high schools are unable to do. to do. Research that shows greater dissemination among older children, compared to younger children, has guided public health recommendations to 6 feet of social distance.
The new guidelines are not good enough in the eyes of state superintendent of public instruction Catherine Truitt. Truitt wants all students to have the option of going back to school five days a week.
“We need to be very careful,” she said. “We are not suggesting that Plan B is adequate. It is not suitable. “
Truitt asked North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services officials, who drafted the new state guidelines that the state board adopted on Thursday, to come up with a metric that people could see showing when all schools can be the Plan THE.
“I think DHHS owes teachers, parents and students to make it clear when it will be acceptable for all children to be in school five days a week,” said Truitt.
She thanked DHHS for being transparent during the pandemic, but said the state needs additional clarity.
DHHS considers several factors in its guidelines, including federal guidelines, cases per capita, state test positivity rates, hospitalizations and hospital capacity, officials said.
Generally, according to a departmental presentation, public schools that opened had less problems with the spread of the virus than private schools. Private schools had twice the rate of coronavirus clusters.
DHHS guidance follows the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for schools and community levels of virus transmission, which older children imitate more than younger children. But the state’s orientation, despite being changed only on Wednesday, may change again soon, DHHS deputy secretary Susan Gale Perry told the council.
DHHS is examining whether transmission trends continue, soon advising a minimum social distance from sixth to 12th grade.
“We are looking at variants and tensions, their impacts on our case rates and percentage of positivity,” said Perry. “But now, I think, trends are changing and metrics are going in the right direction very quickly.”
Council President Eric Davis said he hopes to move all students to Plan A as soon as possible and will convene a special meeting to do so, if necessary.
A study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill released last week showed that school districts generally do not offer clear explanations of their decision-making processes about when schools would open and to what extent.
Schools in the town of Chapel Hill-Carrboro were scheduled to end Plan C requirements by April 26, as one of the last districts to close Plan C in the state. Spokesperson Jeffrey Nash told WRAL News on Thursday that the board plans to revise this schedule at its Thursday evening meeting. The district enrolls about 12,000 students this year.
“Every minute of every day that happens, COVID is creating deaths,” state treasurer Dale Folwell told the council. “But not putting children back in school is creating poverty and illiteracy, which, if you have my education, you know that sometimes it takes generations to overcome. We cannot be on the wrong side of history in this. “
Survey data this week showed that one in five public school students was considered at risk by their schools for not progressing to the next grade. Preliminary data presented to the council on Wednesday showed that state test scores were lower for tests that have been administered so far, although officials are optimistic that a return to personal learning will improve children’s learning.
Virus tests available to schools
Public schools can now apply for coronavirus tests for staff and students, as long as they certify that they meet certain criteria.
These criteria include ensuring that testing personnel are trained and obtaining or partnering with an organization that has obtained a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment certificate.
Antigen testing will not cost schools. They can be used for weekly screening of teachers and staff and for testing people with COVID-19 symptoms or who have come in contact with a person whose test was positive for the virus.
Teachers being vaccinated
From February 24 to March 2, almost 50,000 people who identified themselves as first-rate educators or caregivers of children received a vaccine, according to DHHS.
The state estimates that about 240,000 people qualify as employees of top-tier schools or daycare centers.
Public schools alone employed 174,119 people during the 2019-20 academic year, according to data from the Department of Public Education. More than half – 93,923 – were teachers and another 21,344 were assistant teachers.
NC applies for testing disclaimers
The board is also asking the United States Department of Education for an exemption from testing accountability and school identification requirements.
Schools are expected to administer standardized tests this year. A waiver of responsibility and school identification would allow the state to forgo the identification of new schools that need support based on test results. The state would have to ensure that 95% of all students and 95% of all student subgroups were also tested.
If the exemption is approved, the State Education Council will ask the General Assembly to address state statutes that require accountability and school identification.