Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – D.C. Public Schools may have a hybrid plan for the fall, but final decisions are on hold until July 31 to give the city time to monitor some concerning COVID-19 trends.
“This week, especially, we saw some trends in our data that are not ideal for making plans for the remainder of the school year,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a press conference Thursday where she was supposed to outline the final plan for reopening schools.
Many metrics in the District have been improving over the last few weeks, but D.C. Health Director Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt said there are three areas of concern: rate of transmission, rate of community spread and how connected new cases are. Nesbitt said the rate of transmission has been above 1 for the last few days, and they want to see if it decreases below 1, like it had been for the last few weeks.
In the preliminary reopening plan for DCPS that Chancellor Lewis Ferebee released Thursday, Pre-K through fifth grade would be split into two groups. The A group will do in-person learning Monday and Tuesday, and the B group will go to school buildings Thursday and Friday. Grades six through 12 will have one day of in-person instruction and four days of virtual learning. Parents who aren’t ready to send their kids back to school buildings yet will have the option of choosing all remote learning.
Ferebee said Wednesday will be a virtual day for all students to allow for deep cleaning in school buildings.
Ferebee added to make schedules as convenient as possible for families, parents who want to send all of their kids to school on the same days will likely be able to do that.
“On July 31st depending on health indicators, we could decide that we’re only going to be able to start the school year virtually and may move throughout the school year to another option,” Bowser said.
If the concerning trends seen over the last week improve, Bowser said they may be able to offer the hybrid option for parents who want to send their kids back to school, or the virtual only options for parents who are more comfortable with that.
School is set to start August 31.
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