Schools in Arlington, Virginia, will proceed with bringing students with disabilities back to classrooms starting Wednesday but will delay the return of students in second-grade and below until the end of the year.
“We are prepared to provide in-person learning support to the 236 students in Level 1, using every recommended health and safety protocol to make this transition safely,” Arlington Public Schools Superintendent Francisco Duran said in his weekly update Monday.
These are students with disabilities who “require direct support to access the curriculum as presented via distance learning.”
Duran said that he has decided to pause Level 2, which would bring back students in pre-kindergarten up to second-grade, including students learning English and those with individualized education plans and students in career and technical programs.
“Moving too quickly to Level 2, while case levels are still rising, represents a safety risk and could cause further disruption to schedules,” Duran said.
The date to bring those students back is scheduled some time in January 2021, which would give the schools time to monitor the effectiveness of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mitigation strategies that have been implemented and give more time to refine staffing plans for Level 2 students’ return.
Duran said the school system is also modifying its COVID-19 dashboard to reflect the CDC’s primary and secondary indictors for schools.
“Our dashboard reporting will continue to show the regional weekly transmission information from the Virginia Department of Health in addition to these core indicators,” Duran said.
In D.C., leaders reversed their decision to reopen elementary school classrooms for most students next week as planned, citing the need to readjust staffing plans after strong pushback from teachers.
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Looking for more information? D.C., Maryland and Virginia are each releasing more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia | Maryland | D.C.
