Schools throughout Ohio are dealing with outbreaks of COVID-19. Some have temporarily shut down. Others have gone to remote learning until the situation gets under control. As Statehouse correspondent Jo Ingles reports, how a school district can react is based on the plans they set forth this summer.
About half of public school districts have submitted paperwork with the state to provide a blended learning model, according to Will Schwartz with the Ohio School Boards Association. That means they intended from the onset of this school year to be remote for part of it. But now that COVID poses a threat, Schwartz says schools are seeking options.
“What school districts are asking for a similar remote learning flexibility from last school year where they can pivot on a day to address a staffing shortage by bus drivers or educators or illnesses in the classrooms or quarantine.”
Schwartz is hoping lawmakers prioritize giving this authority to districts when they return to the Statehouse later this month.