NC State Board of Education adopts new guidance calling for public schools to reopen by March 31

No one voted against the measure, which was part of several voted on at once. It passes about a year after schools first closed because of the spread of the novel coronavirus and the subsequent pandemic in the United States.

The resolution, which is not legally binding, adopts the guidance from North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services new StrongSchoolsNC toolkit released Wednesday.

Nearly all North Carolina public school districts offer at least Plan A (minimal distancing) or Plan B (6 feet of distancing) learning or plan to later this month, per the North Carolina School Boards Association. That doesn’t include public charter schools.

Schools must still offer a remote-only learning option for students or parents who wish to continue having one.

The new guidelines do not allow sixth through 12th grades to go to Plan A, but urge a return to five-day, in-person learning when possible with 6 feet of distancing, which most middle schools and high schools are unable to do. Research showing higher spread among older children, compared to younger children, has guided public health recommendations for 6 feet of social distancing.

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The new guidelines aren't good enough in the eyes of state Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt. Truitt wants all students to have the option to be back in school five days per week.

“We need to be really careful,” she said. “We are not suggesting Plan B is adequate. It is not adequate.”

Truitt asked North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services officials, who drafted the new state guidelines that the state board adopted Thursday, to come up with a metric that people can see showing when all schools can be Plan A.

“I think that DHHS owes it to teachers, parents and students to make clear when it will be acceptable for all children to be in school five days a week,” Truitt said.

She thanked DHHS for being transparent throughout the pandemic but said the state needs the additional clarity.

DHHS considers several factors in its guidance, including federal guidelines, cases per capita, state test positivity rates, hospitalizations and hospital capacity, officials said.

Generally, according to a department presentation, public schools that have opened have had fewer issues with virus spread than private schools. Private schools have had twice the rate of coronavirus clusters.

DHHS’ guidance follows Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for schools and community virus transmission levels, which older children mimic more than younger children do. But the state’s guidance, despite being changed only Wednesday, could change again soon, Susan Gale Perry, DHHS deputy secretary, told the board.

DHHS is looking at, if transmission trends hold, soon advising minimal social distancing for sixth through 12th grades.

“We are keeping a close eye on the variants and the strains their impacts on our case rates and percent positivity,” Perry said. “But right now, I think, the trends are moving and the metrics are moving in the right direction very rapidly.”

Board Chairman Eric Davis said he looks forward to moving all students into Plan A as soon as possible and will call a special meeting to do so, if needed.

A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study released last week showed that school districts generally did not offer clear explanations of their decision-making processes surrounding when schools would be open and to what extent.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools has been scheduled to end Plan C requirements by April 26, as one of the last districts to end Plan C in the state. Spokesman Jeffrey Nash told WRAL News on Thursday that the board plans to revisit that schedule at its meeting Thursday night. The district enrolls nearly 12,000 students this year.

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“Every minute of every day that this goes on, COVID is creating deaths,” State Treasurer Dale Folwell told the board. “But not getting kids back into school is creating poverty and illiteracy, which, if you have my background, you know that sometimes it takes generations to overcome. We cannot be on the wrong side of history on that.”

Public schools can now apply for coronavirus tests for staff and students, provided they attest that they meet certain criteria.

Those criteria include ensuring testing personnel are trained and obtaining or partnering with an organization that has obtained a certificate of Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments.

The antigen tests won’t cost the schools. They can be used for weekly screening of teachers and staff and for testing of people with COVID-19 symptoms or who have come into contact with a person who has tested positive for the virus.

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From Feb. 24 through March 2, almost 50,000 people who identified themselves as frontline education or child care workers received a vaccine shot, according to DHHS.

The state estimates about 240,000 people qualify as frontline school or child care employees.

Public schools alone employed 174,119 people during the 2019-20 school year, according to Department of Public Instruction data. More than half – 93,923 – were teachers, and another 21,344 were teacher assistants.

The board also is applying to the U.S. Department of Education for a wavier from testing accountability and school identification requirements.

Schools must administer standardized tests this year. A waiver of accountability and school identification would allow the state to forgo identifying new schools in need of support based on the test results. The state would no longer have to ensure 95 percent of all students and 95 percent of every student subgroup were tested.

If the waiver is approved, the State Board of Education would ask the General Assembly to address state statutes that require accountability and school identification.

CORRECTION: North Carolina would not have to ensure 95% of students and 95% of student subgroups were given standardized tests, if grant a testing accountability waiver by the U.S. Department of Education. This article previously stated the state would have to ensure that.