Education

Decision time: NC Board of Education vote coming on return to in-person learning

On Thursday, the North Carolina Board of Education will choose whether to follow the advice of school leaders and Gov. Roy Cooper to push for a return to in-person learning.

Posted Updated

By
Emily Walkenhorst
, WRAL education reporter
RALEIGH, N.C. — On Thursday, the North Carolina Board of Education will choose whether to follow the advice of school leaders and Gov. Roy Cooper to push for a return to in-person learning.

North Carolina schools should be in-person as much as possible and can no longer be fully remote, per new guidance from the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. According to the state, schools should only use remote learning for high-risk students and for families that want it.

The department released a new version of the StrongSchoolsNC Public Health Toolkit on Wednesday afternoon.

The new document requires schools to offer in-person learning under Plan A (fully in person) or Plan B (a mix of online and in person) for kindergarten through 5th grades. Plan A requires minimal social distancing, and Plan B requires six feet of social distancing. Plan B would be required for all other grades.

Nearly all of the state’s school districts offer Plan A or Plan B learning or have plans for that transition later this month.

The guidance Wednesday, according to DHHS, recognizes “the growing harms to children who are out of school and relying solely on remote instruction, including negative impacts on academic and mental health and food insecurity.” It comes a month after Gov. Roy Cooper, DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen, state Superintendent Catherine Truitt and State Board of Education Chairman Eric Davis called for schools to reopen for in-person learning.

Schools first closed to in-person learning almost a year ago, when the novel coronavirus began spreading throughout the United States. Active cases are declining and vaccines against COVID-19 are rising, prompting states across the country to quickly remove some public health restrictions.

This week, state education leaders unveiled lower state tests scores this year, compared to last year, though with many tests yet to be taken. This week, the state also published the results of a survey of public schools showing that one in five students was at risk of not progressing to their next grade level.

The state Board of Education will vote Thursday on whether to adopt the new guidance.

The board and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction have their own set of guidelines for schools, called “Lighting Our Way Forward,” based on guidance from DHHS.

The board met Wednesday for the first day of its monthly two-day meeting. The board discussed numerous regular agenda items, but Truitt and Davis briefly addressed in-person learning at the beginning of the meeting. Truitt said it was key to better learning, and Davis offered a prediction.

“By the end of this month, we expect all of the public school units in North Carolina are, or will be, returning students to in-person instruction to finish this school year,” he said.

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