Massachusetts

When Mass. Communities Move to COVID Red Zone, Schools Face a Dilemma

There isn't a statewide, uniform policy for school districts that addresses how they should handle adjustments to their learning plans

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School districts across Massachusetts have to look at coronavirus numbers on their own and then make their own decisions on whether to move to remote learning.

Despite rising coronavirus case numbers that lifted the city into the high-risk category on Massachusetts' coronavirus hot spot map, Weymouth Public Schools is pushing forward with its hybrid learning plan.

But that decision is being met with some skepticism.

"If things change and things got worse, I would consider" fully remote learning, said parent Colleen Conners, who has two children splitting their time between remote and in-person learning.

School districts other places seeing spikes are handling it differently.

Another city that's considered high-risk, Lowell, shifted from its hybrid learning model to fully remote classes on Monday, citing an uptick in cases over the past three weeks.

The Massachusetts Department of Education on Friday released their first report detailing the number of students and staff at schools who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

But there isn't a statewide, uniform policy for school districts that addresses how they should handle adjustments to their learning plans.

The state education department has compiled a list of guidelines, including monitoring case increases and decreases, considering the test positivity rate, looking for concerning trends and evaluating the data over a period of several weeks.

"That's completely reasonable advice from the state," said Dr. Joshua Barocas, an epidemiologist at Boston Medical Center. "We need to take this on a case-by-case basis."

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