Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

There is no longer a statewide mask mandate or testing requirement for schools, which ended in the spring.

Monday is the first day of school for thousands of students in Massachusetts, as school districts across the state prepare for another academic year to get underway while co-existing with COVID-19. As children in Worcester, Lawrence, Fitchburg and several other districts head back to the classroom Monday, there is a number of changes in COVID-19 protocols in schools that parents…

Starting this fall, the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education says it will suspend its COVID testing program.

Parents and students in Boston Public Schools are not surprised by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s scathing report on the district. The report found that the school district has struggled to operate on a basic level, and that it has not addressed “systemic barriers” to equitable education. It concluded by calling for “immediate improvement.” “I think...

State and local leaders are debating the future of Boston Public Schools following the release of a scathing report on the district by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that said the district needs “immediate improvement.” The report does outline some positives, including that over the past several years, under outgoing Superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellius’ leadership, the district…

Boston Public Schools is struggling to operate on a basic level and is not addressing “systemic barriers” to equitable education, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said Monday in a scathing report. While crediting outgoing Superintendent Brenda Cassellius for progress on some initiatives, the DESE report concludes that “BPS needs immediate improvement.” The report was issued as a…

Parents plan to call on state leaders to increase pool testing frequency and to allow for remote learning to prevent COVID-19 infections in Boston Public Schools.

With COVID-19 cases surging across Massachusetts, some parents are struggling with whether sending their kids back to school is the right decision and whether everyone who’s symptomatic has been tested before heading back to class.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association is calling for schools to close on Monday so teachers and staff can use the day for COVID testing, the union said in a statement Friday. The MTA urged for a delayed start after the state’s plan to send testing kits for schools to distribute to students and staff experienced significant delays. The vendor the...

The Massachusetts Teachers Association is calling for schools to stay closed on Monday so teachers and staff can use the day for COVID testing

Massachusetts’ plan to send out 200,000 at-home COVID-19 test to teachers and school staff members hit a snag Thursday night. The vendor the state had been counting on for the tests will not be available by Friday, a spokesperson with the Executive Office of Education said, citing national supply chain constraints. “DESE quickly developed an alternative plan, and will make…

Every Massachusetts school teacher and staff member is getting rapid COVID-19 tests to use before returning to school after the upcoming holiday break, state school officials said Wednesday. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is sending 200,000 of the tests to districts, which is enough that each staff member can get two of the rapid antigen tests. The employees…

Massachusetts parents from Malden and Roxbury to Worcester and Rehoboth have made the choice to home-school their children this fall rather than send them back into the classroom unvaccinated in the midst of a surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the highly transmissible delta variant.

Massachusetts is recommending that all students in kindergarten through sixth grade wear masks inside who can, but one of the state’s teachers unions is going further. The board of the Massachusetts Teachers Association is pushing Gov. Charlie Baker and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to require masks for all students and staff in all schools, including colleges and...

From pool testing to music class with no singing, Massachusetts’ top education official got an up-close look at how the coronavirus pandemic has changed Roberts Elementary in Medford Thursday.  “We were one of the few districts that started testing, which helped with anxiety and worry,” Medford Superintendent Dr. Maurice Edouard-Vincent said.  Medford officials plan to continue the pool testing into…

Many Massachusetts parents and K-12 view the latest guidance from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as a return to normalcy. “Finally, it’s been so long,” said Grafton parent Caroline Salvador. DESE says starting in the fall, all schools are required to be in-person five days a week, and the agency has lifted COVID-19 health and safety requirements...

All Massachusetts schools and districts will be required to hold classes in-person next fall and health and safety requirements imposed by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will be lifted for the new school year, the department said in new guidance sent to superintendents Thursday evening.

A group of parents upset their kids still have to wear masks in the classroom protested outside a Massachusetts state education meeting.

Of 74 requests from Massachusetts school districts to delay the return to in-person learning, 58 have been approved to date, according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Dozens of school districts in Massachusetts are delaying the return to full-time in-person learning after receiving state approval, including the biggest in the state, Boston Public Schools. All elementary schools in Massachusetts are expected to phase out remote learning by April 5, according to guidance issued by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education earlier this month. As part...