Raimondo plans to have students back in classrooms this fall

PROVIDENCE -- Gov. Gina Raimondo on Wednesday afternoon announced her plan for the school year to begin Aug. 31 with students back in classrooms.

She said students, their parents and teachers have done well with in-home schooling during the coronavirus pandemic, but said it’s time to get back to school.

“There’s no substitute for in-person learning,” she said.

Kids returning to school will also help the economy because their parents can go back to work, she said.

Raimondo acknowledged she can’t foresee the exact circumstances of the pandemic on Aug. 31, but she said the state has made great progress and is likely to be in Phase III or past it, and public health experts say schools can open in Phase 3.

“We believe it will be safe to reopen school by Aug. 31,” she said.

The state will put out guidance for schools Friday for their reopening plans, she said, and districts are required to have their reopening plans returned in July.

State Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green said the Education department will work closely with the Rhode Island Department of Health to ensure students and teachers are in a safe environment.

“Come Aug. 31, we’re going to be ready. We’re going to provide a safe learning environment for everybody involved,” she said.

Some distance learning will still be employed as a complement, and Infante-Green noted that distance learning will be used any time school is canceled for snow.

“I am super excited because I have two kids in my house,” Infante-Green said. “They need their friends. We all know school is not just academics.”

She thanked their teachers and urged all parents to thank their children and their teachers.

To help districts with additional expenses, the state will distribute $42 million in federal CARES Act funding to schools to help with cleaning and other safety measures.

The experience of at-home learning should help the schools build an improved learning experience, she said.

“Let’s rebuild an even better public education system than we had when we got into this,” she said.

Raimondo earlier announced that tested negative for the coronavirus Wednesday. She decided to get tested after meeting, unmasked, with protesters outside the State House Friday.

“It’s really not that bad,” she said.

Her husband, Andrew Moffit, was also tested, she said, but she did not reveal the results of his test.

Raimondo’s briefing came after the it was revealed that four more people in Rhode Island have died from the coronavirus , according to a state Department of Health website.

That brings the total number of coronavirus deaths in Rhode Island to 812.

Of the people whose deaths were announced Wednesday, two were in their 80s and two were in their 90s, according to Nicole Alexander-Scott, director of the Rhode Island Department of Health.

The state has also announced 66 new positive cases.

Those positive findings were from 2,539 people tested, meaning 2.6 percent were positive.

The updated website also shows that 148 people are being treated for the coronavirus in Rhode Island Hospitals, with 27 in intensive-care units and 16 on ventilators.

On Tuesday, the state reported 144 in hospitals, 31 in ICUs and 19 on ventilators.

The virus hasn’t gone away. It’s still here. It’s very much still with us,” Raimondo said at. “We’ve changed and therefore it’s not having the devastating effect it was having a couple of months ago.”

The state has now had 15,756 known cases of coronavirus.