Raimondo: No mandate that children return to classroom

PROVIDENCE — Gov. Gina Raimondo announced Wednesday that parents will not be penalized if they don’t send their children back into classrooms next month.

“I think there will be options for parents,” she said at Wednesday’s news conference. “We’ve listened to you. Folks have to get comfortable with it. Our job is to give parents some time to get comfortable” with in-school learning.

Raimondo also announced that schools will have to satisfy five metrics to open in-person classes Aug. 31, and she established a team of experts to provide guidance on whether schools are ready to reopen safely.

Both the governor and state education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green said every district will be handled differently, depending on its rate of COVID-19 infection and its ability to provide services to support a safe reopening.

“The bottom line is schools are reopening Aug. 31,” Raimondo said. “Exactly what they will look like, we don’t have it yet."

One big change: students will have to wear masks in class. Raimondo said she heard teachers’ concerns around keeping themselves and their students safe. In earlier planning, children would have had to wear masks on the bus and when they entered and left school for the day.

By Friday, the Rhode Island Department of Education will post each of the 62 districts’ reopening plans. A final decision about how schools will reopen will be announced around the week of Aug. 16.

Schools will have to meet the following five criteria to ensure they can reopen safely.

• The entire state must meet the metrics established for Phase 3, the current stage of reopening.

• For schools to open in a community, that community cannot exceed a certain infection rate, which remains to be determined.

• Testing readiness. Raimondo said it’s taking too long to get COVID-19 test results. The results must come back within 48 to 72 hours for schools to reopen.

• Individual schools must have more than enough masks, hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies to safely reopen.

• Schools must have approved plans that include three possibilities: a full in-person return, a hybrid return and remote learning for everyone. They must include safety precautions, keeping kids in stable groups, and offering accommodations to students and teachers with health issues.

Raimondo pointed to the reopening of child-care centers two months ago. A total of 8,000 children enrolled and 1,000 adults provided care. Only 12 children tested positive for the virus and only 14 staff did so, she said.

“In every instance, we closed the area, tested everyone, and saw only one outbreak,” she said.

When parents and teachers ask, “Is it possible to reopen schools?” she said, “I’d refer to our experience with child care.”

The members of the governor's school advisory team are Dr. Penelope Dennehy, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at Hasbro Children’s Hospital; Dr. Len Mermel, medical director for epidemiology and infection control at Rhode Island Hospital; Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, vice-dean for public health practice and community engagement at Johns Hopkins University; Terrie Fox Wetle, former dean of Brown’s School of Public Health; and Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute and incoming dean of Brown’s School of Public Health.