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Gov. Ralph Northam is reiterating a call for school districts to resume in-person learning, saying children “learn better when they’re in the classroom.”
Since mid-January, Northam and other top state officials have told districts to treat in-person learning as their default, not the other way around. They’ve also encouraged districts to look at what kinds of in-person summer instruction they can offer.
He repeated those calls in an interview with The Washington Post on Thursday.
“We want to extend our classroom this summer to allow our children to catch up so that everyone will be ready in the fall,” Northam said. “It has to be a top priority for all of us to get our children back in the classroom.”
Northam can’t order school districts to reopen in-person or require that they extend the year. Much like the updated guidance the state issued in January, Northam’s statements are best seen as encouragement or even a plea, but not a mandate.
Most students in Hampton Roads still are learning virtually, as they have been since the pandemic started nearly 11 months ago. Only a few districts across the state have significantly changed their plans since the latest state guidance was issued in mid-January.
Chesapeake and Virginia Beach have brought back students, except those whose families opted to continue virtual learning. Hampton plans to bring back some students in late February, in line with already-existing plans. Other districts are still all virtual.
A Northam administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the governor wants localities without any in-person options to “quickly” figure out how they can offer it to families that want to return to the classroom. He also wants districts to look at how they can use the summer break to help students catch up. It’s not clear whether he will push for more summer school programs, which districts could use federal coronavirus relief money to pay for, or if he’ll ask districts to extend their school calendars.
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He’ll be discussing both issues at a news conference Friday.
Northam’s calls come amid a push by President Joe Biden to reopen schools for K-8 students. Biden made resuming in-person learning a central part of the plans for his first 100 days in office, not unlike former President Donald Trump, who also was pushing for schools to reopen.
New research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month found that when schools adhere to mask requirements and can group students into cohorts to limit exposure, the transmission risks to in-person students and teachers are low.
But state and federal leaders have gotten pushback from parents and teachers who say districts haven’t demonstrated they can reopen safely. There are also fears about the new coronavirus variants and whether their transmission risk is similarly low.
Some have expressed a reluctance to return until after all staff are vaccinated, which is still a ways off. Teachers became eligible for the vaccine last month, but vaccination rates vary by city.
Staff writer Matt Jones contributed to this report.
Sara Gregory, 757-469-7484, sara.gregory@pilotonline.com