DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION



1419860-347980State of Rhode IslandDEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONShepard Building255 Westminster StreetProvidence, Rhode Island 02903-340000State of Rhode IslandDEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONShepard Building255 Westminster StreetProvidence, Rhode Island 02903-34001384300-20320000 Angélica Infante-Green CommissionerDecember 14, 2020Dear School Leaders,After our conversation last Wednesday with some LEA leaders, I wanted to share some updates around our statewide school calendar and COVID-19 response with you that will be announced today. As our colleagues at RIDOH continue to closely monitor positive rates throughout our state, the data remains clear that our mitigation plans and ability to make school-based decisions has protected these controlled spaces that we know our kids benefit from. That means, we need to keep all existing mitigation plans in place and introduce additional testing opportunities for our students and teachers to monitor any positive cases and their contacts.?As many of you know from our conversations over the past few months, we have been giving a lot of thought to what a return to schools will look like in January, after the holiday break. Last week, Governor Raimondo announced that we will be providing increased surveillance testing opportunities in Rhode Island schools as an additional screening measure. Building off of lessons learned during our successful pilot testing program, we will help support our schools with testing events or school-based testing plans.?We know that our behavior over the next two weeks will critically impact a successful and safe return to our classrooms in 2021. In order to allow time for quarantining and for school leaders to explore testing plans, we have worked to update our school calendar to allow for a staggered return of students come January. Similar to the start of the school year, students should begin returning no earlier than January 7, with all students back no later than January 15 (see attached school calendar). Additionally, we are giving LEA leaders flexibility to shift to distance learning for December 21- December 23, should they decide this is the best option for their schools based on weather, scheduling and anticipated decreased staffing due to the holiday break.??Throughout the week we will monitor the potential winter storm and evaluate how it could impact school operations, if at all. All students and teachers should bring home everything they need with them for the holiday break this coming Wednesday to be prepared. When we started planning for this school year, we made the decision to move to distance learning instead of traditional snow days, so that we had adaptability during moments like this. We will share additional details as they become available and hope that you will help communicate with your school community this updated information, so that all students and teachers can safely return to our classrooms at the start of the New Year.?As always, please reach out with any questions.?Sincerely,Angélica Infante-GreenCommissioner? ................
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