Hawaii’s public schools are expected to stay shut until Covid-19 is no longer spreading in the community—defined as four weeks with no new cases, according to the state's Department of Education.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports that the state has been identifying about two dozen new cases a day on average in the past 10 days, so it is not likely the schools will reopen this academic year.
The four-week interval is contained in a guidance document on long-term school closures issued by the Department of Education. The 30-page document focuses mainly on how to handle educating students this semester while they and their teachers are sequestered at home.
Superintendent Christina Kishimoto says the guidance was drafted for planning purposes during the pandemic and she expects to make a decision next week about commencement ceremonies and the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.
“This is an ever-evolving situation that requires constant monitoring and flexibility,” she says.
Hawaii’s 283 public schools are officially closed until April 30, although teachers are working remotely with students on coursework. Under the traditional calendar, the last day of school for students would have been May 28.
The guidance document says state Department of Education will plan for reopening schools when there is “no recent evidence of community spread.”
Conditions include:
•No new cases for four weeks (two incubation periods of the virus) on the island.
•Availability of workforce is sufficient for reopening each school.
A comprehensive school program may not be available immediately once school resumes, the memo warns.
School programs might resume in phases and could include provisions for social distancing, priority services for vulnerable learners, staggered start and end times, modified attendance requirements and a combination of school-based and distance learning, it says.
