State says South Carolina districts must offer in-person instruction option in reopening plans

South Carolina Department of Education officials say school districts must include an in-person option for students this fall in order for their reopening plans to be approved.

The Greenville News reports that reopening plans do not have to give students the option of attending five days a week, but districts must provide students with the option of attending school in person, according to a spokesperson for the department. 

Schools also will be required to have students and staff wear face masks while riding state-owned buses.

Ryan Brown, a spokesperson for the department, says schools with a full online-learning option will have to provide a timeline for when students will be back in classrooms.

The mandate is a departure from guidelines released earlier this summer. Those said that schools should consider eLearning if their communities have a high spread of the coronavirus, traditional in-person classes if the virus spread is low, and a hybrid option if spread is medium.

The department approved six reopening plans on Monday. Of those, two of them have students back five days a week, two have elementary students back five days a week, and two have hybrid in-person and virtual options.

Also Monday, SC for Ed, a statewide group of educators, staged a drive-by protest in downtown Columbia to advocate for virtual learning until it's safe to return to schools.