Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper announced guidelines on Tuesday that will allow North Carolina K-12 schools to reopen at reduced in-classroom capacity but give parents and school districts the choice to have classes entirely online.
The guidelines from Cooper and the Department of Health and Human Services allows in-person instruction if students and teachers wear face coverings and people remain six feet apart at school. The plan also gives families the choice to opt-in for remote learning.
Districts were previously directed to draft three plans. Plan A called for entirely in-person classes, Plan B included a hybrid of online and in-person learning and Plan C promoted fully remote instruction. Cooper decided to go with Plan B statewide, though districts could elect to implement Plan C. In many cases, students are expected to rotate between in-person and online instruction in a given week.
The state Department of Health and Human Services has released a toolkit to guide teachers and parents through the upcoming changes.
Cooper also announced on Tuesday he’ll extend a current order to keep the state in Phase 2 of its reopening for another three weeks.