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More than 400 of New Jersey’s public and private school districts are starting the 2020-2021 school year with a hybrid model combining in-class and at-home learning, while another 242 districts will open all-remote, state officials said Wednesday.
“We all know this will be a school year unlike any other,” Gov. Phil Murphy said at his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton.
State education officials said:
— 434 school districts will open this week or within the next few weeks with a hybrid model combining in-person and remote learning
— 242 districts will open all-remote with all students learning at home
— 68 districts will open with all in-person classes
— 22 districts will have some combination of all-in-person classes for some students and remote classes for others. That includes districts where elementary schools will have in-person classes, while older children learn remotely or with a hybrid model.
New Jersey has nearly 600 public school districts, but the totals are higher because the state officials included public, charter and renaissance school and some private schools that serve students with disabilities in the numbers, state officials said. Other private and religious schools are not included in the statistics.
Though classes are starting soon, the state is still reviewing many districts’ school reopening plans. At last count, 35 district plans had not been reviewed yet and another 221 were still under review because state or county officials had questions or the district wanted to make revisions, education officials said.
Under rules unveiled earlier this summer, New Jersey students and teachers will be required to wear masks in the classroom unless they have breathing difficulties or other health problems. Schools are also being asked to keep students six feet apart in the classroom and on buses or install barriers.
“We are confident that these steps we have in place will make the kind of chaotic situations we have seen in other states far less likely to happen in ours. Yet, we also have in place specific health guidance for what to do when a case arises in a school, or if we see a spike in cases or a cluster in a school,” Murphy said.
All families also have the option of requesting all-remote learning, even if their schools are offering in-person classes.
The state has given school districts flexibility in crafting their own reopening plans and opening dates. Though some have criticized education officials for giving school officials too many choices, resulting in vastly different reopening plans from district to district, implementing rigid rules was unrealistic, state officials said.
“That doesn’t work in a state as diverse as New Jersey,” Kevin Dehmer, interim commissioner of the state Department of Education.
Murphy announced in June that New Jersey’s public schools would reopen for the 2020-2021 school year with at least some in-person classes. But several school districts pushed back against that plan, saying they didn’t have enough teachers or safety measures in place to reopen buildings.
In August, the Murphy administration said districts could start the school year all-remote as long as they had a good reason and a plan to eventually start in-person classes. That lead to a flood of school districts saying they planned to take the all-remote option to take more time to prepare their school buildings and teachers for in-person classes.
Preparing for the start of the new school year has been difficult for many districts. Some, including Freehold Regional and Elizabeth, have had hundreds of teachers ask to take leaves of absences or early retirements because they did not feel safe returning to the classroom. That has lead to shortages of substitutes and replacement teachers.
Other districts have had trouble getting shipments of personal protective equipment, laptops for students and other items needed for the first day of school.
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Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com.
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Here’s how many N.J. school districts are opening all-remote, hybrid or in-person - NJ.com
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