Gov. John Carney updated his State of Emergency order again Sunday, addressing issues raised by shutting down schools for the remainder of the academic year.
The new change to the order holds First State students and educators harmless for the shortened school year, waiving the required learning hours for students and teacher days.
But school districts and charter schools must still complete remote learning plans submitted to the Delaware Department of Education.
This latest modification also suspends various end-of-year evaluations for educators, professional development requirements and assessments due to COVID-19’s disruption of the school year.
“Students and educators across our state, especially our 2020 senior class, have been significantly affected by this COVID-19 crisis. These changes in our latest modification will make sure students and educators are not punished because of the shortened school year,” said Carney in a statement. “Thank you to all of Delaware’s students, educators and school leaders who have really leaned into remote learning during this challenging, unusual time."
Carney officially closed schools for the remainder of the academic year on April 24th.
He initially closed schools for two weeks on March 13th shortly after the first COVID-19 cases appeared in Delaware. He extended the closure to May 15th on March 23rd to reflect the statewide stay at home order in place at that time..
This latest modification to Carney's emergency order also extends the season closing date for the use of anchored grill nets due to the extreme hardships commercial anchored grill net fishers have faced due to COVID-19.
That season was to closed Sunday. It will now run through midnight on June 1.
