State officials say an updated guidance from the CDC on school reopening will have little effect on Delaware’s policy.
The guidance expands rules around physical distancing and calls for more stringent requirements around community spread for in-person learning to be considered safe.
Gov. John Carney notes the guidelines go a bit further with their requirements and are not mandated.
“We’re pretty comfortable with what we put in place, working with the guidelines that we’ve had over the past months," said Carney. "We have direct experience with our private school and public school communities. They’re doing really well.”
Carney says every school district in the state now has a number of children participating in some in-person learning—about 65,000 public school students and about 10,000 private school students statewide.
There are currently 85 active COVID cases combined among students and staff at all k-12 learning sites across the state, according to state data.
State Public Health Director Dr. Karyl Rattay touts Delaware’s low case rate within its schools even during periods of elevated community spread as a reason for Delawareans to be “proud.”
"When we had very high case rates in December and January, we still were not seeing spread within our clasasrooms," said Rattay. "I think that guidance is really helpful for states that have not yet been able to get many of their schools open, but I thibk Delawarens should be proud of how the school districts, the teachers and the students have down implementing these strategies."