CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Carolina's public schools can offer both in-person and online, virtual learning options for the upcoming school year, Governor Roy Cooper announced Tuesday.
It will be up to local districts to determine the options they offer students. Cooper said districts can reserve the right to offer all-online classes in lieu of a mixture of classroom and virtual options.
Districts are forbidden from offering all in-person education.
The statewide recommendation allows local school districts to determine how best to educate their students.
Districts are required to limit the number of people - both students and staff - inside a school building at any one time. School districts have the flexibility to arrange staggered schedules as they see best. For example, they may decide to alternate schedules on a daily, or a weekly, basis.
Schools must maintain social distancing and offer schedules with time for hand washing, Cooper said. Districts are encouraged to act practices such as one-way hallways.
Cooper had been expected to originally make the announce July 1. The delay allowed officials to review more data; numbers which has shownNorth Carolina reporting an upward trend in coronavirus data, including setting record numbers of cases and hospitalizations in the past week alone.
Visit WCNC.com for the full story.