The Boston Public Schools has submitted a waiver application to Massachusetts education officials, seeking to push back its return to five days a week of in-person learning.
The district wrote in a tweet that it wants to start full-time in-person learning for students in K-8 starting April 27. Now, the district has to wait on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to approve or deny the waiver.
DESE is requiring districts to offer five days a week of in-person learning by April 5 for students in grades K-5 and by April 28 for students in grades 6-8. Parents, however, can choose to keep their children at home for remote learning through the end of the school year.
That means Boston’s proposal would push back full-time learning by a few weeks for K-5 students but would be a day ahead of the state’s guidelines for students in grades 6-8.
Waivers are available for districts that want to delay that process because they’ve been primarily remote so far this school year during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, DESE has said. But, the department said it would not grant waivers if districts said they could not fit all students back in buildings while still using more than 3 feet of distancing.
DESE, since last year, has required a 3 feet minimum distance between students in classrooms, a threshold that has been called safe by Massachusetts physicians. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance, lowering its recommendation of 6 feet distance in schools down to 3 feet.
BPS said it would notify families once the district receives a response from the state.
Worcester and Springfield are also among districts that have requested waivers. Worcester wants to delay the return for K-8 students until May 3 as hybrid learning is just beginning this month.
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Springfield officials said Monday that the state has already granted a waiver for an initial hybrid system before full-time education starts in May.
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