ISBE says school to be full-time/in-person this fall

From Chicago Tribune – The Illinois State Board of Education has adopted a resolution requiring daily in-person learning next school year with limited exceptions for remote learning.

Though some Board members expressed reservations about the resolution’s language during an hour-long discussion, they voted unanimously in favor.

The vote came after several parents asked the board to reject the proposal in consideration of children who may still be too young in the fall to receive COVID-19 vaccinations.

A draft of the resolution states that “all schools must resume fully in-person learning for all student attendance days, provided that … remote instruction be made available for students who are not eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine and are under a quarantine order by a local public health department or the Illinois Department of Public Health.”

ISBE spokeswoman Jackie Matthews said the resolution was “based on feedback from the field” and supports a declaration by State Superintendent Carmen Ayala which is enforceable. She also pointed to a state lawthat gives the superintendent the authority to “declare a requirement to use remote learning days or blended remote learning days for a school district, multiple school districts, a region, or the entire State” during a gubernatorial disaster proclamation.

In a message Tuesday, Ayala said the plan “begins to transition us toward a future in which we are no longer under a gubernatorial disaster proclamation and the pandemic-related remote learning statutes no longer apply.”