Minnesota health, education officials to release fall planning guidance for schools Thursday

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9)–Minnesota health and education officials are expected to releases new fall planning guidance for K-12 schools Thursday as many wonder whether students will be going back to the classroom in September or if online distance learning will continue.

Leaders from the Minnesota Department of Education will be joining Thursday’s 2 p.m. COVID-19 conference call with the Minnesota Department of Health.

Students and teachers have been participating in distance learning since mid-March, when Gov. Tim Walz closed schools to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Schools remained closed for the remainder of the academic school year. For summer school, public health guidance allowed schools to employ a hybrid model of in-person and distance learning.

Education officials have provided schools with guidance for three scenarios to help them plan for the 2020-21 school year:

Scenario 1: Return all students to school buildings following the most current Centers for Disease Control and MDH guidelines.

Scenario 2: Return students to school buildings implementing a hybrid model following the most current CDC and MDH guidelines.

Scenario 3: No students return to school buildings. Implement a distance learning model.

Education and health officials along with the governor previously said they plan to announce which model of educational delivery they have chosen for the 2020-21 school year by the week of July 27, according to MDE’s website.