NEW ORLEANS — Orleans Parish Public School students are switching to distance learning starting Thursday. It comes as a historic number of new COVID-19 cases are being reported statewide.
For months, Orleans Parish Public School students have gone to school in-person. However, change is coming.
"Last Wednesday we made the decision to return school to normal on Monday using our Hybrid Model because at the time, that's what the data supported," said Tiffany Delcour, Chief Operations Officer for the Orleans Parish Public School System. "And then as we moved through the end of last week, and into the weekend, we saw significant and sudden rises in the number of new cases the average case count over the weekend rose to over 200 average cases per day. We haven't seen those numbers since April."
On Sunday, New Orleans' COVID-19 positivity rate shot up to 9%. School officials decided the safest option was to go back to virtual learning.
"Those were just sudden and drastic changes that required an urgent action and a couple hours ago we saw LDH report an updated positive test rate for the city of over 10% validating what we saw over the weekend, and I'm glad we made the decision on Monday," she said.
In less than 24 hours, homes will once again become classrooms. There are, however, some exceptions.
Those in Pre-K through 5th grade will be allowed in small groups of 15 or less to have in-person learning. Also, those with special circumstances will be able to have in-person learning.
"We still want schools to have that flexibility to provide some level of in-person learning for those who need it most," Delcour said.
For the next two weeks, school officials will monitor COVID-19 data citywide and then re-evaluate the situation.
"So January 21st is the first evaluation point," Delcour said. "We'll take a look on the 21st, get some information on where we are, what we're tracking and what we see for the future. We know how difficult this is, we understand the significance of this decision and it's our goal to get students back as soon as possible."
Students who are learning virtually should already have all the equipment necessary. However, if there's any tech issue involving a device, hot spot or in-home internet service, you should call your child's school as soon as possible.
Below are more resources available for families as provided by the Orleans Parish Public Schools:
Child Nutrition: The following locations will serve meals free of charge to children under the age of 18, regardless of what school they are enrolled in. Please note, that distribution times vary. Visit the NOLA-PS website for specific site information:https://nolapublicschools.com/covid19/nutrition
City of New Orleans Meal Assistance Program: To sign your child up to have meals delivered at home please visit https://nola311.org/ and look for the meal assistance program registration.