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Schools get approved for distance education

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Most of Nevada’s 17 school districts have been approved for distance education. Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak said all but Clark County School District are approved to continue or start distance education as of today.

Distance education plans arose from Sisolak’s emergency directive on Friday, March 20.

“Many districts had proactively created plans and were able to submit them over the weekend to Nevada State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jhone Ebert,” he said. “By having plans approved, schools will continue to receive payments from the State Distributive School Account and will not have to adjust the school calendar to make up for the missed time.”

Washoe schools interim superintendent Kristen McNeill announced on Saturday that county schools are scheduled to open Thursday, April 16, 2020 upon approval of the state’s Chief Medical Officer.

“We also received confirmation that the U.S. Department of Education has agreed to waive all testing, and ‘End of Course exams’ will not be given this year,” McNeill said. “District staff members continue to work on plans for launching distance education programs for our students via virtual and hard copy educational materials.”

The state’s emergency directive indicated that schools will reopen no earlier than April 16 in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. It also suspended state testing requirements.

Sisolak noted that, as of Sunday evening, Clark County School District had not yet submitted a proposal for distance education, or alternatively, an extended school year. While the governor worked with the Office of the Attorney General to ensure that emergency plans could be approved by the board chair and superintendent, CCSD elected to consult its board of trustees, Sisolak noted in a press release.

This Is Reno’s COVID-19 news coverage

Bob Conrad
Bob Conradhttp://thisisreno.com
Bob Conrad is publisher, editor and co-founder of This Is Reno. He has served in communications positions for various state agencies and earned a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2011. He is also a part time instructor at UNR and sits on the boards of the Nevada Press Association and Nevada Open Government Coalition.

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