COVID-19: Governor Announces Option for Remote Learning for New Jersey Schools

Published on July 20, 2020

Gov. Phil Murphy announced today that the state will be releasing guidance later this week that would allow parents to choose all-remote learning for their children when classes resume in September in New Jersey.

The Governor said "there are a lot of moving parts'' to this plan, which is being developed by the state Department of Education.

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"This is about as complex a step that we will take (in New Jersey) or that any American state will take, and we want to get it right,'' Gov. Murphy said today."

"We want to do this responsibly. We want to respect public health but we also want to do everything we can to try to recapture that magic of some semblance of in-person education.''

On June 26, the Governor had announced that school districts would be able to draft their own unique learning setups in the fall. He said schools would resume in-person classes starting in September, and released a 104-page "Restart and Recovery Plan for Education'' to guide school districts across the state on how they will operate in the fall.

The Governor said schools districts would be given "great flexibility'' in creating learning environments, depending on each district's unique geographic, demographic, and economic circumstances, which could lead to a wide variety of instructional offerings across the state.

School districts, he said, would have the ability to set up a hybrid of in-person classes and remote learning, if needed, he said. Also, he cautioned that school districts must be prepared to return to full-time remote leaning if COVID-19 were to have a major resurgence in the fall.

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