3:41
New Orleans public school students will spend most of January learning remotely. The district-wide order will last for at least two weeks and allows very young students and students with special needs to keep learning in-person at the discretion of their school.
NOLA-PS was still planning for an in-person semester as of Dec. 30 and didn’t change course until after students had returned from winter break the following Monday.
Officials say the decision to pivot was based on a recent rise in the city’s test positivity rate, which emerged early in the new year. On Jan. 3, the city’s rate jumped from 7.65 percent to 8.9 percent. Since then, the city’s daily test positivity rate has hovered around 9 percent.