These 22 Eastern Washington schools will now offer COVID-19 testing
Officials emphasized that the testing programs will be tailored based on the school districts – some could be for students, staff or a combination of both. Author: Kaitlin Riordan, KING 5 Staff Published: 4:58 PM PST February 16, 2021 Updated: 5:24 PM PST February 16, 2021
SPOKANE, Wash Gov. Jay Inslee announced on Tuesday that about 50 more schools will participate in a COVID-19 testing program as districts try to bring more students back to in-person classes.
Of the nearly 50 schools, 22 of them are in Eastern Washington, according to a list provided by the governor’s office.
Thirteen school districts, including Spokane Public Schools, have been participating in a testing pilot program, and the new schools will join them this month.
After CDC ruling, state s school districts ponder when they can resume in-class learning Jonathan Choe, KOMO News reporter
After CDC ruling, state s school districts ponder when they can resume in-class learning
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School districts across Washington state are trying to determine when they might fully resume in-class learning for students amid new guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said last week that campus can safely reopen if they follow a host of safety practices.
The nation’s top public health agency said on Friday that in-person schooling can resume safely with masks, social distancing and other strategies, and vaccination of teachers, while important, is not a prerequisite for reopening.
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accinate teachers. It s become a rallying cry uniting parents and celebrities, Democrats and Republicans. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, and many schools are nearing the one-year mark of closing to in-person instruction, there s seemingly universal support for vaccinating educators as soon as possible so schools can be open safely. So why hasn t Washington and Gov. Jay Inslee prioritized COVID-19 vaccines for teachers yet? Inslee says it comes down to a lack of supply. We would all like to be vaccinated today, Inslee said in a press conference last week. We are going to be vaccinating teachers. We re already vaccinating teachers over 65 and those over 50 in multigenerational housing. There isn t enough to go around for everybody not of age right now.
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
These days it seems the news is inundated with increasingly dire projections about how much longer our daily lives will be disrupted as public health officials struggle to get a handle on the global COVID-19 pandemic.
A blip of hope has emerged, though, as most school districts across the country are now on track to return to some version of in-person learning. This news is considered long overdue and welcomed with open arms by weary parents, most of whom found themselves required to suddenly become part-time teachers in addition to their full-time careers.
The only population possibly more excited about the return to the classroom and a sense of normalcy than the parents is the students themselves.