She expects grade school class to resume in the fall. And she asked all 20 of the states cleagesd universities to submit a plan to decide how they might safely reopen in the fall as well. Gov. Raimondo today, my husband andy and i are having a special segment where we talk directly to the kids and students in rhode island. Its pretty amazing, thousands of you wrote in your questions. We have questions from kids in prek all the way to your senior year in high school we both want to thank you. We have two teenagers at home ourselves. We do. Gov. Raimondo and like you, were learning Distance Learning and were stuck at home. I hope today gives you the opportunity to tune in and get some of your questions answered, and if nothing else just realize that theres a lot o kids out there who are in a situation just like yours. This suspect going perfectly or easily for anybody. Some days are good. Some days arent too good. And over all, youre doing an unbelievable job. But its a hard time. And so we just have to stick with it a day at a time and do the best we can every day. Just like last time, i want to begin with a huge thank you to our teachers. Hats off to the teachers and all the educators and coaches and principals appear superintendents. Yeah, its really incredible. Gov. Raimondo it is incredible. Rhode island is a shiping star across america for the success that were having with Distance Learning. I wasnt sure if we would be able to pull this off when we started, and it has gone better than anyone expected. I wanted to thank all the arents out there and aunts and unk. An grand parents who are going along with this with the children in your house like andy and i i know its not easy. Sometimes the kids get frustrated. We dont this as kids, so thank you for your patients. But most of all, i want to say thank you to the kids. Youre incredible. Youre being creative. Youre rolling with it. Its hard. You dont get to see your friends and play sports and that kind of stippings. And so i just want to say im sorry it has to be this way. It is this way so we can keep you healthy and safe. I really hope were going to be able to open school in september just the way we normally would and until then, were just asking you to stick with i. We just have another month or so ago and stick with it. Get it your all, finish strong. Thats just so important. Like in gymnastics, stick the landing. We want you guys to stick with it for until the end of school. We have a couple of quick announcements and then ill turn it over to andy. Out there are ds still struggling, we know, with not enough wifi. Maybe there are three o four kids in the house trying to learn. You only have one computer. Theres not enough internet in the house where everybody would be the work at the same time. And so i want to promise you that were going to keep doing more until everybody has what they need to do the schoolwork in the house. If youre struggling at home. If you dont have a good enough computer, you can want get your schoolwork done, let your teacher know. Because if your teacher knows, or she can tell us. About a week or so ago, we heard from a cup of of School Districts that some kids are struggling. So we said lets do something about it. The Rhode Island Foundation said they would give 100,000 grant if other people matched that grant. And people did. 70 people said we want to give money to match the grant. There are two that i want to call out speckically. The cbs health donated 150,000 to the one socket Education Department for the purchase of 750 chrome books for students in grades three through five. So way to go. Way to go c. V. S. Way to go Rhode Island Foundation. And then Brown University donated 100,000 to the Providence School district to support interact access for 900 students for the next year. So were getting this done together. And i hope thank you to brown so much. Thank you so c. V. S. So much. And to all the kids that will benefit from that, i hope it makes your life easier and school a little bit more fun. Last thing i want to say is this i know some people are struggling more than others. Were all struggling for being cooped up in hour houses. And maybe youre mommy or dad has lost their job during this, up in a re cramped small house. A few kids, parents. Maybe your parents are extra stressed out. Theres a lot of people going through that right now. So if youre hearing me say that, i want you to know that were not alone. We want to make things better for you. But if you feel unsafe at home or somebodys hurting you at home. We appreciate it you to let your teacher know or let one of the adults in your life who you know loves you know. Because thats not ok. And we want to make sure we get you some help. Also, if youre feeling really xious or depressed or scared and just really struggling with it emotionally. Weve set up a whole new system called kids link. Which is designed to help Kids Mental Health services that they need to provide you with support. At phone number is 18555435465. So you could call yourself, you know, if youre a teenager or old enough or if youre a parent or teacher hearing me say that and you have a kid in your life who is really struggling, dont be shy do not be shy we set up kids link because we know that. Everybodys going through something. 8555435465. Thank you, dear. Its such an important thing. Its really nice to be back here. Frankly, its nice to be back anywhere outside of my house. I think today was one of the first times ive gotten in my car in a really long time. So for a of o you who are throughout watching, working from home. Im right there with you. This is an opportunity to get out. Appear its nice to be invited back. You never know how this goes. After watching him, they said dont quit your day job. Im flattered that you guys talked about. I wanted to talk about the questions from the wonderful students across rhode island. I just want to talk about the topic of Mental Health and Emotional Health and how youre feeling. Its ok if youre not feeling ok. In fact, most of us arent. This is a time of great uncertainty, anxiety. Concerned for safety. Youre out of of our normal rhythms and routines. So the parents throughout, its really important to talk about it. You know, we have to acknowledge and think about how difficult this is. How different can we dont have all the answers. We can assure everyone that with this state and this leadership and all the parents who are out there are working very hard to make sure that you the student, the kid, your loved ones are as safe as project were making sure and thats a really important thing. But as part of that, talking about it, the great folks at briley hospital and the clinicians who rain the kids link thing service, have created a new free coloring book particularly the earliest grades called coloring my way. Its learning about coronavirus. This is ridso raccoon. She goes through this whole process and its really great. You can go through this, read the stories with your parents or kids. You can read it to your parents. It talks about all these different motions na you mibet be feeling. The uncertainty, the anxiety, the confusion. This can be dowd loaded. As par of the work sheet that might be going home in cool. It could be download at brilely hospital. And its done both in eaninged in spanish. And its a great opportunity for parents to talk to their to your kid about the kinds of feelings you might be having and refer back to them when those things get difficult. I just want to say before we get to the question, that its really important for you to take care of yourself. For kid out there who are look, Say Something your parents. Theyre probably on. Theres this coloring book. Theres one way to get started. So with that, lets jump to the questions the student journalists who were out there, again, we received thousands of these. Its wonderful the curiosity, the honesty that students across exhibiting them questions. Gina, question number one. Tee again is a pre School Student in South Kingston who asked why does my mask have to be on when im going somewhere. Very smart prek student. Im glad you have a mask. That makes me ve happy. Before the best way to spread this disease the way that it spreads the most, is when people sneeze or cough. So the virus is inside of inside of, you know, inside o your mouth. Inside of o your nose and when prow prevent the virus from spreading. By wearing your mask it opportunity prevent you from getting sifpblgt so we we our ur masks, our kids mask its weird to wear them. Ts hard to breathe. Book,ll see in the color ri zrks zo does that and its a little bit like dabbing. Lets go to gabriella. Can we make signs when people walk by . Yes, i would love it when you did that. Send me a sign. Gabriella send us a sign. Youre in second grade in war wick. Im asking you maybe have your whole class do it. You could ask your teacher to arrange this. Draw me a special sign and send it to me. And ill put it up at my window. But its a great thing to do. And to the rest of the kids out there, i want you to try to do one thing every day to cheer somebody else. By the way, the dulls have theirs. Just one ack of kindness every day. Send somebody a funny text. Draw somebody a funny picture. Say i thank you. I love you. Just try once a day to do one thing that will cheer somebody else up. When gina comes home, i try to be there. Im working from home. I probably should have some signs that says welcome home. For so many parents out there who are working on the front line, you know, surveying in hospitals or in Healthcare Settings or groastry stores. All of us owe you. If you want to thoonk them, i think that would be a really, really nice gesture. All right. Liliana, fourth grader. Hi, liliana. Liliana asks, im wondering how camp will be different in this year from last year. Thank you, liliana, our kids are looking forward to their camps too. So im not sure exactly how camps will be different, but they will be different. Were not going to be allowed to get together in big groups of people. So kwloon kind of a camp youre used to doifpblg we want to get together in small groups this summer. 10 kids, 15 kids. Small groups of people. And also were going to try to have so lot more virtual canched cool new activities. So were work really hard every day so that you can have some camps this summer. Sports camps, outdoor camps. Learning camps. Im going to make sure there are camps. Theyre going to be under new rules and restrictions. Were going to have to wash our hands more. Ere going to have to wear our masks. We cant get in big groups of people. Were still working on it. I hear you that you want your carps of. And were going to do our best. Your camp and were going to do our best. Victoria asks, when the number of protected people go down, will businesses and parks start to open up again . Yes, victoria. You should come work on my team. Thats exactly the plan. So right now. , the number of infections suspect going down yet. Its actually kind of flat, which is great. Last time we talked to you it was going up. Now, its pretty soon, yo start to go down. And when it starts to go down. Thats when we can go to the park. We can go to the beach this summer. We can go back out to the store. Your folks might get back to work. So thats exactly the plan. And we have to do it slowly. Its like one step. And then well waufpblg and then well run. Its not going to be everything open all at once. But yeah, the answer is yes, were going to get to go outside a lot more witness the infections go down. Are its a good reminder that in the next couple of weeks, certainly weve got to stick with it. This is no time to letting off, you knowings some of things weve been doing because the fact that its working shows that if we keep doing it well be in a much better place. Wearing masks is something you can push through. Even though it is really hard to be stuck at home, not going to the park. Not seeing your friends at school, its working. You guys are absolutely savings lives. You, no if you didnt do what youre doing, we would have a lot more sick people in rhode island. Yeah. We would have a lot more people in the hospital. But you havent. Youve done a really good job. So to you and to your teachers an to your parents, even though its incredibly hard. And i hope you never have to do this again, its working. So you should feel good about yourself that even if you were a kid, youre playing a role, in fighting coronavirus here on rhode island. And if you see someone walk out of their house an ask them wheres the mask . Allyson asks. Why cant we go back to school and see minute sfrends. Our kids miss their friends too. We miss our friends we dont get to our friends. Right now, since theres so much of the virus out there. And since the way the virus spreads is from one person to another. So when you get close to people, and you know, people breathe and sneeze and cough, thats how we spread the virus to each other. So if we let you go back to school and be with your friends, too many people will get sick too fast. But soon enough, we will. Jeffrey who is a seventh grader in pawtucket asks what kind of activities are you doing in your quarantine, dear . I will work. But maybe my husband will try to answer one of that. That. We walk the dog a lot the kids and i play outside. We play some basketball. Weve enjoyed doing that together as a family. We go bike riding. So ive tried to ive tried to exercise and get outside, a little bit each day. Yeah, no, thank you. A lot of these activities we do together because we want to be together just the five of us you know, the four of us. And always watches to be in groups of less than five. Its been amazing to me just how kited ive been to walk our dogs. Sparky has been wondering why. I get out. Ive been working op my lawn raking up the dead grass and trying to get things going if for the day. When i cant go out and do something. But the activity ive tried to do which has no been very popular in the house is to cook. Ive been trying to cook at least a meal once or twice a week. Im not a very good cook. But its a great thing to feel what we could do differently. Youre learning how to do Distance Learning. Im trying to work something as well. We can ask her when were off camera whether its good. We try to limit him to breakfast. If the kids are washing theyve got to understand from me. Very how do you prevent stress . Thats a great question, nassir. Its a hard thing. I hope everybody feels a lot i know everybodys feeling stress every day. If youre feeling stress, its completely norle maam everybody ed. Ls more stress you can exercise. You can go outside. You can listen to music. You can talk to somebody. Find somebody you can talk to. Maybe its a teacher, maybe its your brother, a sister, a friend. Just somebody. Find somebody you can talk to, somebody who will listen to you, also i would stay in touch with your friends, if you can. If you have a phone or if you have some way to be with your friends online, all that stuff is really important even though youre at home alone. Figure out a way to have contacts with people every day. Some how, every day tried to have some contact with other people because that will help. But theres no one thing. And some days it will be worse than others. And then the next day it would be better. When you pick up the phone i think its interesting, you know, a lot of of our communications now are by snapchat or by text and so forth. So calling someone which i know a lot of the students out there probably dont do that. Is there a way to connect to people. Its been a good excuse to get people to come. And its a small idea for you. Ok. Udonis is a seventh grader in providence. Will the next school year be normal . What is the new normal . So, i depends on what we mean by nor ma. Its not going to be the way it was last year. Because we all have to do things a little differently because of the virus. Youll be going back to school, i hope. The plan is if everything goes according to the way it is now, youll be able to go back to school. But we will have to be washing your hands a lot more. We minte might have to make. Hanges to the way we probably have to spread out. Fewer kids. You may have to wear a mask. Your teacherers might have to have masks on. Im going to have to will keep your school. Every single day. Multiple times through the day. O this i think of this its its almost like we have to dance with the virus. Oh. Well [laughter] its a complicated change. Its going to throw us a curveball. We have to change with that. So its not going to be normal. Its not going to be the same old school. Youre going to go back to school. Your th your be with friends. Im not exactsly shoe what that means. October may look different than september. But were going to get you back to school. Its going to be fun. Youre going to learn. And were going to dour best to get through it. I have this image of dancing. And i love dancing with you. But dancing the virus, i dont know. Feels like its more of like a bullfight. Gisele, a 12th grader a senior in pau tuck. Whoa are we going to do for the class, the important class of 202 . 2020 . I feel for the class of 2020. This is not the senior year that anybody want. Ive been hearing from lots of kids some kids were going to be captain of the sports team. Are you going to have the you know, an Honor Society of eavepbt, ooh graduation or end of year party. And unfortunately, most of that is not going to be able to happen demsh the way you thought it was going to happen. Thats the bad news. Heres the good news. Were going to come up with new ways to have fun. And celebrate you. And let you be with your friends in ways that are safe. Going to be in smaller groups and were going to celebrate you. Were going to have a good time. And were going to create memories. Your graduation in your senior year is going to be different than kids before you and kids after you. Its going to be yours. Youll have your own memories. You can tell your kids in years to come about the clats of 2020. So were work hard on all different kinds of things. Maybe fun fun activities that would be like a prom only more of a virtual kind of dance party were going to have it tell vidse. Graduation event on june 159 for the whole state. Which, you know, were working on. Its going to be a really good time. And i would ask you to get creative. I will say this. By the time graduation rolls around in june, we probably will still be in a place where we can only be together in groups of maybe, i dont know. 20 or fewer. So we can be together with your friends more than you are now. But definitely not in big groups. So were going to have to get creative. Ill retie lie on you for some good ideas. Really recognizing the pressure that they