ATLANTA — As part of his shelter-in-place announcement on Wednesday, Gov. Brian Kemp also ordered schools to remain closed through the end of the year.
"In consultation with the Governor's Coronavirus Task Force and local, state and federal education, health and emergency preparedness officials, I have determined that an extended closure of all elementary, secondary and post-secondary public schools in Georgia is a necessary and appropriate action to protect the health, safety and welfare of Georgia's residents and visitors to help control the spread of COVID-19 throughout this State," the order says.
The order does not end the school year, and leaves it open for personnel to be "asked to work or return to their respective campuses as needed to maintain essential services."
It simply preempts any possibility that students will return to classrooms for in-person instruction for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.
Perhaps most notably, the order leaves it to individual districts to still determine a last day of school "for the purposes of online learning." It also explicit says it "shall not prevent remote learning or online programs developed for students by the University System of Georgia, the Technical College System of Georgia, the Georgia Board of Education or any local school district."
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