Norfolk could bring students back to school sooner than planned

Some Norfolk students and teachers could return to classrooms in-person sooner than expected under proposed changes to the district’s reopening plan being considered this month.

The Norfolk School Board agreed to one of the region’s most conservative returnto-school plans in October, but there’s been talk of adjustments since. The plans now are tied to health metrics: Only when key measures fall into low-risk categories will students be invited to return in phases for two days a week of in-person instruction.

Right now, several of those indicators predict a high risk for coronavirus transmission in schools. Norfolk’s agreed-upon metrics wouldn’t allow for reopening unless new cases per 100,000 people in the past 14 days fell below 20 cases; as of Friday, the city had 239. The percent of positive tests needs to fall below 5% under Norfolk’s plan, but was at 8.2%.

The board is considering measures that would relax the thresholds that allow in-person instruction for students whose families opted in to begin. The board is also considering letting students with some special needs return sooner, regardless of where health metrics stand.

The board plans to vote at its next meeting Dec. 16. Here’s what’s being considered:

Proposed: Set aside five “secondary indicators”

Currently: Eight different health metrics must fall in the lowest risk categories as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The CDC has advised districts take into account things such as hospital capacity, the direction new case numbers are trending and whether there’s evidence of outbreaks. But the CDC said these shouldn’t be part of the main criteria for returning — just something to consider.

Norfolk’s board made them part of its main criteria though, part of what makes its approach more conservative than neighboring districts.

The board will consider changing that so that these “secondary indicators” aren’t the main thing determining whether schools will reopen. Instead just the three “core indicators” will be factors: the number of new cases in the last 14 days, the percent of positive cases and the district’s ability to follow social distancing and other safety precautions to mitigate spread.

Proposed: Allow reopening under “moderate” risk levels or below

Currently: Risk levels have to be at either the lowest or lower levels.

The district’s plan says in-person learning can only resume once health metrics fall to what the CDC considers to be the two lowest risk levels. The board will consider expanding that criteria to allow in-person instruction once the numbers indicate a “moderate” risk.

If loosened, Norfolk’s thresholds would look most similar to Virginia Beach’s and would still be more conservative than Chesapeake’s. Until cases spiked last month and prompted the return of all-virtual learning for most students, Virginia Beach was bringing students back while metrics fell into a moderate risk zone.

Chesapeake is in-person five days a week for elementary students and two days a week for secondary students. Health metrics in the city as of Friday fall in the CDC’s “highest risk” category.

Portsmouth hasn’ t formally tied its plans to any specific level of risk, but in November pushed back a planned January return to February in light of rising case numbers.

Proposed: Reduce the time between introducing new phases of students

Currently: Three weeks between each new group

Superintendent Sharon Byrdsong’s original reopening plan called for two weeks between phasing in new groups of students, but ultimately the board decided on three weeks. Part of what the board will consider is whether to change that to two weeks. Byrdsong said the district would prefer to keep it at three.

Proposed: Escalate return plans for some students with special needs

Currently: Special needs students are in the first phase to return after health conditions are met for 14 continuous days.

Norfolk’s board and other districts have identified students with special needs in self-contained classes to be one of the highest priority groups to bring back.

This group of students was in Norfolk’s first phase, along with some students still learning English. But instead of waiting for health conditions to dictate their return, Norfolk is considering bringing these students back sooner — potentially Jan. 11.

Besides these students’ academic needs being best met in-person, the other reason they’ve been prioritized is their smaller class sizes make it easier for schools to ensure social distancing and other safety precautions.