The State Public Charter School Authority’s board approved the agency’s return to an in-person instruction plan.

Charter schools to include in-person classes

Each Nevada charter school will create its own reopening plan for the upcoming school year that will include in-person classes.

The State Public Charter School Authority’s board on Friday approved the agency’s return to an in-person instruction plan, which was required because the authority is receiving federal American Rescue Plan money.

The authority, which oversees 67 campuses serving more than 50,000 students, expects schools to open this fall with “capacity to offer in-person learning to all students,” according to the plan.

With a new school year less than two months away, planning is well underway, the authority’s Executive Director Rebecca Feiden told the board.

Each school’s governing board will decide whether to offer full-time in-person classes or a hybrid model with a mix of in-person and remote instruction.

Schools also must include in their reopening plan how they’ll use distance learning for students unable to participate in person or in case of an emergency closure.

By the end of the previous school year, the vast majority of the state’s public charter school campuses were providing at least some in-person instruction.

Of 67 campuses, two were fully in person, 51 were operating under hybrid models and 11 were providing limited in-person instruction for some students, according to the authority. That doesn’t include three campuses that regularly operate virtually.

The authority’s board also voted unanimously Friday to recommend schools follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials during the upcoming school year for capacity

limits, social distancing, sanitation protocols and public gatherings of up 250 people.

“Schools (also) will obviously have to follow state guidance,” Feiden told the board.

In May, the CDC announced people who have been fully vaccinated no longer need to wear a face mask in most indoor and outdoor settings.

But the federal agency recommended schools continue with their current mask requirements and other COVID-19 measures until the school year ended.

The CDC hasn’t yet released guidance for the upcoming school year, but Feiden said she expects it soon.

A state directive implemented this spring allows public schools the option of relaxing mask requirements for children 9 and younger.