The superintendent of Detroit’s public schools announced Wednesday that the district would be moving all classes online for the three Friday school days in December, citing rising coronavirus cases and “the need for mental health relief.”

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti made the announcement Wednesday that the district would only have online classes on three December Fridays and implored students to show up for online classes to ensure the district would not lose state funding.

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“After listening and reflecting on the concerns of school-based leaders, teachers, support staff, students, and families regarding the need for mental health relief, rising COVID cases, and time to more thoroughly clean schools; and reviewing strategies to address these concerns with the School Board, I have decided to shift districtwide instruction on December 3rd, December 10th, and December 17th (all Fridays) to online learning,” Vitti said.

Vitti said schools had to meet 75% student attendance districtwide on all three days to ensure that the option of online-only days could continue for the rest of the school year. If the district fails to meet the attendance threshold, it could lose state education funds.

Chalkbeat reported that the Detroit Federation of Teachers, the city’s teachers union, had played a role in negotiating the three online school days, quoting federation President Terrence Martin.

“With the increase in cases around the state, we have to start somewhere,” the education news outlet quoted Martin. “We’ll try this for the month of December to see if it makes a difference, and if not, we’ll have to try something else.”

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Vitti also said the district was considering requiring vaccinations for students and employees, citing the Food and Drug Administration’s recent emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for children 5-11 years old and calling it “the best way to ensure everyone’s safety and the need to create reliable learning schedules and patterns for students despite the ongoing and forever presence of COVID.”

Original Location: Detroit public schools to go online on Fridays, citing COVID-19 cases

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