As you may have heard, the Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education met again over the weekend to consider our return to face to face learning. At that meeting it was decided that the District would continue to follow the health guidelines provided by the County and State health department. These are the same metrics that were approved by the Board in the fall. In short, the city must be at a Community Risk Level of “D” or better and the County Positivity Rate must be 5% or lower in order to return to in-person instruction.
Information is updated weekly and can be found on the district’s COVID 19 webpage . Using the link you can find the Community Risk Level grid along with links to all kinds of COVID 19 data including the report from Wayne County Health that we receive each week. This report provides us with the Positivity Rate for the County. The official report is used by the District to determine the County Positivity rate and looks at a 7 day average, not just one day. There is no such thing as a “City Positivity Rate”. The good news is, this rate has been falling from a high of over 15% in late November to the current rate of 7.8%. There may be other Positivity Rate Charts out there on the web but we use the official report from the Wayne County Health Department for making decisions.
Once the community reaches both COVID measures set by the Board of Education, Dearborn Public Schools will start bringing students back to schools in phases as follows:
Week 0
The district learns both community conditions have been met on the Wayne County Health Department reports. That includes at least a D grade on the risk matrix and a 5 percent or lower positivity rate. This would be received on Tuesday and communication will be sent out on Wednesday that Learning Labs will begin on the following Monday.
Week 1
Learning labs resume, including Act 18 special education.
Staff reports to the building to work.
Week 2
Learning labs continue.
Week 3
Grades kindergarten, first, second, sixth, and ninth start in-school blended learning. Students will be placed in two groups. A Group attends school in the building on Mondays and Thursdays. B Group attends in person on Tuesdays and Fridays. All students will be remote on Wednesdays. Students will have asynchronous work, remote specials with a live teacher, and may have interventions on days they are not in person.
Week 4
Grades preschool, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and 10th start in-school blended learning. Students will be placed in two groups. A Group attends school in the building on Mondays and Thursdays. B Group attends in person on Tuesdays and Fridays. All students will be remote on Wednesdays. Students will have asynchronous work, remote specials with a live teacher, and may have interventions on days they are not in person.
Week 5
Grades eighth, 11th and 12th start in-school blended learning.
You can read in more detail including hybrid schedules for each grade level by visiting https://dearbornschools.org/backtoschool/