SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — All students in New Jersey will return to school for full-time, in-person instruction this fall, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday.
He said children have to learn in school buildings this September. He’s also letting his executive order, allowing full-time remote instruction, expire at the end of this school year.
“Next year, parents will not be enabled to broad-scale opt their child out of in-person instruction as was allowed during this school year,” he said.
Related
At his COVID-19 briefing in Trenton, Murphy said the state is facing a different world than it did a year ago. It has more experience fighting the virus, and children as young as 12 are now being vaccinated.
Of course, in the event of another severe COVID-19 outbreak or similar emergency, remote learning could be permitted.
Murphy said New Jersey’s indoor mask mandate will remain for the time being, despite recent CDC guidance that says vaccinated people can take them off in most settings.
The governor said the best thing to do is to keep the indoor mandate in place a little longer to protect workers who would otherwise be put in the position of determining which patrons were vaccinated and which ones were not.
“I don’t know how we can expect workers to be able to tell who is vaccinated from who isn’t,” he added. “It is unfair to business owners and front-line employees to police every patron.”
Murphy viewed the indoor mask mandate as more of an incentive for people to get vaccinated.
The governor is also lifting the state’s travel advisory, which means quarantining is no longer necessary for domestic travel.