PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As New Jersey schools resume classes, most of them will be doing so with a mix of online and in-person learning.
Gov. Phil Murphy said of the 545 back-to-school plans approved so far by the state Education Department, 328 districts are hybrid, 150 are fully virtual, and 50 are completely in person.
“Anybody who’s expecting a normal school year has not been paying attention over the past six months,” Murphy said at his regular coronavirus briefing in Trenton.
Students and teachers are required to wear masks, and schools with in-person instruction are being asked to keep students 6 feet apart.
“We are confident that these steps we have in place will make the kind of chaotic situations we have seen in other states far less likely to happen in ours,” Murphy said. “We also have in place specific health guidance for what to do when a case arises in a school or if we see a spike of cases or a cluster in a school.”
The governor said if a COVID-19 case occurs in a school, there is a matrix of state guidelines to shut down individual classrooms, or the entire school if necessary. Murphy said that’s why the state has been divided into six regions to monitor the response.
“If we’re shutting the state down then all hell’s broken loose. And we don’t anticipate that, please God,” he said.
Officials also said 221 school plans are still awaiting state approval.