County Superintendent George Arlotto said the county would end its virtual live teaching program for students out of school for reasons related to COVID-19. The change will go into effect after Spring Break, on April 19.
Superintendent Arlotto announced the change at the April 6 meeting of the Anne Arundel County Board of Education, citing a steep decrease in the county’s COVID-19 transmission and infection rates.
Currently, public school students in kindergarten through second grade that are in isolation because of a positive COVID-19 test are assigned a virtual teacher to participate in a virtual classroom and curriculum with other isolated student through live virtual lessons.
Middle and high school students in isolation, on the other hand, already get assignments and lessons from the school system’s digital platform Brightspace, with live virtual tutoring available in the evenings.
After April 18, “Those [elementary school] students will be able to log on to their Brightspace accounts and access their classwork, homework and their teacher,” explained Superintendent Arlotto.
The Baltimore Sun reported on the policy shift and COVID-19 rates in the county:
As of Wednesday, 49 students and 12 staff members are being isolated from Anne Arundel County Public Schools due to COVID. Since the start of the school year 9,796 cases of COVID have been reported among students and 1,521 among staff. The number of cases in the system has declined since the county weathered a winter spike in cases prompted by the omicron variant.
The shift will go into effect after Spring Break, on April 19.
Read the full Baltimore Sun article.
Watch the April 6 meeting of the Anne Arundel County Board of Education.
