Alberta’s Education Minister says students will continue with at-home learning for the remainder of the current school year.
Adriana LaGrange says that decision is based on advice from the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.
Wednesday’s announcement also clears up some confusion the re-entry plan may have caused when it was released last week.
“Potential opening of K-12 Schools, with restrictions” is listed in Phase 2 of Alberta’s Relaunch Strategy online and while there is no date attached to that stage now, when the plan was originally released April 30, it indicated June 1 as a potential start date, depending on the success of Phase 1.
LaGrange also says it isn’t clear what the new school year might look like this fall but a comprehensive re-entry plan, currently in the works, will consider three possible scenarios.
She says it’s possible that one: normal school operations could resume; two: schools are partially reopened with some restrictions; or three: teacher-directed at home learning continues.
LaGrange says everyone would like to see a return to normal in-school learning in September but it’s too early to make that decision.
She says the best plan is to “hope for the best and plan for the worst.”
Alberta’s Relaunch Strategy can be found here.