Kentucky's Education Continuation Task Force Creating Guidance For the Reopening of Schools

This announcement was made during Monday's media briefing.

File Photo

(Frankfort, Ky.) – During yesterday’s media briefing, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear addressed many of the things that Kentucky is working on during the pandemic, including the restart of Kentucky schools.

Lt. Governor Jacqueline Coleman gave an update on the proposals for helping schools represent all the students they serve and the road ahead as schools hope to reopen this fall.

The Kentucky Department of Education created the Education Continuation Task Force in March to develop plans to continue education through a pandemic.

“The task force includes representatives of Kentucky’s educational cooperatives, educational partner organizations such as the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents, Kentucky School Board Association, Kentucky Parent Teacher Association, Kentucky Education Association, and Kentucky High School Athletic Association, as well as Kentucky Educational Television, the Southern Regional Education Board and other relevant partners,” Lt. Gov. Coleman said. “This task force focuses on providing timely information, research, and instructional resources to our school districts as they dealt with an unprecedented length of school closure and are now trying to figure out ways to reopen amid the crisis.”

With the focus shifting from non-traditional learning in the spring to keeping kids safe in school, the task force is working to create guidance to help districts plan for the fall.

The best five practices America is fully aware of will remain the focus of the task force’s guidance:

• Social Distancing
• Wearing Masks
• Hand and Surface Sanitizing
• Temperature Checks
• Contact Tracing

“We have to now contemplate, how does this look in a school system," said Lt. Gov. Coleman.