The Indiana Coalition for Public Education this week called for the state to provide specific metrics to guide school districts in reopening decisions.
The group’s statement says that benefits of in-person learning need to be weighed against the potential of spreading illness among students.
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Jenny Robinson is the chair for the Indiana Coalition for Public Education of Monroe County. She says the ICPE wants to see Governor Eric Holcomb take more leadership on how to approach the coming school year.
She says in the case of an outbreak, there are very specific decisions that need to be made–and the state should provide science-based guidance on what those should be rather than leaving it up to local health officials.
“I think it’s important that local officials are ultimately the ones deciding," she said. "But they really need to have the guidelines laid out for them that are based on evidence that’s coming in from all over the world.”
Robinson says some families need in-person education more than others. The ICPE also wants the state to put out guidelines that prioritize some student groups for in-person instruction based on parents’ ability to work from home and the student’s access to Wi-Fi.
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