DETROIT – Detroit public schools officially announced Monday that they will return to in-person learning on March 8.
District officials revealed the return date to parents in a letter late last week, but now it’s been made official.
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The Detroit Public Schools Community District’s return to in-person learning includes all schools and grade levels, officials said.
Detroit students will return to school one week after the state’s recommended date for districts to reopen their classrooms. Officials said the decision was made after “careful and consistent” monitoring of the science and data surrounding COVID-19 in Michigan and Detroit.
“When pandemic infection rates in the city climbed beyond the 5% mark in November, we made the proactive decision to suspend in-person learning until rates declined, in order to keep our students and employees as safe as possible,” DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said. “Now that the infection rate in the city has consistently been well below 5%, we are ready to welcome our students and teachers back who choose to resume in person learning and teaching on Monday, March 8.
“With infection rates low, employees having full access to the vaccine and the confidence in knowing that we can keep students and employees safe at school since we did it in the fall, we look forward to more students and teachers returning to school for in-person learning and teaching.”
DPSCD will continue to provide an option for online learning. Recent family and teacher surveys showed twice as many wanted to return to in-person learning than when then 2020-2021 school year began in September.
“The decision for (the) Detroit Public Schools Community District to have face-to-face learning as an option was a decision made based upon the current data available,” said Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers. “We continue to stand by operating in the best interest of the teachers, faculty, students and their families. Teachers and families still have the option to continue virtually or participate in face-to-face. We will continue to monitor this situation and make sure the best decisions and practices are in place.”