Education boss outlines needs for reopening

SALEM – Gov. Kate Brown has set mid-February as her goal to begin bringing students back to classrooms. Oregon Education Department Director Colt Gill says schools will need to follow a list of protocols including screening at entry, mask wearing, social distancing, and hand washing.

“These protocols are mitigating the risk of transmission in schools and across the country, and really around the world when they’re implemented with fidelity,” Gill said.

There will be $500 million allocated to schools in the state to pay the costs. That includes a COVID-19 testing program in each school. Gill said that reducing the number of COVID-19 cases in the community is the first step.

“To ensure that community case counts are at a low enough number that the community is not regularly introducing COVID-19 in the school,” he explained.

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