The largest school districts in the state now have students back in the classroom almost full-time.
As of this week, all students in the Boise, Nampa and West Ada districts are attending school either four or five days a week for in-person learning. Boise High School is back to remote learning until April 2 after asbestos was found during HVAC work.
Students in the Vallivue and Caldwell districts are also back in the classroom.
The Department of Health and Welfare will continue to monitor coronavirus cases in schools. In this week's Making the Grade, we spoke with Idaho Education News reporter Kevin Richert about who decides when it is safe to open and close classrooms.
"You don't want to see it, but if you were to see an increase in cases at the local level, it would be up to those school boards and those trustees and administrators to come together and figure out what to do next," said Richert.
Some school boards have given their superintendents some of that power, but the decision starts with the trustees on school boards. This is in contrast to a year ago when the state essentially closed all public schools. Now the decision about whether to keep them open is going to be made at the local level.
