Объяснение:
LETTER FROM SUPERINTENDENT REYKDAL
Dear Superintendents and School Leaders:
Nothing we have been through these past three months was in the training manual. Not in your
formal education, probably not in your lived experience, and certainly not faced by the system as a
whole. Thank you for your leadership in uncertain times, and thank you for the grace you have
shown our team at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) as we have tried to
listen to you and health experts in developing guidance and advocating on your behalf with the
Governor’s Office, legislators, and other critical education stakeholders.
Below is our initial fall reopening guidance. This guidance is grounded first and foremost in the
public health science and data provided by the state Department of Health (DOH). DOH is
providing the regulatory framework when it comes to hygiene, physical distancing, and other
public health considerations.
OSPI is complementing the DOH guidelines with reopening guidance derived from the 120+
person Reopening Washington Schools Workgroup—the listening and learning we have engaged
in with educators, education leaders, policymakers, parents, students, community-based
organizations; the international and national research done by our partner Kinetic West; and the
expertise of our staff in their respective fields. As such, the guidance both addresses public health
science and data and provides consideration for how reopening schools can further our call to
transform K–12 education to a system that is centered on closing opportunity gaps and is
characterized by high expectations for all students and educators.
The Workgroup was influenced by the civil unrest across the country in response to overt racial
injustice and inequality. We are educators. We know that despite real progress, educational systems
and institutions continue to contribute to racial inequality and injustice. We know that we have a
much higher responsibility than teaching content in classrooms. We know that each of us owns a
piece of injustice. We have an opportunity in the reopening of our schools to take another step
forward in what must be a lifetime of energy toward a more just world.
This guidance is grounded in my belief that the most equitable opportunity for educational success
relies upon the comprehensive supports for students provided in our schools with our professionals
and the systems of supports we have built. We will do this together, keeping student and staff
safety and well-being as our highest priority in the reopening. To be very clear, it is my
expectation that schools will open this fall for in-person instruction.
This guidance is specific to K–12 public and private schools, regardless of what Phase of the
Governor’s Safe Start Plan their county is in. Counties in Phases 1 or 1.5 of the Plan must receive
approval to reopen from their local health authority. Changing health conditions in a county or
region may cause a local health authority or even the Governor to have to reconsider this
opportunity to open, but the primary planning of most districts should be a presumption of a fall
