Oregon students will not be returning to the classroom this academic year.
In light of the necessity to continue social distancing measures during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, particularly her Stay Home, Save Lives order, Gov. Kate Brown announced she is extending Oregon’s physical closures for the K-12 and post-secondary education systems through the end of the current academic term and school year.
She directed school districts, community colleges, and universities to complete the final weeks of the regular academic year by continuing distance learning and support to students.
“We have Oregon’s students at the forefront of every decision we make about education,” said Governor Brown. “Their health, happiness, and safety is our priority. The best thing we can do for the health of our children, and for the thousands of educators across the state, is to give everyone certainty by announcing the decision today to close in-person classes for the remainder of the school year.”
There is no change to the number of credits required to graduate. Salem-Keizer Public Schools now consider March 13 as the final day of coursework for students in the class of 2020 and will issue a .5 credit as “Pass,” or “Incomplete” for the work completed to that date.
This guidance applies to students set to graduate in June of 2020. For those seniors who don’t have enough credits as of March 13, individualized distance learning schedules will be created to help them earn credits through the end of the school year to stay on track with the Class of 2020.
“Like you, we are hurting, but we know this latest guidance comes as another measure to keep us as safe and healthy as we can be,” said Superintendent Christy Perry. “We will continue to honor distance learning for all of our students in grades K-8, and we will follow a plan to report on progress toward focused standards for Distance Learning. Distance learning begins on Monday, April 13, but we do not expect it to look like the school days we had only a handful of weeks ago.”