Idaho Board of Education changes school reopening guidelines

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) - The Idaho State Board of Education is announcing they made changes to their school reopening plans.

Previously, the board’s plan had three categories, falling into green, yellow, and red.

However, they have introduced an orange category, and got rid of the recommendation that schools move to fully-remote learning when in the red.

Board president, Debbie Critchfield says a specific reason for doing away with the full-remote learning recommendation, is because infection and transmission rates are lower in some schools, than in communities at-large.

“As we get into the school year and see what practices, see how operations are happening, we recognized and realized that particularly in our red category that there was a lot of maneuvering that could be done in there, and that red did not signal remote only,” Critchfield explained.

The move gives school districts more wiggle room when deciding how to hold classes.

For example, the Cassia Joint School District has been doing 4-day school weeks, with off days on Fridays.

And school officials confirm they have had relatively few cases among students, because the mitigation efforts have been paying off.

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