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Denver Public Schools announces timeline for return to in-person learning after the winter holidays

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Posted at 6:57 PM, Dec 08, 2020
and last updated 2020-12-08 21:08:08-05

DENVER – Officials with Denver Public Schools on Tuesday night released a plan for the return of students to in-person learning at the start of the second semester, despite uncertainty about what the next few weeks will look like for Denverites as the novel coronavirus continues to spread at an alarming rate.

The first week of the second semester for DPS (Jan. 5-8) will have all students in K-12 start the new year remotely.

Starting Jan. 11, all early childhood education students (ECE) through 5th grade will return to in-person learning. The same will apply for all secondary SPED Centers and Newcomer Centers. Other secondary students will continue learning remotely.

The third and fourth weeks of January (Jan. 19-29) will see students in middle school and high school gradually returning to in-person learning, with students having to take “safety orientation days” and some having to learn in a hybrid-type schedule (half remote, half in-person).

By Feb. 1, all Denver Public Schools students whose families selected in-person learning will be back in the classroom.

“We believe this timeline prioritizes students who need in-person learning most, while also giving schools the opportunity to plan and prepare for a full-scale return to in-person learning,” reads the latest letter sent to parents, teachers and staff at DPS.

School officials said the plan is not set in stone and may change based on COVID-19 conditions in the city.

Last month, former Denver Public Schools Superintendent Susana Cordova pleaded with Denverites to follow the city and state’s public health guidelines, stating that a failure to do so would further endanger schoolchildren’s ability to return to class.

Denver reported 420.9 cases in its seven-day average tally as of Monday, well above the recommended number of cases to safely ease restrictions citywide.