Rochester Schools To Start The Year Online

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While Springfield schools will do a hybrid/blended start to their school year, Rochester CUSD #3A has decided they will start the 20/21 year completely online.

School Superintend Dan Cox cited these reasons in an email to families in the Rochester school district:

"Following are considerations we took when making the decision to pivot to remote instruction.

1. Current rate of community spread in Sangamon County.

   1. Positive cases for COVID are climbing, indicating that community spread is unchecked.

   2. We are quickly approaching a 5% positivity rate and are on a steep curve.

2. Perceived capacity of public health and medical institutions to provide the level of scaffolded support necessary for schools to reopen and students to remain in attendance.

   1. Contact tracing capabilities remain suboptimal.

3. Current state/readiness for pediatric COVID testing.

   1. Most critically, as we move to reopen, our capacity for rapid widespread testing in the pediatric population, is suboptimal.

The Superintendent went on to say that if schools are to reopen to in person classes, the public must "stay the course to change the way we behave socially. "

Source: Rochester Public Schools Family Notification