Will GA Gov. Kemp, who has blocked local governments from taking action to slow the spread of covid, allow decisions about K-12 schools to be made locally? Let's take a look at the EO he issued yesterday: mdjonline.com/news/marietta-…
Here's yesterday's EO from Kemp. A lot of it is "sanitation theater" - measures that are helpful but woefully inadequate to control the spread of infection through small respiratory droplets when people spend significant time together indoors. bit.ly/2OpAWlE
Here's what Kemp's new EO says about schools:
1) It directs the state Board of Ed to develop rules that allow local K-12 schools to "depart from a strict interpretation of the definition of 'school year,' 'school month,' or 'school day. So far so good.
1) It directs the state Board of Ed to develop rules that allow local K-12 schools to "depart from a strict interpretation of the definition of 'school year,' 'school month,' or 'school day. So far so good.
2) Kemp's EO specifies he's not doing anything to "prevent any school, technical school, college, or university from requiring faculty and Workers to attend meetings or other necessary activities at a school or facility..." He's *allowing* schools to require staff to be onsite.
3) "Because of the limited resources of school districts in this state," Kemp says schools are specifically exempt from his requirement that 50+ people can't be present at a single location if they're required to stand or be seated within 6 ft. of each other.
Kemp is specifically allowing schools to require staff to be present in a facility even if that facility is too crowded for it to be possible to spread out. and stay 6 ft apart. Because they don't have/won't commit the resources needed.
4) Kemp's order says schools/districts shall implement additional measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among staff & students while present on school campuses.... but pretty much all of these requirements only need to be satisfied if "practicable".
The measures for schools include screening for symptoms (but we know covid can be spread by people without symptoms), surface cleaning (but we know it doesn't primarily spread through surfaces), and allowing people to students/staff to go outside during scheduled breaks.
Kemp's EO specifically says schools/districts can require face coverings on campus at their discretion, so there's that.
Kemp's EO also exempts school sports from its gathering ban. Workouts/practices/games are only required to follow rules developed by the athletic conference/association.
