The new start date for the start of the Rhode Island school year is now September 14th. Governor Raimondo made the official announcement on Wednesday after mentioning the move in an interview on NBC10 on Tuesday. The governor said the decision to delay the start of classes from the original August 31st target was based on the issue of readiness. Schools and administrators need more time to achieve "operational readiness, and more time is needed to assure that rapid testing will be available to all schools. At the moment, 700 rapid tests may be run per day and more capacity is needed.
Schools will open with a varying degree of in-person learning versus remote learning based on the individual circumstances in each district. The final decisions about whether each district will utilize in-person classes, remote learning or a combination of the two, will be announced on August 31st. The school year is scheduled to end on June 25th, with a total of 177 days of learning. Snow days are not expected to impact the school year, as all districts are all now required to conduct remote learning whenever in-person classes are canceled.
No other policy changes were announced on Wednesday regarding social gatherings or the reopening of Rhode Island's economy.
At her Wednesday briefing the governor also reiterated the current social gathering limit of 15 people and warned that violators will be subject to a $500 per person fine.
- COVID-19 Data for 8/12
- New cases: 74
- New fatalities: 2
- Tested on Tuesday: 3,684
- People hospitalized: 89