More Sacramento County school campuses receive COVID-19 waivers to reopen
More than 36 school campuses are now approved for reopening in Sacramento County – all of them private schools.
The latest waiver approvals are for: Sacramento Adventist Academy, Summit Christian School, Trinity Christian School, Al-Arqam Islamic School & Preparatory, Cornerstone Christian School and Shalom School.
Schools apply for reopening waivers through the Sacramento County Public Health Department, and must show county health officials how they will safely reopen classrooms for elementary aged students.
The waivers are only for students in grades TK through sixth. Middle and high school students cannot return to campuses.
But on Tuesday, Sacramento County announced its schools will be able to reopen for in-person instruction in two weeks because the county has maintained low coronavirus infection rates, and moved down from the high risk purple tier to the state’s red tier.
Students in all grade levels can return to campus, adhering to county safety guidelines like masks and physical distancing, if the county remains in the red tier for 14 consecutive days.
More waivers are expected in the county. County health officials asked several applicants to revise their applications. Those applications were returned to school officials to revise reopening plans. Sacramento County Public Health officials are providing technical assistance with applications, according to county officials. It’s unclear if those pending applications are all private schools.
Hundreds of schools have applied for waivers in the state, and the vast majority, more than 650, have been approved. They have been overwhelmingly private schools, most of them Christian and Catholic schools.
School districts need to submit evidence of consultation with employees, and parent and community organizations, and show the results of those consultations, according to the county waiver.
School districts across the state will continue to factor in whether their coronavirus cases will increase after campuses reopen, how accessible testing will be in their areas and if they are concerned about re-opening and potentially closing campuses.