KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Days before several school districts in Jackson County are set to return to school, the county’s health department is “strongly recommending” a delay until at least Sept. 8 due to COVID-19.
Citing the number of new cases per 100,000 people, the county’s positivity rate and incident rate trends, the Jackson County Health Department says districts should delay reopening, and when schools do reopen, they should do so with remote learning.
Health officials put together school gating criteria, of which currently place the district in the red zone, indicating “significant community spread.”
The recommendation also calls for extracurricular and cocurricular activities to be suspended while the county remains in the red zone.
The health department’s recommendation applies to county school districts outside of Kansas City, Missouri.
This is a developing story and will be updated.