COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday said he is very concerned about the number of children who are learning from home instead of in the classroom.
At least 16 school districts have scaled back to either hybrid concepts — in-person and remote learning — or fully remote models because of high rates of spread in the community, DeWine said. At least 50 districts are now fully on-line, with nearly 300,000 students unable to attend classes in-person.
Columbus City Schools announced on Tuesday that it will postpone in-person learning for most students until January. The school district was set to allow in-person learning to begin as early as next week.
Meanwhile, the governor is urging people to continue to wear masks so cases can drop and students can get back in the classroom.
“It concerns me that so many kids are going to school remotely. Some of our poorest children don’t always thrive in those types of learning environments," Gov. DeWine said. "We owe it to these kids to fight back against this virus and reduce community spread. We owe it to their future. We owe it to the state's future. We can control this through what we do every single day."
When asked if he would intervene and issue an order requiring children to go remote should the spread of the virus get worse, DeWine said “not at the moment.”
DeWine says that because of of high community spread in the last two weeks, at least 16 districts have scaled back to hybrid or fully remote models." because of spread.