Oregon Follows CDC Advice, Moves to 3 Ft. School Distance
They may be around 48th in the U.S. in student return numbers to class, but they've chosen to adopt the latest CDC 'guidance.'
Several sources, including OregonLive.com, reported Monday Oregon Education officials have adopted the new CDC 3 foot social distancing marker.
The Oregon Health Authority and Oregon Department of Education reported they will drop from the previous 6 feet to 3 feet for students who are back in class. There will still need to be six feet students moving around, such as hallways to class, but the new in person three foot rule will reportedly allow four times as many students to be in classrooms, said Oregon officials.
However, back on March 1st, less than four weeks ago, we reported that Oregon ranked 48th out of 50 states in terms of the number of students who have returned to any form of in person education; hybrid or otherwise.
WA state ranked 47th with 19.2 percent, Oregon 12.2 percent, followed by CA and Maryland was dead last.
Since then those numbers have risen. WA is now up to 28.2 percent of students, Oregon is up to 17.1 and CA now last at 14.1. While Oregon has risen, they've been leapfrogged by Maryland, who is now at 17.5 percent.
That leaves Oregon in 49th place, just ahead of California. Whether or not there's a lot of students in class in Oregon, at least they will have a few more classmates to join them in hybrid or other in person education. WA state has moved up one slot, from 47th to 46th, just ahead of New Mexico. Many are now left wondering when WA state will follow suit.
Here's a few scenes of how education has been affected overseas by COVID.
In Pictures: What Education Looks Like Around the World During a Pandemic