Before recessing for the winter holidays, the Edmonds School District Wednesday updated families on plans to return more students to in-person learning in 2021.

In a statement signed by Superintendent Gustavo Balderas, the district announced plans to bring more special education programs back into school buildings in January. Returning programs fall under Stage 1 the district’s re-entry plan and include Developmental Kindergarten, Intensive Support, Project Search, some VOICE students and all Developmental Kindergarten programs like language, cognition, social/emotional, speech, and/or motor skills.

Plans to return to in-person learning will be based on information provided by the Snohomish Health District.

The full statement can be read below:

Dear Edmonds School District families,

As we approach the much needed and well deserved two week Winter Break, we want to provide you an update on our plans to bring more of our students back to in-person learning.

We are moving forward with bringing more Special Education programs back into our buildings in January. These programs are part of Stage One of the Edmonds Schools Stages of Re-entry plan.

While the number of COVID-19 cases remain high, the Snohomish Health District has given us guidance to continue moving forward with bringing more of our students back for face-to-face instruction.

Timeline

• Monday, Jan. 4, 2021 – As planned and previously communicated, we plan to bring our Developmental Kindergarten classes back into our school buildings. Our Developmental Kindergarten programs serve students with disabilities including deficits in language, cognition, social/emotional, speech, and/or motor skills.
• Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021 – We plan to bring in Intensive Support programs housed at Brier Elementary School and at Maplewood K-8.  We also plan to bring back the Intensive Support program at Scriber Lake High School, the Project Search program, and some VOICE students.
• February 2021- While we are still working with health officials, our hope is to get more students back into our school buildings in February and we will continue to update you with more information as we move forward.

Next Steps for re-entry plans 

With vaccines on the way and health officials guiding all our decisions, we are hopeful we will be able to get more of our kids back into our school buildings in 2021. We know this has been a hard year for everyone. We will not stop working to get our students back into our schools and will continue to keep the health of our students, staff, families and community at the forefront of all our decisions.

Snohomish Health District video

We continue to work with Snohomish Health District on all decisions for in-person learning. I encourage you to watch this video they put together that answers a lot of questions you may have. It’s a 10 minute video, but I do believe it is worth the time.

Thank you

We appreciate your patience and understanding. Again, we are doing all we can to make the best decisions with the information we have. As we get close to ending 2020, we all hope for a brighter 2021.

Sincerely,
Dr. Gustavo Balderas
Superintendent