School Canceled In MA For Rest Of Year Due To Coronavirus

BOSTON, MA — Public and private schools across Massachusetts will stay closed for the remainder of this school year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Charlie Baker announced Tuesday. Schools were supposed to reopen after May 4, but Baker faced pressure to keep them closed for the safety of teachers, students, and staff.

Massachusetts now joins 27 other states — including New Hampshire and Vermont — that have closed school buildings until next fall. Schools across the state have been closed since mid-March, with some closed before that due to local coronavirus outbreaks.

Students will continue remote learning for the rest of the school year, Baker said. He cautioned that this is not an early summer break release.

"It's the right thing to do considering the facts on the ground," Baker said. "At this point in time there is no authoritative guidance or advisory on how to operate schools safely."

Officials did not release details on Tuesday about how or when schools might eventually reopen. Commissioner of Education Jeffrey Riley said the state is looking to how school systems across the world have reopened after coronavirus. Some steps the state might take include temperature checks at school and keeping desks 6 feet apart.

Baker also extended the cancellation of non-emergency daycare services at least through the end of June. Emergency daycare for essential workers is still available. Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said the state is also deferring student loan payments for about 12,000 residents who borrowed no-interest loans from the Office of Student Financial Assistance. Those payments won't be due against until August.

On Tuesday, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which represents over 100,000 educators, criticized Baker for being slow to close schools at the beginning of the outbreak — and for waiting for so long to decide on the rest of the school year.

Baker was asked directly on Tuesday about why it took so long to make the call to cancel school for the rest of the year. He said he was trying to balance the desires of school leaders, which was to reopen schools if possible.

"There just isn't enough guidance or information about how to do it safely," he said.

Baker set the May 4 target date for reopening on March 25. But the coronavirus surge is just now beginning, officials believe. Close to 40,000 people in the state had tested positive as of Monday evening, the third-most of any state behind New York and New Jersey. More than 1,800 people have died of coronavirus so far.

Baker did note that Massachusetts has seen fewer positive cases in recent days — but that doesn't mean there's a trend.

"It's too soon to draw conclusions from the data," he said.

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