Indian Prairie School District 204, the state's fourth largest, announced its reopening plan in a letter to the district community Monday evening.
The district, which includes the west suburban communities of Aurora, Bolingbrook, Plainfield and Naperville, begins fall classes on Aug. 20
As outlined in the letter from Superintendent Adrian Talley, the plan includes the following options:
A/B/C Schedule: Based on a student's last name, they will have an assigned schedule of two in-person instruction days and two remote instruction days each week. The assigned schedules will be on Tuesday/Thursday and Wednesday/Friday. Mondays will combine whole class remote instruction, individual student support and teacher prep time. Students with special needs may attend school four days a week. Public health guidelines, including requiring face coverings, will be followed.
Online Academy: All instruction will be delivered online. This will be open to all students. Parents must register their child for a full semester by August 1, 2020. Due to staffing limits, parents cannot select or drop this option after August 1, 2020.
Attendance will be taken and work will be graded to determine a student's final grade, according to the letter. Parents will be able to select their option beginning the week of July 20.
The state of Illinois has already unveiled its guidelines for the return to school in the fall, which could allow students back in classrooms.
Those guidelines, which were released as part of Phase Four of the “Restore Illinois” program amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, specify that each district will be required to come up with their own rules for the return to class.
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Under the guidelines, students will be limited to gatherings of fewer than 50 individuals, and all students age 5 or older will be required to wear facial coverings. Extra sanitation procedures will be put in place, and if the state sees a surge in new coronavirus cases, in-person learning may be suspended and replaced with virtual learning, as it was earlier this year.
President Donald Trump said he remains determined to reopen America’s schools, threatening on Wednesday to hold back federal money if school districts don't bring their students back in the fall. He complained that his own public health officials’ safety guidelines are impractical and too expensive.
