Kansas City, Kansas school district warns closures likely due to COVID-19
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools District is putting parents on notice that schools may shutter temporarily in the near future.
The district put a statement on Twitter Thursday encouraging those with students enrolled in district schools to prepare for COVID-19 related closures.
“This includes childcare options, if needed,” the district said in the tweet.
As the district is already short staffed, school buses are expected to be running between 15 and 20 minutes behind schedule on Friday. Students are asked to still be at the bus stops on time, the district said.
The news comes as other area schools have struggled to keep doors open. Districts have been reporting a record number of COVID-19 cases, driven by the highly contagious omicron variant, among students and staff, exacerbating staffing shortages.
Earlier this week, the Bonner Springs Edwardsville school district in Wyandotte County canceled classes on Thursday and Friday, saying a quarter of students were out sick.
Johnson County’s De Soto district announced that classes would be canceled for Friday because an estimated 20% of classroom teachers were not available to work. And 10% of students had been absent over the past week.
“This is having a negative impact on our daily instruction for students,” officials wrote in a letter to families. “This challenge does not take into account absences among our school support staff.”
In an effort to keep schools open, the Kansas State Board of Education this week temporarily lowered the requirements for substitute teaching licenses so that college credit is no longer necessary. Missouri had already taken similar measures.
Last year, facing such outbreaks and mass quarantines, school districts pivoted to online-only classes while buildings were temporarily closed. But this year, it’s much more complicated because of new state restrictions on remote learning in both Kansas and Missouri. Districts can only use a limited number of hours for remote learning.
That has left several districts to completely close schools and use days built into the calendar, for inclement weather and other events, rather than pivoting to virtual learning.
The Star’s Sarah Ritter contributed to this report.
