'Start School Year Online Only': Cuyahoga County Board Of Health
CLEVELAND — The Cuyahoga County Board of Health has recommended all schools begin the year with remote learning.
The board also recommended stopping any extracurricular activities, including sports, band, theater and choir. Health officials said those activities could lead to transmission of the virus.
"We understand the concerns about these recommendations, particularly related to the impact they may have on under-resourced school districts that serve low-income communities of color. However, we are equally concerned about the risk of COVID-19 transmission in these same school districts, as our current data indicate that African-Americans are three times more likely to be positive for COVID-19," the board said in its recommendation.
COVID-19 transmission is "significant" throughout Cuyahoga County, the board said. The Ohio COVID-19 public alert health system classified Cuyahoga as "red" for its "very high" rate of COVID-19 spread.
"Weighing all of these challenges, we believe this approach will allow both school administrators and public health officials to continue to assess the risk level for community disease transmission on a weekly basis and assist in creating the safest possible environments for students, staff and their families," the board said.
The full recommendation from the board has been posted online.
The Cleveland Heights-University Heights Schools and Cleveland Metropolitan Schools have already announced intentions to start the school year with remote-only education.
This article originally appeared on the Cleveland Patch
