School districts around the state are preparing for what the next academic year will look like for students, teachers and staff. However, administrators say they're waiting for the state to give them guidelines before they can put those plans into action.
Gov. Mike DeWine says the Ohio Department of Education will soon announce the state's guidelines for how K-12 schools should operate under the COVID-19 pandemic.
DeWine says the protocols shouldn't be surprising to districts, alluding to social distancing and hand washing rules that have been implemented in other sectors.
"So they're going to have a lot of flexibility on how they do that, but the basic science that we've been talking about for the last four months has simply not changed," DeWine says.
School superintendents say they're planning for several scenarios such as required masks or temperature screenings, but they say they need to know the guidelines as soon as possible so they can budget for the necessary changes.
The governor acknowledged that there will be potential challenges for districts, specifically mentioning the issue of transportation. He says buses can become a particular problem especially for districts that bus a large number of students.
