School closings to deal with the novel strain of coronavirus will eventually happen, Gov. Phil Murphy said during a news conference Friday.In what have become daily updates from the governor, he announced there are 21 more confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the state total to 21.
"It's a when, not an if," Murphy said, adding that, eventually, "every district will be closed for an extended period of time.
Local schools have had teachers preparing lesson plans for as long as 30 days, in anticipation of such a move.
Atlantic City schools closed Friday and Monday, having teachers come in for this purpose.
As of Friday morning, a total of 354 school districts made the decision to close, Department of Education Commissioner Lamont Reppolet said.
Of those, 215 have done so for precautionary development, like Atlantic City.
Another 44 are doing precautionary cleaning, 90 made the decision based on concern about potential exposure, four due to confirmed exposure and one due to a presumptive or confirmed positive within the district, he said.
The poorest students are a concern should schools close, the governor said. That includes making sure a plan is in place for those who get free meals.Plans also are being worked on for those students who do not have devices necessary to do remote learning.A survey by the Department of Education found that out of 1.4 million students 259,000 don't have devices.
In Atlantic City, the plan is to give students chromebooks with the lesson plans on them.Comcast has also offered two months of free internet to eligible households. That can be filled out at internetessentials.com.
