Superintendent Arntzen Announces Reopening Montana Schools Guidance

• July 02 2020

Superintendent Arntzen Announces Reopening Montana Schools Guidance 

July 2, 2020

HELENA— Superintendent Arntzen announced Montana’s supportive guidance for reopening schools today. The Reopening Montana Schools Guidance is the result of recommendations from two diverse task forces that met last month to draft recommendations to the Office of Public Instruction in consultation with the Montana School Safety Advisory Committee.

“Thank you to the Reopening Montana Schools task forces for your dedicated service to ensuring that our schools can safely open this fall,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen said Thursday. “Students, parents, and educators went above and beyond to continue education during the COVID-19 outbreak this spring. We know that this fall school year will be unique. This collaborative guidance will elevate learning to support our Montana students however and wherever they learn.”

The task forces included students, parents, educators, health officials, education associations, OPI specialists, and other dedicated community members. The Reopening Montana Schools Guidance provides non-regulatory resources for Montana schools to use in conjunction with their own plans for the new school year and includes the areas of:

• ·         Safe physical environments.
• ·         Academic programming.
• ·         Social-emotional support.
• ·         Flexibilities within state rules and statute.
• ·         School nutrition.
• ·         Special education.
• ·         A variety of other issues related to education.

Additional information on reopening Montana schools and the OPI’s COVID-19 responses can be found on the OPI website.

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CONTACT:   Dylan Klapmeier

                       Director of Communications, Montana Office of Public Instruction

                       dylan.klapmeier@mt.gov

                       406-444-3559