Superintendent of Public Instruction

As school districts across the state scramble to transition their classrooms safely from the online world back to the real world, they may benefit from the advice of the dozens of Washington districts that welcomed students back into their halls this past fall.

“There really is relatively small additional risk if you have good safety and health protocols," the governor said Wednesday. "We see it as our task to make sure that when our students go back, when our educators go back that we follow these sound practices of health and safety protocols to keep people safe. When we do that, we now have both that scientific data I’ve just shown you and experience to give us high confidence.”

The coronavirus pandemic and a controversial sex education mandate are casting a shadow over the race for Washington state education chief in the November election.

Maia Espinoza, who is challenging incumbent Chris Reykdal in the November election to become the state superintendent of public instruction, made the clarification Wednesday after repeated inquiries from The Associated Press.

Gov. Jay Inslee said Wednesday that schools in the majority of Washington’s counties should strongly consider online-only learning for students this fall due to COVID-19 and canceling or postponing sports and all other in-person extracurricular activities. In Idaho, Gov. Brad Little is urging schools to reopen where it's deemed safe.

In recent days, health officers in Snohomish and Thurston counties have recommended against reopening school buildings this fall. And some districts, including the Olympia district, have already announced they will stick with remote learning for now.

Gov. Jay Inslee announced Monday that all Washington K-12 schools will remain closed for the remainder of this school year and will shift to a distance learning model.