GOLDEN, Colo. — Jeffco Public Schools, the second-largest district in Colorado, will return to in-person learning for middle and high school students on Jan. 25, the district announced Friday, outlining a hybrid learning model.
Interim Superintendent Kristopher Schuh made the decision, citing county COVID-19 levels, a "strong desire of both students and families to return to in-person learning," and a larger pool of substitute teachers, who can help the district continue classes amid quarantines and other contact tracing efforts.
Remote learning will remain an option for any students who choose that.
Secondary schools will give families more information about specific schedules in the hybrid model over the next week. Jeffco did not say how the hybrid model would be carried out, though many districts that have done a hybrid model have placed students into A-B groups and alternated in-person days.
Jeffco moved all students in grades 6-12 to fully-remote learning in November, as COVID-19 cases surged across Colorado. Elementary students have had in-person classes but will go in-person five days a week beginning Tuesday.
“Simply put, we’ve now reached the point at which the benefits of in-person learning are outweighed by the disruption caused by abrupt transitions to quarantines and by the risk of COVID-19 exposures within our buildings,” Schuh wrote in a letter to the school community in November.
Denver Public Schools, Colorado's largest district, and the Douglas County School District, the state's third-largest, are still doing remote learning for secondary students.