ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Maryland State Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution calling for school districts in the state to offer full-time, in-person learning during the 2021-22 school year.
According to the resolution, it states that students should be able to attend 180 days out of the school year with a teacher in the classroom.
The resolution additionally requires a minimum of 1,080 school hours during a 10-month period with the teacher in the classroom. Any deviation would require state board approval, officials said.
Governor Larry Hogan today issued the following statement welcoming the Maryland State Board of Education’s unanimous vote requiring Maryland school systems to offer full in-person learning for the 2021-22 school year.
“The science supports getting our children back into school for in-person learning, and every student in Maryland should have that opportunity right now," Hogan said in a release to WUSA9. "Families and students deserve certainty that all school systems will return to full in-person learning. To address the academic and emotional toll of prolonged online instruction, today’s vote is an important step toward getting things back to normal.”
To read the full resolution from the Maryland State Board of Education, view below:
The governor stated that Maryland has committed more than $1.2 billion to help restore in-person learning for students in the state.
Back in January, Hogan made his desire to reopen all state schools as soon as possible crystal clear in a Jan. 21 press conference regarding the pandemic's effect on education.
Right off the bat, he definitively stated that there was "no public health reason" to continue keeping students out of schools.
"I’m here today to talk about the terrible learning loss caused by the disruption of the pandemic and why it’s so critical we work to get all students back to classrooms," Hogan said. "This really isn't controversial. The science is clear."
The governor called on all county school systems to return to hybrid in-person instruction no later than March 1 -- as he noted that all school systems in Maryland have been authorized to reopen for in-person instruction since August 2020.