EDUCATION SECRETARIAT IN SÃO PAULO

Education Secretary determines 1/3 of mandatory face-to-face classes

Students must attend at least 1/3 of classes in person; other activities can be mediated by technology or not

Monday, Jan. 18, 2021 - 1:24 pm | Portal do Governo

State Secretary for Education Rossieli Soares approved the decision of the State Education Council on the return of face-to-face classes in the State of São Paulo. The guidelines, published in this Saturday's edition (16) of the Official Gazette, apply to state and private schools. The guidelines are also valid for municipal schools, if there is no municipal education council.
”We want schools open with all the protocol to avoid contamination. We know that in schools the risk of contamination is low, a fact proven when our monitoring points to no transmission within the school environment since the optional return of activities last September”, highlights Secretary Rossieli Soares.
In the text, the Council decides on the organization of school calendars and the attendance of students. The mandatory minimum annual workload will be 800 hours for elementary and high school, with a minimum of 1/3 of these hours performed in person. The remaining hours can be accomplished remotely, mediated or not by technology. Students included in risk groups will be able, by means of a medical certificate, to carry out their teaching / learning process exclusively by remote means.
In person or remotely, the minimum frequency of students in class must be at least 75%.

Regionalized return

The calendar for the return to school in the state network begins on February 1 and the return will occur in a regionalized manner, according to the Regional Health Departments, obeying the safety criteria established by the Coronavirus Contingency Center.
In the first two weeks, schools will receive up to 35% of their student capacity per day. After this period, if an area is in the red or orange phases of the São Paulo Plan, basic education schools, which serve students from kindergarten through high school, will be able to receive up to 35% of enrolled students daily. In the yellow phase, they are authorized to serve up to 70% of students; and in the green phase, up to 100%. Health protocols must be complied with at all stages.
Higher education institutions will be able to operate in the yellow phase with up to 35% of enrollments, and in the green phase, with up to 70%. In the red and orange stages, they are not allowed to work. Higher education courses specific to the medical field have face-to-face return authorized in all phases of the Plan.
For the resumption, Seduc-SP acquired and distributed a series of inputs intended for both students and servers, such as 12 million fabric masks, more than 440 thousand face shields (acrylic face shield), 10,740 laser thermometers, 10 a thousand totems of gel alcohol, 221 thousand liters of liquid soap, 78 million disposable cups, 112 thousand liters of gel alcohol, 100 million rolls of paper towels and 1.8 million rolls of toilet paper.

Available at: https://www.saopaulo.sp.gov.br/ultimas-noticias/educacao/secretario-da-educacao-determina-1-3-de-aulas-presenciais-obrigatorias/. Accessed on January 18, 2021.