Decorah Schools did not meet the state standards for applying to move all classes on-line

Over the past weekend, more than 15 percent of the tests done in Winneshiek County for COVID-19 produced positive results.  That meant that the Decorah School District met the state standard for applying for permission to apply to the Iowa Department of Education to have remote online learning for the entire school district for up to 14 days—if the testing results were the only standard.  But the state also requires school districts to have at least 10 percent of their students absent from in-person learning in order to apply for a state waiver.

Decorah School District officials say just slightly over 1 percent of students needed to isolate or quarantine during the first days of classes.  Those impacted were isolating or quarantining due to an event that occurred outside of school.  Once the isolation or quarantine period is over, they can return to school.

Because of the low absenteeism percentage the Decorah Community School District would not have been able to apply for a waiver.  In any case, the latest testing percentage has declined to 13 percent, although weekend testing is often lower than weekday testing and thus can be more quickly affected by a few test results.

Only the Iowa Department of Education and the Iowa Department of Public Health can make the determination whether a school district can switch to 100 percent online learning.