Kansas governor to delay start of schools until after Labor Day

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) announced Wednesday that schools in the state will not open until after Labor Day.

Kelly made the announcement hours after the state’s Board of Education approved a document that offers safety guidelines for opening schools, according to a local affiliate FOX 4.

“The additional three weeks will provide schools time to get masks, thermometers, hand sanitizer and other necessary COVID-19 mitigation supplies,” Kelly said in a news conference at the state Capitol, according to another local affiliate, KMBC.

“I can’t in good conscience open schools when Kansas has numerous hot spots, where cases are at an all-time high and continuing to rapidly rise. We can’t risk the lives of our teachers, administrators, custodians, our students and their parents,” she said.

Kelly plans to issue an executive order Monday, which will provide more details on the move. 

In the last two weeks, the state’s case numbers of COVID-19 have grown by 40 percent, with 6,003 new cases confirmed, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

States across the country are struggling with how to resume school in the fall given rising case numbers in states around the country, 

President Trump has pressed for schools to reopen, which would make it easier for the parents of students to go to work.

“Every action I have taken throughout this pandemic has been done with three things in mind,” Kelly said, according to KMBC. “Keeping Kansans healthy, keeping our state, open for business, and getting our kids back to school.

“Public health experts have been clear that large gatherings of people in indoor spaces is the quickest way for this virus to spread by opening schools, even with mitigation efforts in place, we are all assuring that cases will continue to rise. Every parent listening knows what it’s like when they drop their kids off for the first time in kindergarten kids who bring in drugs, who parents spend a year, fighting off their kid.”