By May Anne Guerzon
EBC New Jersey Bureau

NEW JERSEY (Eagle News Service) — Governor Phil Murphy and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visited Bergenfield High School to discuss the importance of in-person learning.

While the pandemic led to a temporary statewide closure of schools in March 2020, public schools serving over 95% of New Jersey’s nearly 1.4 million students are now learning in-person either on a full-time or hybrid schedule.

Governor Murphy has also required all schools to provide full-time, in-person instruction for the 2021-2022 school year, with no remote learning option available.

More over, U.S. Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona said that Students belong in school and that their experience is more normal than it was months ago.

Currently in New Jersey, there are only eight local education agencies statewide without some form of in-person education. 99% of school districts offer in-person learning either on a full-time or hybrid schedule, while only 3% of New Jersey students are enrolled in all-remote local education agencies.

The Administration recently announced the launch of applications for the latest round of education stimulus funding from the American Rescue Plan to support school reopening.

New Jersey Covid-19 updates

For New Jersey’s latest COVID-19 numbers, The Department of Health has reported another 237 new positive cases today bringing the statewide total to 888,074.

Sadly, the state reported 20 new confirmed deaths pushing the total to 23,569 fatalities.

On the brighter side, the latest total of fully vaccinated individuals in New Jersey is now 4,259,893. To know the latest on New Jersey’s vaccination progress, visit covid19.nj.gov/vaccine.

(Eagle News Service)