Though neighboring states, Georgia and Alabama, both have canceled school for the rest of the year, Tennessee students still aren’t sure if they’ll go back to school this spring.
On March 24, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called for the state’s schools to remain closed until at least April 24, but he has yet to extend that deadline, even after he issued a stay-at-home order through April 14 for the entire state on Thursday.
The latest projections indicate the COVID-19 surge will hit Tennessee between April 19-21, and at a news conference on Thursday Lee acknowledged that he was still deciding when or if schools should reopen this year.
“I’ve said before that we have a date for the 24th for tools to be open, we are going to watch closely and make decisions based on what we see in this surge and what we think this situation is going to be going forward,” Lee said in response to a question from a reporter. “We are going to be making a decision there pretty soon.”
Most states have already closed schools for an extended period of time due to the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the nation. With most academic years ending in mid-May to early June, at least a dozen states across the country as of Friday have decided to close schools for the remainder of the year – including Georgia and Alabama.