Randolph County News

Lt. Gov. Dan Forest said that the state should reopen schools using a regional approach and that the governor needs to follow the guidelines he claims were used to develop plans to return to school. 

Forest released a statement on July 28 about the reopening policies, largely targeting Gov. Roy Cooper and state education officials. 

The Department of Health and Human Services "commented that they are using White House guidelines to reopen schools, and we haven't hit the benchmarks from those guidelines yet," Forest said in his statement. "However, the guidance they are using seems to be out of date." 

The Republican said that some of the federal guidelines for reopening schools include a positive test rate of less than 10%.

Forest, who is running as the Republican candidate for governor against Cooper, a Democrat, said that based North Carolina's positive tests have hovered around 9% during the last 30 days, with a few times reaching 10%. 

"Some counties are higher, some are much lower, and this is why a regional approach to reopening schools must take place rather than a one-size-fits-all model," he said in the statement. 

North Carolina schools are currently set to reopen later in August with a mix of hybrid and in-classroom instruction, albeit with reduced class sizes and social distancing requirements along with other health measures. The mid-July decision to reopen schools in this format has been met with criticism by some, who want students to return to in-classroom instruction with limited or no restrictions. 

"If [the Department of Health and Human Services] and the Cooper administration are going to update their guidelines while claiming they are using federal guidelines, then they need to actually use the federal guidelines when they are updated," Forest said in the statement.