NEW ORLEANS – NOLA  Public Schools students may have hope to return to campus this fall.

Several weeks ago, NOLA Public Schools began the year with distance learning. While online schooling will continue until at least after Labor Day, Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis says, data will be monitored over the next week to determine a number of COVID-19 factors.  “Including the number of new cases, our testing capacity, and indication of community spread,” Lewis explained. 

Dr. Lewis says COVID-19 data is trending in the right direction which could allow students to return back to campus this fall. However, data must be consistent before NOLA Public Schools confirm when campuses will reopen for in-person learning.

“We need to ensure that the metrics that we see are tracking but also that they’re holding steady,” Lewis said at Wednesday’s press conference. 

According to district officials, NOLA Public Schools will likely team up with local medical institutions to provide COVID-19 tests for faculty and students.

“We want to make sure that our teachers are confident. That we have the solution for them whenever they feel symptomatic,” NOLA Public Schools Chief Operations Officer, Tiffany Delcour said. “Also, having some kind of testing available to them, maybe when they’re not. It’s also important that if we do have any positive confirmed cases in our schools, that we’re able to do testing of those who may have been in close contact to really kind of stop those outbreaks from ever really happening.”

“The health and safety of our students, our teachers, our staff and their families will always be our top priority,” said Lewis. 

WGNO is also told, Dr. Lewis has the authority to close any school building and revert back to distance-learning at any point.