Starting today, the Department for Public Health will release a color coding map that will label each county’s incidence rate. If counties are in the red, then classes will not be allowed to resume.

The updated map for the following week of school will be released on Thursday evenings.

The statewide online dashboard schools will use to file daily reports of COVID-19 infections and quarantines still is being tweaked and will go live Sept. 28, said Dr. Connie White, deputy commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH).

Daily reports for the dashboard, which is intended to give school districts a real-time gauge of COVID-19 levels to assist in making local decisions about whether to reopen or continue in-person classes, must come from school staff or family members of the infected or quarantined person, White said. She already has heard of one case in which a student reported testing positive for COVID-19, but actually just didn’t want to go to school.

Lots of misinformation still is circulating about COVID-19 precautions in schools, she said, urging people to rely on the guidance in the Healthy at School flagship document.

“The flagship document is still the flagship document,” White said.

Commissioner of Education Jason E. Glass acknowledged that it will be problematic for schools to keep a 6-foot distance between students if all or most of them return for in-person classes.

Districts that do abide by the 6-foot distance guideline probably will need to offer hybrid classes, with some students learning remotely, Glass said. Later, Glass also noted that the Healthy at Schools guidance states that “If the physical space in the school does not allow for spacing students’ desks 6 feet apart, space desks as far away as possible. All desks should be arranged so students’ seats face the same directions.”

White emphasized that current guidance calls for social distancing and masks whenever possible, not one or the other. Nor should the caveat that allows less than 6 feet of distance be used as license to pack students into a classroom, she said.

Asked for recommendations on masking and distance for special education students, State Director of Special Education Gretta Hylton acknowledged those are difficult issues without blanket answers. Masks and distancing should not be avoided, but schools can consider allowing more space, adjusting staffing and positive reinforcement, she said.

Schools may email Hylton to discuss specific issues.