Today Governor Mills announced that Maine’s State of Civil Emergency will end on June 30, 2021. The State’s last remaining face covering requirement, which only applies to indoor preK-12 schools and childcare settings, will also end on June 30.

Maine Center Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will continue to strongly recommend, but not require, that unvaccinated people – including those under 12 years of age who are not yet eligible for a COVID vaccine – wear face coverings indoors.

The required health and safety measures within the Framework for Schools will become recommendations on July 1, 2021. The guidance continues to reflect best practice for keeping students and staff safe, and while the emergency will be over, the presence of COVID-19 remains. School administrative units and childcare settings may choose to adopt their own mask or other health and safety requirements, as some businesses have done.

The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Responding to a Positive Case in Schools remains in effect, and therefore all eligible staff and students are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccinated people who are deemed a close contact to a positive case and who are asymptomatic are not required to quarantine.

Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) continues to encourage schools to participate in its free pooled testing program. Those individuals who participate in pooled testing are also exempt from quarantining as a close contact, thereby reducing education disruptions and exclusion from extracurricular activities.

As always, Maine DOE team will remain available to support with updated information and resources as these become available.

As the school year comes to a close, for many it is a time to reflect and appreciate all of the time and effort that has gone into the current and previous school years.

The staff at Portland Adult Education (PAE) were delighted recently to see, first-hand, the results of their hard work and determination when they realized that 33 of their former students had graduated from college this year, during a year like no other.

PAE Academic Advisor, Anja Hanson recently wrote in the PAE staff announcements:

We are in an exhausting phase of this pandemic year, but here is news to energize us. 33 PAE alumni have graduated from college in the past week! I could hardly believe it when I looked through the commencement programs for USM [University of Southern Maine] and SMCC [Southern Maine Community College], but nothing should surprise me about our incredible students.

Five PAE alumni graduated from University of Southern Maine on May 8, 2021, and one additional alumna was named a member of the Golden Key Honor Society for juniors and seniors. It is rare for PAE to have even one or two graduates from USM in a year, so this is wonderful news. Even more remarkably, three of the five alumni graduated cum laude and two of the five graduates received special awards from their degree programs.

When I turned my attention to SMCC, I was even more thrilled. 28 former students graduated from SMCC and two students earned certificates on May 16, 2021. Four of these students were also members of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.

As schools and other academic programs across Maine head into summer, it is helpful to look back at all we have accomplished this year and all that our students have achieved! Congratulations to the staff, students, alumni, and recent graduates at PAE on this remarkable news.

Information for this article was provided by Portland Adult Education Program as part of the Maine Schools Sharing Success Campaign. To submit a story or an idea, email it to Rachel at rachel.paling@maine.gov.

Administration also encourages schools to participate in Maine’s free pooled testing program 

Augusta – The Mills Administration today informed Maine School Administrative Units (SAUs) that it expects all schools to offer full-time, in-person learning this fall. 

In its priority notice, which provides planning guidance to schools for educational programming this summer and next fall, the Maine Department of Education announced that remaining physical distancing requirements will be relaxed next school year and that schools should offer full-time, in-person learning in the fall as a result.  

The Department Of Education also strongly encourages schools to participate in Maine’s free pooled testing program. Offered to all schools, the testing option will protect those students for whom a COVID-19 vaccine has not yet been authorized and will minimize education disruption and exclusion from extracurricular activities for a student or staff member who is quarantined after being identified as a close contact.  

“Classroom instruction is critical for the social and mental development of our kids,” said Governor Janet Mills. “School administrators and teachers have worked hard all year to protect their students from the virus, provide them with a good education, and meet many of their other needs. With the progress we’ve made in vaccinating Maine people, we want to make sure that there are no barriers to getting our kids back into the classroom full-time.” 

“Schools have worked tirelessly all year to safely provide for the academic, nutritional and social emotional needs of their students, and will welcome these next steps toward a return to business as usual,” said Pender Makin, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Education. “While we still have students who will return to school this summer or in the fall who are not yet eligible for vaccination, the lessons learned from this school year, along with additional safety options such as pooled testing, will ensure a healthy and joyful return to the classrooms.”  

“Getting all students back in classrooms full time this fall will be possible with vaccination progress and tools like pooled COVID-19 testing,” said Jeanne Lambrew, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. “Safety protocols will continue to be needed, though, to protect students, school staff, and teachers from COVID-19 which continues to pose a public health threat.” 

Additionally, the Administration updated Maine’s PK-12 and Adult Education Public Health Guidance for Summer 2021 school programs to eliminate the remaining distancing requirements for schools and programs that participate in the pooled testing program. Other health and safety protocols remain in effect for summer programming. 

The Maine Department of Education also announced that it will provide grant funding to support summer implementation of the pooled testing program. As of June 9, 33 organizations — including 88 schools and camps encompassing an estimated 27,795 students, 2,802 teachers, and 2,012 staff — are participating in pooled testing. 

Since the fall of 2020, nearly all Maine preK-12 schools have been providing in-person instruction to students and have been successful at limiting COVID-19 transmission, keeping new case rates in schools significantly below that of the statewide average.  

With Maine’s significant progress in vaccinating its population and reducing the spread of COVID-19, the Administration has been gradually relaxing physical distancing requirements in schools that participate in the pooled testing program, beginning last month with the three first distance requirement in classroom space.

Vaccination continues to be the best strategy to reduce the transmission and impact of the COVID-19 virus. On May 10, youth ages 12 to 15 were authorized to receive the Pfizer vaccine. As of June 8, 39 percent of Maine youth in this age group had received a first dose and 16 percent had received final doses. 

Schools have also supported vaccination efforts by hosting vaccination clinics either onsite or in partnership with other clinics and by providing information to families about why, how, and where to receive a vaccine. 

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