WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - Officials in Worcester are looking to delay the start of full-time, in-person learning for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
The mayor’s office confirmed Friday that Worcester Public Schools submitted a waiver request to the state seeking the return of students in kindergarten through eighth grade on May 3.
“We’re asking for planning time and also, we have some work to do around some of the spacing in some of our elementary schools because there is actually just insufficient spacing for the children to come back,” School Committee Chair member Tracy O’Connell Novick said.
Liz Joyal said the district is hurting the kids by keeping them home.
“We’re not talking about a temper tantrum here or there or a refusal to log on or a tear here and there,” she said. “There are children and teens who are suffering. From mental issues, anxiety in children has gone through the roof, depression and just kids not caring about their education. This is real suffering.”
O’Connell Novick said she blames the Baker administration for mismanagement. She said back to school decrees come with little or no warning.
“Schools continue to be something that the administration makes a lot of noise about but doesn’t actually get a great deal of assistance to,” she said.
Worcester students have been fully remote since the fall when school began. The district had a plan in place to move to a hybrid model beginning Monday. But now they’re concerned classrooms in 13 elementary schools may not be able to handle all the boys and girls sitting three feet apart.
“They are using the excuse that they need more time to get ready for the five-day back situation but we wouldn’t even need to have this conversation if they had gone back when they could have back in October,” Joyal said.
A Department of Education official said Worcester’s waiver request is likely to be accepted as are other communities who were previously fully remote and expecting to go to a hybrid style of learning before transitioning to fully in person.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced earlier this month that all public elementary schools in the state will be required to open for full-time, in-person learning by April 5.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)