Charleston, W.Va. –The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) has posted the September 19, 2020, School Alert System Map update. This map, guided by information from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) and vetted by the COVID-19 Data Review Panel, determines which counties will hold in-person and blended instruction, and it will direct the level of extracurricular activities permitted.
The weekly updates are posted at https://wvde.us/reentrymetrics. County plans should be reviewed for additional requirements.
Red (Substantial Community Transmission): Counties must move to remote learning. No extracurricular competitions or practices are permitted. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue.
Red counties include:
| Fayette | Kanawha | Mingo | Putnam |
Orange (Heightened Community Transmission): Remote learning required. Extracurricular activities are limited to conditioning only and sport-specific practicing is not permitted. Marching band is limited to outdoors only. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue.
Orange counties include:
| Boone | Monongalia |
Gold (Elevated Community Transmission): In-person instruction permitted with increased mitigations including face coverings for children grades 3 and above at all times. Extracurricular activities are permitted in-county (with schools from the same county) and with other gold counties.
Gold counties include:
| Logan | Ohio | Wyoming |
Yellow (Increased Community Transmission): Counties will continue with in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings at all times for grades 6 and above.
Yellow counties include:
| Barbour | Berkeley | Calhoun | Clay |
| Doddridge | Grant | Hampshire | Hancock |
| Harrison | Jefferson | Jackson | Lincoln |
| Marion | Marshall | Mason | Mercer |
| Mineral | Monroe | Morgan | Nicholas |
| Pendleton | Raleigh | Roane | Summers |
| Tucker | Wayne |
Green (Minimal Community Transmission): Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings in grades 3 and above when students are outside of core groups and in congregant settings and on school buses.
Green counties include:
| Braxton | Brooke | Cabell | Greenbrier |
| Gilmer | Hardy | Lewis | McDowell |
| Pleasants | Pocahontas | Preston | Randolph |
| Ritchie | Taylor | Tyler | Upshur |
| Webster | Wetzel | Wirt | Wood |
The COVID-19 Data Review Panel reviewed and verified the data used to inform the WVDE School Alert System Map to ensure both accuracy and reliability. The panel considered data captured at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, September 17, 2020. As a result, there may be differences between the WVDE map and the DHHR County Alert Map.
The county color announced each Saturday at 5 p.m. will be in effect until the following Saturday at the same time with the exception of a county turning red. That change would be made immediately to the WVDE map because all in-person instruction and extracurricular and athletic activities would be suspended.
All schools, both public and private, are expected to adhere to the WVDE School Alert System map to guide in-person instruction and extracurricular activities.
For information about the data that guides the color-coded map or the Data Review Panel, please contact the DHHR at DHHRCommunications@wv.gov.
For additional details, contact WVDE Director of Communications Christy Day at Christy.Day@k12.wv.us, 304-558-2699 (office) or 681-319-5206 (cell).
For general information about COVID-19, please visit www.coronavirus.wv.gov or https://wvde.us/COVID19.
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