Dozens of school districts have scrapped plans to return to in-person learning.
August isn’t even over yet, and some school districts are already scrapping plans to bring kids back into classrooms as the Delta variant continues to fuel outbreaks across the U.S. Here’s how schools are adjusting — and a look at what may come next if the surge continues:
What’s happening? More than 80 school districts or charter networks across 12 states have either closed or delayed in-person classes, per the AP. Others have shifted back to a hybrid model in which students come to school only part of the week.
Where are schools closing? So far, districts in small, rural areas are the ones that have had to switch up their reopening plans. In Georgia, 20 districts (which had no masking requirements) paused in-person classes, and a district in Western Oregon pushed back the start of school by a week because of an outbreak among staff.
Will more schools follow? At the Center on Reinventing Public Education, which tracks how 100 large school districts across the country are navigating the pandemic, Director Robin Lake said she’s not optimistic about a full reopening.
“I fear the combination of lax safety measures and rapid pace at which Delta spreads will cause a fair amount of chaos in the coming weeks,” Lake told us. “Districts are just not as prepared as they should be for this variant.”
What does that mean for children? Research shows that children learn much less from remote lessons than they do in person — and some have fallen months behind after more than a year of virus-related disruptions. “They’re really seeing that kids have slipped in their learning,” Lake said.
