Back to school preparations have never come so early — or been so high stakes.
While most public school districts are still working if and how they'll be reopening this fall, a few plans have trickled out over the past week. Some will continue to offer completely virtual options come September, but a hybrid model of online and small in-person classes "is shaping up to be the most likely option," Education Week reports.
Fairfax County Public Schools in northern Virginia, one of the biggest districts in the U.S., will offer a choice between fully virtual classes and the mixed model, The Washington Post reports. Families of the district's 189,000 students will be allowed to choose between four days a week of online schooling, or two days of in-person classes paired with two days of "independent study and work." In-person students may get to come in more often if less people choose the hybrid model, the district says, but the president of the 4,000-member Fairfax Education Association declared the schools shouldn't reopen at all "until a vaccine or approved treatment is widely available."
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Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) rolled out statewide guidelines for the fall on Thursday, mandating masks, eating lunch in classrooms, and no less than three feet of distance between desks. The guidelines don't give a date for when those reopenings will happen, and individual districts can still decide to offer totally online or hybrid programs. And while New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has pledged to have as many students as possible back in classrooms when September rolls around, the hybrid option is still on the table for them as well.
