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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n1 of 6Johnson County High School teacher Michael Caneege teaches anatomy to his students online, Friday, Aug., 20, 2021, in Wrightsville, Ga. A few weeks into the new school year, growing numbers of U.S. districts have halted in-person learning or switched to hybrid models because of rapidly mounting coronavirus infections. With 40% of students in quarantine or isolation, the Johnson County district shifted last week to online instruction until Sept. 13. (AP Photo\/Stephen B. Morton)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 A few weeks into the new school year, growing numbers of U.S. districts have halted in-person learning or switched to hybrid models because of rapidly mounting coronavirus infections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 80 school districts or charter networks have closed or delayed in-person classes for at least one entire school in more than a dozen states. Others have sent home whole grade levels or asked half their students to stay home on hybrid schedules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The setbacks in mostly small, rural districts that were among the first to return dampen hopes for a sustained, widespread return to classrooms after two years of schooling disrupted by the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Georgia, where in-person classes are on hold in more than 20 districts that started the school year without mask requirements, some superintendents say the virus appeared to be spreading in schools before they sent students home.ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe just couldn\u2019t manage it with that much staff out, having to cover classes and the spread so rapid,\u201d said Eddie Morris, superintendent of the 1,050-student Johnson County district in Georgia. With 40% of students in quarantine or isolation, the district shifted last week to online instruction until Sept. 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 1 of every 100 school-aged children has tested positive for COVID-19 in the past two weeks in Georgia, according to state health data published Friday. Children age 5 to 17 are currently more likely to test positive for COVID-19 than adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around the country, some schools are starting the year later than planned. One district in Western Oregon pushed back the start of classes by a week after several employees were exposed to a positive teacher during training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the latest virus resurgence, hopes were high that schools nationwide could approach normalcy, moving beyond the stops and starts of remote learning that interfered with some parents\u2019 jobs and\u00a0impaired many students\u2019 academic performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most epidemiologists say they still believe that in-person school can be conducted safely, and that it\u2019s important considering the academic, social and emotional damage to students since the pandemic slammed into American schools in March 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In some cases, experts say, the reversals reflect a careless approach among districts that acted as if the pandemic were basically over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople should realize it\u2019s not over. It\u2019s a real problem, a real public health issue,\u201d said Dr. Tina Tan, a Northwestern University medical professor who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Infectious Diseases. \u201cYou have to do everything to prevent the spread of COVID in the school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tan and others say that means not just masks in schools but a push for vaccination, social distancing, ventilation and other precautions, providing multiple layers of protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dairean Dowling-Aguirre\u2019s 8-year-old son was less than two weeks into the school year when he and other third graders were sent home last week in Cottonwood, Arizona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The boy took classes online last year and was overjoyed when his parents said he could attend school in-person. But Dowling-Aguirre said she grew more anxious as infections climbed. Masks were optional in her son\u2019s class, and she said fewer than 20% of students were wearing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then she got a call from the principal saying her son had been exposed and had to stay home at least a week. Of particular concern was that her parents watch her son after school and her mother has multiple sclerosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a big worry about how it\u2019s going to go from here on in and how the school\u2019s going to handle it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Georgia, more than 68,000 students \u2014 over 4% of the state\u2019s 1.7 million in public schools \u2014 are affected by shutdowns so far. Many superintendents said they have already recorded more cases and quarantines than during all of last year, when most rural districts held in-person classes for most students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis year, you saw it very quickly,\u201d said Jim Thompson, superintendent in Screven County, Georgia. \u201cKids in the same classroom, you\u2019d have two or three in that classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thompson said the county\u2019s 25-bed hospital warned it was being overloaded by infections but what led him to send the district\u2019s 2,150 students home was concern that he wouldn\u2019t be able to staff classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to start the school day and find you don\u2019t have enough teachers,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The onslaught is driving changes in mask policies. Weeks before school started, only a handful of large districts covering fewer than a quarter of students across Georgia were requiring face coverings. Now, mask mandates cover more than half of students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Part of the mask policy change is driven by a shift in U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance. The CDC now advises that when everyone is wearing masks, exposed students 3 feet (1 meter) or more apart don\u2019t have to be sent home if they\u2019re not showing symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angela Williams, the superintendent in Burke County, Georgia, said she believes masks and that rule will allow her 4,200-student district near Augusta to avoid further disruptions after its current two-week shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat is going to cut down on the number of students we\u2019re having to quarantine,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Georgia told districts in early August that they could choose their own quarantine policy, and some loosened rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thompson, though, said Screven is likely to retighten its policy when it returns and require everyone who is exposed to quarantine for at least a week because of delta\u2019s high contagion level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe started with utilizing that latitude to its fullest,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cThat did not work for us locally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some districts are also looking to boost vaccination rates among staff and eligible students, but most Southern schools appear unlikely to mandate teacher vaccination or testing, unlike states on the West Coast and in the Northeast. Thompson said he sought to schedule a vaccine clinic in Screven County last week but got so few takers it was canceled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite disruptions, there\u2019s still strong resistance to masks. In the 28,000-student Columbia County in suburban Augusta, officials said they were putting plexiglass dividers back up in school cafeterias, as well as limiting field trips, school assemblies and classroom group work. But the district continues to only \u201cstrongly recommend\u201d masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even some districts that have sent all their students home don\u2019t expect to require masks when they return, facing opposition from parents and the school board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey wanted that that should be the parents\u2019 decision,\u201d Morris said of school board members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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