Note: Given the holiday break our next weekly update will be January 4th/5th, and reflect the virtual/in-person status of schools as of the week of January 4th.
Virtual-only learning rose above 50 percent again this week as schools went virtual this past week in advance of the holiday.
Burbio School Opening Tracker- Map% US K-12 students attending "virtual-only" schools =
50.8% (from 48.3% last week)% US K-12 students attending "traditional" In-person/every day" schools = 32.8%
% US K-12 students attending "hybrid" schools = 16.4%
The above percentages are set to Sunday December 20th. We set our numbers to the day of our reports due to changes that occur the day before announced plans. Our data is presented as "students attending schools that offer this learning plan" - most districts also offer virtual even when providing in person. For above, 50.8% of US K-12 students are currently attending schools that offer virtual-only plans, 32.8% offering traditional, etc.1) To review, Burbio launched the audit on August 11th
showing 52% "virtual only" and it shifted dramatically as the month went on and increased to
62% by Labor Day as large districts such as Hawaii, Dallas, small cities in the Northeast, Boston and parts of the Midwest and Sun Belt reversed previously announced in-person plans. Post-Labor Day, large Sun Belt cities such as Houston, Dallas and Miami returned in person, plus communities across the Northeast and the Midwest, and by
early November less than 40% of US K-12 students were attending virtual-only schools. In the last three weeks, Covid-19 related closures of mid-size city districts such as Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Oklahoma City, widespread closures across states such as Colorado, Kentucky, Michigan and Minnesota, and the (now partial) closure of the NYC schools to in person drove the the virtual-only figure back up to 50.8%.
2) Many districts have just announced delays to in-person learning after the holiday.
In Rhode Island, the entire state's schools will now return in-person no earlier than January 7th (a Thursday) and no later than January 15th, after starting virtual.
Black Oak Mine, CA, a rare CA district that offers in-person instruction, will open virtual and return in-person on January 11th.
Maricopa County, AZ will start virtual and be in-person January 18th as will
Edwardsville School District, IL, plus
Merrillville, IN. Schools in
Reynoldsburg, OH are virtual through at least January 19th and Fairborn, OH through at least January 22nd.
6) Schools in
Kansas and
Louisiana adopted the new CDC quarantine guidelines, reflecting an accelerating trend across the US.
8) In large city district news, the District of Columbia announced an agreement with teachers to return students to the classroom. It might be termed "the beginning of the beginning" as the
49 point Memorandum of Agreement gives an indication of how much work is still to be done before the planned return in February. In San Francisco the district postponed a recently announced plan return some students to classrooms by January 25th.
The press release from the district provides an explanation of the labor issues that are being addressed.