Week of 6/7: Virtual Here to Stay
K-12 transitions have come to a close as the numbers are now fixed for the balance of the year, with just over 30% of US K-12 students attending...
In addition to observations from across the US, this week we feature a look back on in-person trends over the course of the year with a series of visuals that illustrate the year. More below.
In addition to observations from across the US, this week we feature a look back on in-person trends over the course of the year with a series of visuals that illustrate the year. More below.
% US K-12 students attending "virtual-only" schools = 2.1% (no change from last week)
% US K-12 students attending "traditional" in-person/every day" schools = 69.6% (no change)
% US K-12 students attending "hybrid" schools = 28.3% (no change)
% US K-12 students attending "traditional" in-person/every day" schools = 69.6% (no change)
% US K-12 students attending "hybrid" schools = 28.3% (no change)
The above percentages are set to Sunday, June 13th. 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 2.1% of US K-12 students are currently attending schools that offer virtual-only plans, 69.6% offering traditional, etc.
1) This week from across the country
- Prince George's County, MD will offer full time in person learning plus a first semester-only virtual K-6 option that will be "discontinued once a vaccine is available for students in these grade levels" and a dedicated Grades 7-12 online program.
- In Douglas County, CO, a top 200 district, next year's "Proposed Covid 19 Health and Safety Protocols" - their words - include no distancing, no mandatory masks, no quarantining, no mandatory vaccines, traditional field trips, sports, and school activities resuming as normal, and school visitors and foreign exchange students resuming. They do plan to continue to "disinfect doorknobs" and school buses, "provide access to hand sanitizers" and "encourage families to keep students at home when showing signs of illness."
- Washington, DC announced their plan for traditional return for all students that includes a mask requirement and to-be-determined rules on asymptomatic testing of students. The District's virtual option will be restricted to students with demonstrated medical conditions. Washington, DC offered a highly constricted version of in-person this past year and will represent a district making one of the more dramatic adjustments from the Spring of 2021 to Fall in terms of student attendance and facility use.
- We continue to see virtual academies being created in California, with this one from Davis Joint Unified and this from Woodland Joint Unified. Both of these are open to students from outside the host districts.
2) We changed New York back to dark blue (more below) on our State Mask Policy Tracker this past week and here are some highlights.
- Indiana recently announced that local districts will have flexibility with regard to mask mandates and two school districts in Central Indiana removed the mandates for the 2021/22 school year.
- In Maryland, Governor Hogan indicated that there will be no school mask mandates in that state next Fall. He did not formalize the policy at this time.
- In Manchester, NH they removed mask mandates for classrooms.
- In Maine's announcement that the state will return to full time in-person next year they kept their mask mandates in place.
- Last Friday New York state sent this letter to the CDC indicating an in-school mask mandate removal date of June 7th and then reversed course late Sunday. It did trigger local comment as Wappingers Central, the state's tenth largest district requested flexibility in making its own policy decisions on masks, as did a Superintendent group from Monroe County. Three districts on Long Island went mask optional over the weekend and then were forced to reverse course. This letter from the Massapequa, NY school board to the Governor, which references a similar note sent by Hauppauge, NY schools, captures the dynamic at play.
- In NJ, Governor Murphy relaxed mask mandates due to the heat and several districts ran with it. Toms River got rid of mask mandates for the balance of the year, and Brick Township eliminated the mandate and was silent on whether it would be re-imposed. Point Pleasant, NJ's letter to residents reflects tension as the Superintendent writes, "I wanted to inform you that effective tomorrow, Wednesday, June 9th, through the remainder of the school year, the district has determined it is optional for students and staff to wear a mask in school, regardless of the temperature." We keep NJ blue for now but note the trend.
3) Looking back on the year there were several inflection points in in-person learning that we thought would be helpful to visualize through maps. For those interested, the education news site The 74 ran this piece on the distinct political nature of the pace of school reopenings using Burbio's data.
- In our Labor Day release we noted that in early September over 60% of US students were attending schools that were virtual only. Only 18% of US K-12 students were attending traditional schools during that period. The map indicates the high concentration of in-person learning in the Sun Belt and the Rockies:
- Over the course of the Fall, districts across the Midwest and the Northeast, along with additional Sun Belt districts, opened, and the virtual figure fell to 37%. As Covid rates rose around the country, we noted in our November 9th report that "introduction of in-person learning has slowed to an almost imperceptible level" and districts across the Northeast and Midwest in particular began to signal issues around staying open for in-person. The high point of in-person learning for the year to date - and for the next several months - is seen on our November 10th map:
- Over the holidays rising Covid 19 rates, concern about holiday gatherings, and quarantining rules triggered widespread shutdown across the US and our virtual number rose to 55%. Our report on January 11th opens with a good survey of the previous two months, but we did note that many districts had plans to return students to the classroom later in January - which proceeded to occur. In our blog of January 25th, as the virtual figure continued to drop, we coined the term "Always Virtual" to describe states (in particular California, Oregon, Washington, Maryland, Virginia, and New Mexico) and cities that had never returned students to the classroom. Here is the map from January 10th.
- By the time of our February 8th blog post virtual numbers had dropped to early November levels. In general, the same districts that were open for in-person learning in early November had reopened. That left the "Always Virtual" states and cities, who proceeded to reopen gradually over the course of the Spring. Here is the map of early June:
- The chart below shows the average in-person index for each state over the course of the academic year. The District of Columbia, not shown, would be last, behind California. To the points made in the piece in The 74, the ten states with the highest in-person indexes for the year have Republican governors, and nine of the ten lowest states have Democratic governors, the exception being Maryland.
