Weekly Updates

Week of 6/7: Virtual Here to Stay

Written by Dennis Roche | Jun 6, 2021 4:53:00 PM
Note: Beginning July 1st Burbio will be tracking detailed "virtual by choice figures" for the Top 200 districts in the US in addition to it's service calibrating school start dates in 2021 versus 2020 and 2019 for over 80,000 schools.   For more information contact dennis@burbio.com 
 
 

 

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 hybrid or virtual schools. We saw some large districts announce virtual offerings for next year, have a "Year in Review" chart comparing K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 learning plans, and state-level mask mandates continue to be removed. More below.

 

Burbio School Opening Tracker- Including State Averages

 

% 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)

The above percentages are set to Sunday, June 6th. 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) In recent weeks we saw announcements from the states of Illinois and New Jersey, plus New York City, outlining plans that had highly restrictive virtual options for next academic year. This week, however, districts in Massachusetts, California and Virginia outlined stand-alone virtual academies, and Texas is near authorizing districts to offer virtual next year. Combine these announcement with virtual options already being offered throughout the Sun Belt, and states such as Missouri, Iowa, Indiana and Minnesota, and it appears virtual learning will be widely offered in 2021/22.
2) In-school mask policies continue to evolve, including in New York, a major bellwether for how Democratic states may handle this issue in the coming weeks.






3) In our Year in Review series, below is our in-person index by grades K-5, 6-8, 9-12 over the course of the year. K-5 students had the highest in-person index all year, and the gap became widest in the early Spring when "Always Virtual' states and big cities started returning to in-person and often brought in K-5 for in-person weeks ahead of older students. The gap narrowed as the year went on.