Schools grapple with thousands in isolation or quarantine as delta variant rages

Many schools that planned to forgo virtual and hybrid learning this year, in favor of in-person classes, are revisiting those plans as outbreaks require students to quarantine.

I foretold this. I also support in-person teaching.

Schools that have opened their doors to students amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus already are grappling with how to best continue teaching students when hundreds and sometimes thousands of them are in quarantine.

As cases of Covid-19 started to wane over the spring and the early summer, many schools planned to forgo virtual and hybrid learning this year, in favor of in-person classes. But the lag in vaccination rates and the rapid spread of the delta variant have led districts to revisit those plans, with varying results.

Some schools have sent students home with packets of self-guided work to submit at the end of each day or when on-campus classes resume. Others have temporarily switched to virtual learning. And in some cases, schools have canceled classes altogether while campuses are closed or kids are in quarantine.

In Mississippi, officials last month said more than 20,000 students were in quarantine from exposure to the coronavirus after the first week of school.

The high quarantine numbers among students and staff members led at least 29 schools to "go virtual for a short time in order to interrupt transmission," the state’s epidemiologist said.

Similarly, the Connally Independent School District in Texas, which opened to students Aug. 18, closed its schools for in-person classes Tuesday after two teachers died last week of Covid. The five schools in the suburban Waco district hastily switched to remote learning and are scheduled to reopen for in-person learning after Labor Day.

Fifteen, FIFTEEN Miami-Dade School system employees have died in the last TEN DAYS.