Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia have released more details about plans for reopening this fall.
The school district’s draft plan, presented Monday during a school board work session, includes three scenarios based on different levels of coronavirus-related restrictions.
In the first, all learning would happen virtually with four days of live, teacher-led classes and one day of students working alone or with other students.
The second scenario imagines students returning to reduced-capacity classrooms.
“We’re working to develop a daily health screening form that would require parents to report that their children are asymptomatic and have not been exposed to anyone with COVID-19 symptoms prior to sending them to school each day,” said Assistant Superintendent Sloan Presidio.
The plan imagined students returning to classrooms at 50% capacity and 25% capacity.
“It may involve new instructional bell schedules to allow us to serve students on alternating days, and it might even involve prioritizing instruction for high-needs populations like special education students, English learners, or our primary pre-K through grade 2 students,” Presidio said.
If classrooms are allowed to be half full, the plan proposes in-person classes two days a week for students. If capacity is cut to 25%, the plan suggests that students would only physically go to school one day a week.
Scenario 3 is a plan to offer all-online learning to students who are at higher medical risk, even if some or all students are able to return to classrooms.
Another school board work session is scheduled next week to discuss the plans in more detail.
The school board plans to decide by June 26 in what format classes will resume when the new school year starts Aug. 25.
If the school system chooses a Scenario 2 reopening, elementary and middle school students will be notified by Aug. 10 which days students will attend in-person classes, so that parents can make child-care plans.
Under that same scenario, high school students and students attending all-online classes would be notified of their schedules by the week of Aug. 17-21.
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