Most U.S. Schools Going Virtual Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

PELHAM, NY — More than half of American K-12 public school students won’t be going back to the classroom at least for the start of this school year because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to an ongoing survey that looks at thousands of school calendars nationwide.

Districts across the nation have been debating whether to open schools and, if so, how. And parents have been agonizing over whether to send their kids if and when schools do open.

The Burbio.com study shows 52 percent of students across the country will begin the 2020-21 school year online, while 44 percent will attend some form of in-person learning in the fall, and 4 percent of school districts remain undecided as of Aug. 11.

“What we found was similar regions across the country were doing similar things,” Dennis Roche, president and co-founder of the Pelham-based Burbio.com, told Patch.

“A lot of big cities flipped about a week and a half ago,” Roche said, specifically mentioning decisions made to go fully remote in Chicago and Pittsburgh.

“And then in places the size of Bergen County, New Jersey … they are all hybrid.”

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The Burbio study looked at more than 80,000 K-12 school calendars across 12,000 school districts, actively monitored more than 35,000 schools, and reviewed district plans every 72 hours to account for changes. See the survey’s full methodology here.

Of the 200 largest school districts across the country, the survey found that 66 percent will be going all virtual. The smaller the school district, trends show, the more likely it is that students will be headed back to the classroom.

“The more communication there is between the teachers, the board and the parents is where they seem to be getting back into school,” Roche said, pointing to a map that shows how likely students in each county are going to be in school.

Among the 44 percent of students nationwide who will have in-person schooling, 25 percent will go to school daily to start the year while 19 percent will participate in some form of hybrid model that combines learning in school and at home.

But the situation is expected to remain “fluid" throughout the entire school year, with changes expected frequently, said Julie Roche, Dennis' wife and the other Burbio co-founder.

“Many districts have thresholds for COVID-19 levels that could result in converting back to remote learning," she said. "Other districts are planning to revisit the ‘online’ decision as soon as September and could convert to in-person models.”

In certain parts of the country, rising COVID-19 levels were a factor in keeping schools virtual.

And many districts have thresholds that, if crossed, could mean a return to online learning. So the 52 percent going online “could slip a little higher” in the coming days, Dennis Roche said.

“We aren’t seeing any schools that were going to be virtual switching to in-person,” he said.