In a significant reversal from earlier, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Brabrand said he would prefer that schools continue virtual education this fall.
In a Fairfax County School Board work session Tuesday afternoon, Brabrand said that with the coronavirus pandemic still not under control in the United States, starting virtually in the fall would be safer for students, staff, teachers and the larger community.
“The COVID-19 pandemic looks much different than it did even three weeks ago. Now, we are experiencing a surge of COVID-19 across the country, and it will impact us here in Fairfax County. The numbers do not lie,” Brabrand said.
Brabrand is recommending that the school system start all students at a distance, re-evaluate the pandemic before the end of the first quarter, and then possibly gradually bring students back.
Fairfax County school system officials had been gearing up to offer a variety of options, from virtual-only to a hybrid of in-class and asynchronous learning with physical distancing and other safety measures to keep students and teachers safe.
Parents and guardians had already been asked to choose whether they wanted their student to attend school in-person or not, and had asked teachers and staff to provide information about their preference, as well. A slide from the Tuesday afternoon work session showed that 60 percent of parents wanted their children to return to in-classroom learning, while just 48 percent of teachers preferred to return to the classroom. In addition, the school system is seeing fewer substitute teacher applications and an increase in ADA exemption requests from teachers who want to remain teaching virtually for medical reasons.
Further, there are testing concerns: Rapid tests are mostly not available, and in-school testing would be expensive if schools officials could get the supplies to test students and teachers as needed. In addition, the long turnaround time on test results would create issues with timely notification of students and staff about an infected person in a school building.
Fairfax County Public Schools, July 21, 2020
The proposal includes plans to provide elementary school students with laptops, launching a help desk for parents and
The Fairfax Education Association and other education unions in Fairfax County pressed hard for students to continue virtual learning, citing significant concerns about safety. FEA helped organize multiple virtual rallies, campaigns and even a car rally Tuesday afternoon outside FCPS headquarters.
FCPS has not yet released information about whether Brabrand’s push for virtual learning will be adopted and how they would operate this fall, if adopted.
Arlington County and Prince William County have already decided to start the school year with virtual learning. Loudoun County was, like Fairfax County, working on hybrid models, but is now also considering a virtual start to the school year.
Schools in the City of Alexandria have not yet released a final plan for schools this fall. ACPS is hosting a series of community conversations for parents to get questions answered and more. (Information about those is available here.)
President Trump has threatened to withhold funding from school districts that do not resume full in-person instruction in the fall, but it’s not clear how or what funding he would hold up.