Fairfax County Public Schools expands in-person learning
In Virginia, Fairfax County Public Schools is expanding in-person learning to four days per week starting Tuesday for certain students in pre-K to grade 12.
The first group moving to four days per week includes students of any grade who have the greatest learning challenges, as identified by school personnel. Some in that group will return April 6, while the remainder will return April 13.
All pre-K through 12th grade students whose families expressed a preference for in-person instruction will increase their in-person learning from two days per week to four days per week, starting April 20.
Some Fairfax County Public School families have chosen virtual learning for the remainder of the school year.
FCPS said it is able to expand in-person learning because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in mid-March that schools could safely reduce social distancing from six feet to 3 feet in some circumstances, taking into account community COVID-19 transmission rates and each school’s available space and staffing.
Students must remain six feet apart and face in the same direction when eating lunch. Staff also must follow 6-feet social distancing guidelines.
FCPS said it is planning on returning to five days per week of in-person learning in the fall at the start of the 2021-22 school year.
In Falls Church, students are going back to classrooms Tuesday.
“On the Tuesday we return from spring break, all of our students will return to school for the first time since March 13, 2020, at the same time except those who wish to remain online. It has been nothing short of an international, national, and local nightmare, but the ‘new normal’ is on the horizon,” said Falls Church Superintendent Peter J. Noonan in a note to the community before the break.
In Alexandria, students returned to virtual classrooms Tuesday. The school system opted for a return to virtual learning as a way to prevent the potential spread of COVID-19 transmission after spring break.