A few, particularly in South Florida, are starting on time completely virtual for the first few weeks. A few, particularly in South Florida, are starting on time completely virtual for the first few weeks. In a release, the district said of those who responded, 80% chose virtual learning. A complete list of start and end dates plus COVID plans and major holidays and breaks, Submit your Website for Inclusion on FloridaSmart. click on county link for district calendar. Note, this list does not include all holidays and days off. That change prompted Collierville Schools to amend its reopening plans. In a video that accompanied the district's announcement, Ray said social distancing and health measures such as the use of hand sanitizer, mask wearing and spacing out students' desks could not keep students safe in an area experiencing daily triple-digit growth in COVID-19 cases. In Shelby County, 9% of all reported cases are school-aged children. Superintendent’s Reopening Message . At the rally, multiple teachers noted that many SCS students live in multigenerational households, potentially allowing the virus to spread from the classroom to older relatives who might be more likely to get seriously sick or die. A school board decision not to start the school year until Aug. 31 and keep fall break in the academic calendar means the first semester will continue until Feb. 4. The decision to start the school year using virtual learning is not unique. Jolie Madihalli, president of the Memphis-Shelby County Education Association, said given how easily the virus spreads, only a few cases in the district could result in a large number of infections. Understand that some of these dates can change and some dates, typically the fall holiday, may be used as hurricane makeup days. Bossier Schools is ready. The re-entry plan called for masks to be worn at all times inside school facilities, social distancing measures to be implemented in classrooms and district offices and regular temperature checks. The district has said those choices will be honored when leaders determine it to be safe to offer the in-person option. Leaders across health and education have acknowledged the role schools play in children's health. It was also unclear if the district had a plan for tracking COVID-19 transmission within its buildings, and whether that would fall to the district or the health department to do. Reopening decisions for the district's charter schools, which serve around 18,000 students, are left up to each school, the district said Monday. 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Last week, more than 100 SCS teachers and parents protested a potential return to in-person instruction outside school district offices, asking Ray to make good on his promise made during an interview on CNN that he would not allow students and teacher to return to the classroom if COVID-19 cases continued to rise in the county. Ray noted both the need to return students to classrooms and the unclear science as to how COVID-19 effects children, as well as the clear evidence that the coronavirus is highly contagious in indoor, in-person settings. District leaders said existing devices could be distributed to make up for any that don't arrive in time for the first day of school. Are their lives worth it?" Some school systems have opted to delay the dtart of the school year to prepare for the changes and precautions needed to insure students' safety. Get information about what your child will learn in the blended and remote learning models. And this figure does not account for the students returning to school," Ray said. After a delayed school reopening and the threat of one of the strongest hurricanes on record in Louisiana, the Iberia Parish School District welcomed back 11,890 students on September 8, 2020 with open arms. Strong Start 2020. For the suburban school districts, which are still offering in-person education or a hybrid model, and if SCS opens classrooms at a later date, he said parents should consider not just what infection control practices will be in place in the classroom but what the plan is when cases are identified within schools, something he said is inevitable. Tikelia Rucker, a SCS teacher and one of the organizers of last week's protest, said she and other teachers did not feel comfortable returning to the classroom given the steadily increasing COVID-19 case count. Find out how we will open schools safely in fall 2020. Of the largest 25 school districts in the country — SCS is the 24th largest — 14 have chosen to resume completely virtually for the fall, according data collected by Education Week. However, he also noted that there are important sociological implications to be taken into consideration, including what the best learning environment for students is and what the job responsibilities of parents and guardians are, among other factors. "We take our responsibility to provide a high-quality and meaningful learning experience for every student very seriously and I can assure you that we will deliver on this promise at school or at home," Ray said. “The biggest dangers of the schools being open, it perpetuates the cyclic nature of this virus,” he said. The majority of the district’s students are Black or Latino, and Memphis’ Black and Latino communities have suffered the worst effects of the pandemic over the past five months. Parents have options so visit your school district or school website and be sure to make a selection. McCullers is pediatrician-in-chief at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital and a department chair and professor at University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Also on Monday, within two hours of the SCS decision, Gov. We will start the school year using Non Traditional Instruction (NTI). In March, SCS was one of the first districts to announce prolonged closures and did so before other businesses closed in Shelby County. Online instruction for students starts on August 25 and continues for six weeks at which time we will reevaluate the public health environment in our community. 2020-2021 school calendar dates are added below based on the calendar from the individual school districts. Superintendent Tim Wyrosdick said in a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the district administrative office in Milton that students will not retu Schools and school districts in Shelby County have submitted reopening plans to the county health department, which will not approve or deny the plans, but offer guidance and "technical assistance," health department director Alisa Haushalter has said. In Tennessee, Metro Nashville Public Schools will also begin remotely next week, on Aug. 4. SCS had acknowledged that social distancing may look different school by school, as space allows. Note: the schools are doing their best to navigate coronavirus. Let's stay united and show patience and understanding toward each other. As of mid-July, the district is on track to distribute devices for middle and high school students by late August, theoretically in time for an Aug. 31 start date. "If we re-open with this level of community transmission, (the Shelby County Health Department) won't be able to keep up with contact tracing in any sort of timely manner, so schools will need to have their own processes in place," Dr. Jon McCullers, who has advised Memphis and Shelby County leaders throughout COVID-19, said via email Thursday. "Science tells us that by September the community will be experiencing a similar trajectory to New York City.