Millions of Students Head Back to School for a Year Like No Other

Virtual learning, temperature checks and social distancing mark start of classes amid pandemic.

Many students are heading back to school this week, virtually and in person, with some campuses reopening to students for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic hit about six months ago.

For some students in grades K to 12 who returned to in-person instruction on Tuesday, the first day started with a temperature check and new rules, which require masks and social distancing. Some buildings look different inside, with hallway floors marked with arrows for traffic flow and signs on walls reminding students to keep apart and wash hands. Visitors are being kept out of many schools, denying parents the time-honored tradition of walking their children to class on the first day.

Many districts offered students the option to learn remotely or in-person, or a mix of both. But some districts are starting online only, including many of the largest, such as Chicago and Houston. Districts in virus hot spots more often delayed reopening until after Labor Day.

“We are doing much better now than we were last spring,” said Curtis Jones Jr., superintendent of the Bibb County School District in Macon, Ga., that reopened only online Tuesday. The district had shut down three weeks early in the spring because of stress in the community over remote learning, including connectivity issues, parental pressure to close and teachers untrained in remote learning.