Late Tuesday afternoon the Cobb County School District released what it calls a “phased model” outlining the steps for reopening schools for classroom instruction.
What it doesn’t include are any dates.
According to information contained in the outline, those dates:
“Will be determined by analyzing public health data specific to Cobb County provided by the Department of Public Health and the Cobb/Douglas Board of Health including the level of community spread, effective contact tracing, and efficient COVID-19 test timelines. When we are able to safely offer a face-to-face classroom option and a remote classroom option, we will use the following phased model.”
Here’s a link to what the district’s phases look like, and here’s a thumbnail synopsis below:
- Phase One: All kindergarten through fifth-grade students for full-day instruction. ASP will resume for students in face-to-face classrooms. All kindergarten through twelfth-grade low incidence special education classes will have a face-to-face option starting in phase one.
- Phase Two: All sixth through eighth-grade students for full-day instruction. Phase two will begin two weeks after the start date of phase one.
- Phase Three: All ninth through twelfth-grade students for full-day instruction. Phase three will begin two weeks after the start date of phase two.
Before each phase, parents can choose to send their children back to schools or stay with online-only.
The district hasn’t said how social distancing guidelines might factor into those plans. Before a switch to online-only learning was made, district leaders said mask-wearing would be expected and recommended but not required.
Other metro Atlanta school districts have begun announcing how and when they’ll reopen their schools, including Fulton County and Gwinnett County, which on Tuesday also outlined steps and included targeted dates.
Gwinnett, the largest school district in Georgia, starts online-only Aug. 12, a few days earlier than Cobb, and then adds several grade levels a week, as well as special-education tiers, on Aug. 26, Sept. 2, and Sept. 9.
What Gwinnett schools haven’t acknowledged, but that was reported on Monday, is that 260 staffers have tested positive for COVID-19 or who have been exposed to someone who’s been infected and are not at work.
Gwinnett teachers and staff, like those in Cobb, reported for preplanning activities last week.
Gwinnett has the second-highest number of virus cases in Georgia, with 18,201 as of Tuesday. Cobb is fourth with 12,135.
Last month, Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale cited community spread and rising case numbers of COVID-19 for starting the school year online-only.
One of the metrics Ragsdale is looking at is the number of COVID cases per 100,000 population, with anything more than 100 considered “significant community spread.”
Cobb’s population is more than 760,000.
After a sharp increase in July in Cobb, that figure is 1,535 cases per 100,000, but it’s dropped to 361 per 100,000 over the last two weeks.
Gwinnett’s figures are 1,835 per 100,000 and 418 per 100,000 over the last two weeks. The population is 970,000.
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- The East Cobb Open for Business Directory
- East Cobb News COVID-19 Resource Page
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No dates = No plan