As the spring semester began with in-person instruction Wednesday in the Cobb County School District, a small fraction of students were taking their classes online.
Of the district’s estimated 107,000 enrollment, around 2,400 are signed up for virtual classes across all grade levels (elementary, middle and high), according to a district spokeswoman.
That’s around 2 percent of the district’s student body.
“When given the choice last fall, about 98 percent of Cobb families chose in-person learning for the second semester of the 2021-2022 school year,” the spokeswoman said.
Cobb and Marietta schools were among those in metro Atlanta that began the spring semester with face-to-face, rather than remote, instruction.
COVID-19 cases are rising more sharply than ever during the pandemic, which was declared 22 months ago, and school officials are bracing for high numbers reported as classes resume.
Cobb and Marietta also don’t have mask mandates. Gwinnett, which does, also is starting back in-person, while Atlanta, Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton and other school districts are starting at least this week remotely.
Cobb said said an additional 830 students signed up to go online via a lottery system announced by the district in October, after a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases at the start of the school year.
The district hasn’t said how many lottery slots were made available.
Students learning online are enrolled in the Elementary Virtual Program (K-Grade 5) or the Cobb Online Learning Academy (Grades 6-12).
The elementary students are enrolled in their current schools but are getting their instruction from what the district calls a “certified” EVP teacher for the full spring semester, which ends in May.
Students in middle school and high school who were awarded online lottery slots were pulled from their home schools and will be enrolled in COLA.
Aside from a Sunday night message to parents, the Cobb school district hasn’t elaborated on its reasons for returning to face-to-face classes.
When asked if there has been any update about that since Sunday, the spokeswoman told East Cobb News that the district “remains committed to providing our students with an internationally competitive education, ensuring a safe instructional environment, and prioritizing our community’s overwhelming preference for in-person learning. We ask for our community’s continued support in helping to keep our schools safe by not sending students to school sick and following the most updated CCSD protocols for COVID-19.”
She also was asked about staffing levels (teachers, administrators and support staff) to handle an in-person student return and how shortages will be handled with COVID-19 transmission rates so high.
“Our schools are open. Our buses are running. Our teachers are teaching, and our students are learning in the second largest school district in Georgia,” she said. “As in the prior semester, we remain committed to balancing the importance of in-person learning and the frequent changes associated with COVID-19.”
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- Cobb schools to begin spring semester in-person
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- Proposed Cobb school board map aimed at keeping GOP majority
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