Back to school: Families and faculties try to balance safety and education

Updated: Aug 10, 2020 / 09:55 PM CDT

(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

DALLAS (News Nation) — It’s only a matter of weeks, and for some schools, days, before students head back to the classroom. Families and faculties nationwide are trying to choose the best approach to safety and education.

High schoolers and their parents in Mansfield, Texas lined up Monday to receive their virtual learning starter kit: an iPad and a laptop. Some parents even ran out of gas after waiting more than 10 hours in line.

In the northeast, some school bus drivers in New York worried their younger passengers might not follow mask mandates.

“How do we guarantee the children in the back of the bus are doing what they’re supposed to and wearing their mask? because as drivers, we have to watch the road,” said New York bus driver Thea Mansfield.

For many districts, it’ll be one student per bus bench. Cities like Albany and even Atlanta are considering a one day on, one day off approach to in-classroom learning to mitigate crowding.

At the University of Oklahoma, professors protesting Monday afternoon—three days before students are set to return to campus—asked that all classes be conducted online for the fall semester.

“This is a preventable tragedy. We don’t need the University of Oklahoma to host what will end up being the largest super-spreader event the state has seen so far,” said OU adjunct professor Sarah Warmker.

Up for debate is whether schools should be required to report COVID-19 case numbers to the broader public. Many districts say they’d be violating HIPPA privacy rules by doing so.

In Texas, the governing education agency and the health deaprtment are still in talks on what information they are still in talks on what information they can release.