In Georgia and Tennessee, the debate continues over in-person or virtual schooling

Jan. 18—In a situation where there are no right or easy answers, Georgia and Tennessee are taking different approaches to dealing with COVID-19 and the unique challenges the virus presents to schools.

In Tennessee, the state does not allow entire school districts to shift to remote learning outside of declared emergencies; instead, they have the option of allowing limited remote learning for individual schools on a case-by-case basis, with state approval. Districtwide shutdowns are reserved for situations such as Tuesday's inclement weather day in Hamilton County Schools, also a result of high COVID-19 case numbers, and no remote learning is offered.

In Georgia, school systems have the flexibility to transition individual schools or the district as a whole to online learning at any time.

Each approach has its own benefits.

Keeping students in in-person classes avoids disruption for parents and guardians, and data shows students suffer from learning loss when they are not in the classroom.

However, keeping students and staff in close quarters as positive case numbers rise comes with its own risks, from the possibility of passing the virus person-to-person to the challenge of adequately staffing schools in an environment where teachers and staff are continuing to catch the virus themselves.

Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, during a conversation with the Times Free Press earlier this year, said she thought taking a "scalpel approach as opposed to broad brushstrokes" was best.

"It does mean that we are not able to do entire districts at once because there are a lot of kids who can be in school, there are a lot of parents who want to send their kids to school, and I think on topics like these, it's really important that we think about it in a really small grain size and provide students with the best possible options every single day," Schwinn said.

David Black, whose two children attend school in Hamilton County, said he thinks the approach Tennessee is taking is preferable.

"I don't know everything, but I know my kids, at least, need to be in school. They learn better in class, and they miss their friends when they aren't there. This pandemic has been hard on them," he said in a phone interview. "I think as long as schools can close when they need to, there's no reason to require the entire district to shut down."

Asked why the state prohibits districts from going fully virtual due to COVID-19, Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said last week that it came down to concerns about learning loss and its impact on "a large majority of the students" in schools around the state.

"One of the things that we have learned during the pandemic is that in-classroom instruction is really, really important and that we should do everything possible, safely, everything possible to keep kids in the classroom," Watson told the Times Free Press. "There is a virtual school option that people can take, but that's why that decision was made.

"Looking at the data, we just said, 'You know what, if we look at the school systems that stayed in school the whole time, or 90% [of the time] like Hamilton County, versus Shelby County, we still had learning loss, but nothing like they saw or [what they saw] nationally.'"

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey recently released a letter in which they wr0te that school employees no longer have to quarantine after they are exposed to COVID-19, even if they are unvaccinated or test positive, as long as they wear a mask and remain asymptomatic, and that contact tracing in schools is now optional.

Kemp and Toomey also wrote that "students, parents and educators have made it clear that they want to be in the classroom," and stated they were "looking into many methods to continue safe, in-person learning — including updated quarantine and isolation protocols, reduced contact tracing requirements and augmented testing.

"Like you, our chief goal is to keep our kids in the classroom with minimal disruption to their education, and we will continue to support you, your faculty, your students and your parents in carrying out this mission," Kemp and Toomey wrote.

Neither Kemp nor Toomey addressed learning loss directly in the letter.

The 2020-21 Georgia Milestones test results showed students in the state did worse on standardized tests in 2021 than in pre-pandemic 2019 and are not meeting grade-level achievement at the same rates.

Kendra Pannell, the schools spokesperson in Gordon County, Georgia, told the Times Free Press that while learning loss has occurred during the pandemic, school districts having the flexibility to respond to COVID-19 in whatever way is most appropriate for them has been key.

As of the week ending Jan. 7, Gordon County Schools boasted the lowest number of positive cases among students and staff in the Times Free Press' Northwest Georgia coverage area.

"We are committed to keeping children in classes at school as long as it remains safe to do so," Pannell said by phone. "I can only speak to what we are doing, not what others are doing, but we work with a local COVID-19 task force made up of representatives from local health care, the hospital, Calhoun City Schools and other knowledgeable stakeholders to make decisions about when to go virtual and when to keep students in school.

"We can send individual schools online if we need to do that, but we are also prepared to send the entire district online if that's what we need to do."

Sending the entire district virtual is not a first step for Gordon County Schools, nor is it the first step at any of the schools in Northwest Georgia. Most districts have developed COVID-19 protocols based on the rate of community spread that dictates when schools should close.

Superintendent Damon Raines of Walker County Schools in Walker County, Georgia, said his school district would only consider a transition to online learning when the rate of positive student cases is between 3-5% at either the district level or at a particular school.

"We have a variety of possible choices at that point, which include: close a classroom, close a grade level, close a particular school or schools, consider a virtual option [for either a school or the district] or close schools for a time period," Raines said in an email to the Times Free Press. "We also look at operational capacity (supervision/instruction, school food service, transportation) at each building and at the district level. Once we cannot provide services, we must consider other alternate options."

Being able to provide services to students has been difficult in some areas. In Murray County, Georgia, classes went virtual last Thursday for middle and high school students, and for all district students Friday, because of a lack of teachers and staff.

Murray County Schools Director of Human Resources Mike Tuck told the Daily Citizen-News in Dalton that the "fill rate" for substitutes was only "about 50%," a rate that's usually 80-90%.

"With all the sickness out there, [substitutes] are either sick or quarantined, or their kids are sick or quarantined, and they have to stay home with them," Tuck told the paper.

Superintendent Michele Taylor of Calhoun City Schools in Calhoun, Georgia, said the district has experienced similar difficulties with staffing, though she said it has not been such a problem that closing schools seems necessary.

"We continue to be challenged to have enough substitutes to cover classes," she told the Times Free Press. "However, we are managing at this time."

At Dalton Public Schools, in Dalton, Georgia, new COVID-19 protocols went into effect Jan. 4 that provide guidance for individual schools in what the district refers to as "Tier 0" and "Tier 1," but the guidance transitions to a district-wide approach in "Tier 2" if three or more schools have a number of positive cases that is 2% or more of the total building population over a five-day average.

At that point, masking will be encouraged and school meals will be eaten in classrooms. Health screening questions will be asked at the school doors before students or staff are allowed inside and will be repeated in homeroom and again after lunch. Visitors and guests will only be allowed in as scheduled by the school.

"I'm glad they have that flexibility," said Jenny Johnson, whose daughter attends Dalton Public Schools, in a phone interview. "I want my kid in school as much as possible for social reasons, to see her friends, and so she can learn from her teachers that way, but if things are bad everywhere, I want the whole district to be shut down."

Staff writer Emily Crisman contributed to this report.

Contact Kelcey Caulder at 423-757-6327 or kcaulder@timesfreepress.com.