GOVERNORS PUSH for schools to reopen.

Less-restrictive guidelines open way for in-class learning

In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine offered school districts early access to vaccines for their staff if they committed to opening classrooms by March 1.

In Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency related to child and adolescent mental health and banned fully virtual instruction starting this month.

In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker announced that most elementary schools would be required to offer full-time in-person instruction by Monday, and most middle schools by April 28.

The three are part of a significant group of governors who have decided it is time to flex some muscle and get students back into classrooms, despite union resistance and bureaucratic hesitancy.

The push has come from both ends of the political spectrum. Democratic governors in Oregon, California, New Mexico and North Carolina and Republicans in Arizona, Iowa, West Virginia and New Hampshire, among other states, have all taken steps to prod, and sometimes force, districts to open.

The result has been a major increase in the number of students who either have the option of attending school in person now or will have it in the next month.

According to a tracker created by the American Enterprise Institute, 7% of the more than 8,000 districts being tracked were operating fully remotely March 22, the lowest percentage since the tracker was started in November. Forty-one percent of districts were offering full-time in-person instruction, the highest percentage in that time. Those findings have been echoed by other surveys.

In interviews, several governors described the factors motivating their decision to push districts to reopen, including the substantial evidence that there is little virus transmission in schools if mitigation measures are followed; the decline in overall cases from their January peak; and, most of all, the urgency of getting students back in classrooms before the school year ends.

“Every day is an eternity for a young person,” said Inslee, a Democrat. “We just could not wait any further.”

In the weeks since most of the governors acted, nationwide cases have started to rise again, which could complicate the effort. Many school staff members have already been offered vaccines, which has reduced the resistance to reopening from teachers unions and, provided staff vaccination rates are high, will limit the opportunities for the virus to spread in schools.

Even so, in areas where cases are increasing sharply, such as Michigan, some schools have had to revert to remote learning because so many students were in quarantine.

But for the time being, at least, the moves by these governors have yielded significant results.

In Ohio, nearly half of all students were in districts that were fully remote at the beginning of the year. By March 1, that number was down to 4%, and it has shrunk further in the weeks since.

In Washington, before Inslee issued his proclamation, the state’s largest district, Seattle Public Schools, was locked in a standoff with its teachers union over a reopening plan. Days after Inslee announced he would require districts to bring students back at least part time, the sides reached an agreement for all preschool and elementary school students and some older students with disabilities to return by Monday.

And in Massachusetts, the move by Baker, a Republican, has spurred a sea change, with dozens of districts bringing students back to school for the first time since the pandemic began and hundreds shifting from part-time to full-time schedules.

“It’s worked exceedingly well,” DeWine, a Republican, said of his decision to offer vaccines to Ohio districts that pledged to reopen. “We’ve got these kids back in school.”

For much of this school year, Washington has had among the fewest students learning in person of any state, in part because it had imposed stringent requirements for schools to reopen. In mid-December, when Inslee loosened the requirements, 15% of Washington’s 1.2 million public school students were getting some in-person instruction.

The new, less-restrictive guidelines led some more districts to open, but others, including Seattle, stayed mostly closed.

At the same time, Inslee said, he was hearing disturbing reports about increases in depression and anxiety that experts believed were tied to students not being in classrooms. He decided he needed to intervene.

“Obviously, we like community and local control, but it wasn’t cutting the mustard here, ultimately,” he said.

A spokesperson for Inslee said last week that it appeared all districts in the state would comply with the proclamation, which requires all elementary school students to have access to in-person schooling by Monday and all middle and high school students by April 19.

DeWine’s deal and Inslee’s proclamation required only that districts offer students part-time in-person instruction. Both said they wanted to set a goal that seemed achievable.

But in Massachusetts, Baker has pushed further, requiring that elementary and middle schools offer five-daya-week in-person instruction by late April. After Monday for elementary schools and after April 28 for middle schools, remote or part-time instruction will no longer count toward fulfilling a district’s required instructional hours. The state has not said whether it will require high schools to bring students back full time this year.

“Every day is an eternity for a young person. We just could not wait any further.”

— Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington