Parents struggle as schools reopen amid coronavirus surge

Shann Dunn has to report in person to her job this week as a cafeteria manr at elementary school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but she has idea what she'll do when her daughter starts kindergarten with online-only instruction.

As a new school year begins this week in some states, Dunn, like many working parents, is struggling to balance her job with her child's school work as coronavirus pandemic continues to cause upheaval in school districts around country.

Dunn's East Baton Rouge school district has asked school employees to begin work this week, while students are set to begin virtual classes next week. School officials have said y hope to begin in-person classes after Labor Day.

“My family works. I have one I can take her to and say, okay, at 12 o'clock you are going to have to start working online with her for school,” Dunn said.

Parents in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee are among those who will be first to navigate new acemic year as schools open up in parts of those states this week.

In Indiana, where schools reopened last week for first time since a pandemic-driven nationwide shutdown in March, a student at Greenfield-Central Junior High School tested positive for coronavirus on first day back to class. School Superintendent Harold Olin told Associated Press that student was tested for virus days earlier and attended school before receiving results. student was isolated in school clinic, while school nurses worked to identify or students or staff who may have h close contact with student.

“This really does t change our plans,” Olin said. “We knew that we would have a positive case at some point in fall. We simply did t think it would happen on Day One.”

Schools in Hawaii were supposed to reopen Tuesday, but teachers union led a move to delay that until Aug 17.

Most schools in state are planning a hybrid approach, with students alternating between attending in-person classes and online instruction. Some schools will have full in-person instruction for younger gre levels, but only a handful of schools will offer a full-time, in-person return.

Many school districts around country h offered parents a choice of at least some in-person classes or remote instruction. But an uptick in COVID-19 cases in many states has prompted school districts to scrap in-person classes at least for start of school year, including Los Angeles, Philelphia and Washington.

Dunn said she hopes her daughter will be able to attend in-person classes at her school after Labor Day. But even if she does, that will t ease her mor's mind completely.

“I'm definitely going to worry," Dunn said.

"I will send her to in-person classes, but if I hear of spre of COVID at school, n I'd have to rethink it all over again."

(Representative im, credit: AP)