Parental Panic: More School Districts Announce Online Start

The Hill: Georgia's Largest School District To Start School Year Online 
Georgia’s largest school district said it will start the school year next month with full virtual instruction. Gwinnett County Public Schools’ announcement Monday reversed a plan the district had previously announced to open with a combination of in-person and digital instruction. The district said the current COVID-19 situation required it to change plans. (Klar, 7/22)

AP: Official: Arizona Schools Need Virus Data To Reopen Campuses
Arizona’s school districts should be empowered to reopen campuses for the new school year based on public health data instead of committing now to specific reopening dates, the state’s top education official said. Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman said Tuesday evening that she outlined her priorities to Gov. Doug Ducey, who is expected to announce the next steps for school reopenings this week. Ducey, a Republican, previously delayed the start of the school year until at least Aug. 17, weeks after most Arizona schools typically reopen following the summer break. (Cooper and Christie, 7/23)

The Washington Post: D.C. Area Parents Brace For More All-Virtual School In Coming Months
Thousands of D.C. area families that had pinned their hopes on school buildings reopening this fall must grapple with a stunning new reality: Their children will not step inside a classroom for who knows how many months to come. The announcements came rapid-fire over the course of the day Tuesday: First, Fairfax County Public Schools and Loudoun County Public Schools in Northern Virginia said they were switching to all-virtual schooling in the fall. Hours later, Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland followed suit. The districts’ decisions will cumulatively shape the fate of more than 438,000 children and their families. (Natanson, Balingit and Stein, 7/22)

AP: Seattle Superintendent Urges No In-Person Schooling For Fall
Seattle’s school district superintendent has decided against having students return to the classroom in the new year school, saying the prospect of in-person learning is impossible amid rising coronavirus infection rates. Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Denise Juneau announced Wednesday that she’s recommending a fully remote learning model when school resumes in the fall. The school board is expected to vote on how to proceed during the pandemic at its next regularly scheduled board meeting on August 12. (Ho, 7/23)

In related news from the Trump administration —

The Washington Post: Trump Says He’s ‘Comfortable’ Sending His Son And Grandchildren Back To School Amid Pandemic 
President Trump said Wednesday he would be comfortable sending his school-age son and grandchildren to in-person school this fall even as the country struggles to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Trump suggested during a news briefing that children have strong immune systems to ward off the virus and pointed to some evidence that has shown young children transmit it less easily. “Yeah, I am comfortable with that,” Trump said when asked about his own family. (Itkowitz, 7/22)

The Washington Post: DeVos’s Claim That Children Are ‘Stoppers’ Of Covid-19 
Could children actually be “stoppers” of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus? That would be great news — if true. The interruption of school threatens to create a learning deficit — and many parents may find it difficult to return to work if children are not in classes. Let’s examine DeVos’s evidence that children do not transmit the coronavirus, as it appears to be influencing administration policy. (Kessler, 7/23)

CNN: Fact Check: Trump Falsely Suggests Kids Don't Transmit Coronavirus And That US Case Surge In Part Due To Protests And Mexican Migration 
President Donald Trump made another series of false, dubious and misleading claims at a Wednesday coronavirus briefing in which he continued to paint an overly rosy picture of how the pandemic is affecting the United States. Despite the sharp uptick in cases he acknowledged and a US death toll that now exceeds 142,000, Trump declared that "it's all going to work out. And it is working out." (Dale, Subramaniam, Cohen and Steck, 7/22)