More of Minnesota's largest school districts are shifting to distance learning, and school leaders are uncertain when they'll be able to bring students back for in-person instruction, or how they'll make that call.
With COVID-19 cases — and the number of students and school staff ill or in quarantine — surging across the state, there's been a flurry of announcements from schools abruptly shifting plans. Anoka-Hennepin, the state's largest district, announced it would move elementary students from hybrid to distance learning. Minneapolis and St. Paul said they would stop providing a limited number of in-person support services to their students, who have spent the entire school year in distance learning. Mounds View and Edina are moving all grade levels online, as are the districts in Duluth and St. Cloud.
A few districts have provided tentative dates for when they hope to bring students back. But many school leaders are telling parents they don't know when distance learning might end. Some superintendents fear a loss of control once they close buildings and send teachers back into the community, where the virus has generally been circulating more widely than within schools themselves.
"That is the big question," said Scott Croonquist, executive director of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts. "What is going to be our decisionmaking process, and [what are] the metrics we will be using to transition back to hybrid and in-person?"
Minnesota's guidance for schools during the pandemic says schools should base their opening and closing decisions on a number of factors, using county virus data as a baseline. But in recent weeks, state health and education officials have emphasized other metrics in their conversations with school leaders. They've said the number of cases inside school buildings, the rate of virus spread within local communities, and the number of people showing flu-like symptoms should be given just as much weight as the county numbers.
"It's not as scientific as it is artful," said Deputy Education Commissioner Heather Mueller.
But without specific, publicized details about what pushes a school or district into distance learning, some decisions have prompted confusion among parents, community members and in some cases, school superintendents themselves.
Some school leaders issued directives about shifts to hybrid or distance learning, or shutting down sports programs — only to quickly reverse them after neighboring districts made different decisions, or after school boards overruled them.
