More South Carolina schools opening their doors

After about 20 districts statewide started January in fully virtual instruction because of spikes in COVID-19 cases, that number is down to three districts now and soon to be two.

That is good news for the state Department of Education, the central agency over the state's 79 traditional school districts, according to Chief Communications Officer Ryan Brown, who spoke Wednesday to The Sumter Item.

The state department maintains that data shows schools can be safe places with proper mitigation efforts amid COVID-19 and that student learning is enhanced with a face-to-face classroom instructional format, Brown said, and more districts are moving in that direction.

Two weeks ago, and shortly after the winter holiday break when virus case counts surged, 19 districts were fully virtual in format, including several area districts.

Monday was a key date on the calendar for the state department, Brown said, as many districts - including Sumter School District - moved back to a hybrid/blended model that generally involves two to four days per week of face-to-face instruction for students. Sumter's hybrid is two days of classroom instruction and three days at home.

Only three districts are categorized now as fully virtual and include Lee County School District, Calhoun County Public Schools and Orangeburg County School District. However, in Orangeburg, elementary school students began a hybrid model on Monday and middle- and high-school students move to hybrid next week.

Currently, 47 districts (59%) are in some version of hybrid/blended learning, while 28 districts (35%) are offering full, five-day, face-to-face classroom instruction.

In all districts, families do have the option to keep their children in online instruction for the entire spring semester, given the virus.

WHAT ABOUT SCHOOL-LEVEL NUMBERS?

When looking at school-level breakdowns, the numbers are more telling, Brown said. That's because a very large district, such as Greenville County School District, is classified as officially "hybrid" but about 80% of its schools are currently offering five-day, face-to-face instruction.

Of the state's 1,266 total public schools, 646 - or 51% - are currently providing five-day-per-week, face-to-face instruction, according to the state department. An additional 575 schools (45.5%) are offering some hybrid version, and only 45 schools - or 3.5% - are still in fully virtual instruction.

The department maintains its desire for all districts to offer a five-day classroom format as quickly as possible, Brown said.

A "hybrid plus" model is currently being offered in a lot of districts, he said, which consists of four days of classroom instruction and one day per week at home. On that day, school staff do extensive deep cleaning of schools.

"We have a lot of different schools using that model," Brown said. "Lexington 1 has been using it almost since the start of the school year. If you are not able to do five days a week, that's the next best thing. So, I think, that is definitely a viable option, particularly for districts that are just very leery about shifting from two or three days a week [in the classroom] to five days a week. It might be a good stepping stone for them."

WHAT ABOUT VACCINES FOR TEACHERS?

Teachers and school support staff are in Phase 1B of the state's vaccine rollout after health care workers and older residents, who are part of Phase 1A. That phase is currently ongoing. DHEC has not announced when Phase 1B will begin.

As of Wednesday, 25 states in the U.S. are vaccinating teachers and school support staff, according to Brown. That's either because those states prioritized teachers in Phase 1A of their vaccine rollout or because a state may already be in Phase 1B, he said.

According to Brown, the state department continues to push for teacher availability for vaccines.

SUMTER DISTRICT COVID-19, QUARANTINE TOTALS

As of Friday, Sumter School District had 42 reported cases of quarantined students to include positive COVID-19 cases, according to a district spokeswoman. That's about 0.3% of the district's total enrollment of 15,600 students.

A total of 79 staff were quarantined as of Friday because of positive virus cases or close contact with one. That is 3% of district employees, which is about 2,600.