San Francisco public schools announce 'hybrid' reopening plan

The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has announced a plan to partially reopen schools to in-person learning.

The SFUSD demands that a number of requirements be met, including surveillance testing for students, the process of determining how coronavirus spreads in schools among students. The plan also demands that all  teachers be vaccinated as long as San Francisco remains in the red zone of California's coronavirus color-coded tracking system. However, the SFUSD is willing to lift this requirement if San Francisco leaves the red zone.

Once the conditions are met, pre-kindergarten and county school students will be allowed to return to full classes for five days of in-person learning per week.

For other schools, students will have to request to return for in-person learning. Schools with fewer requests for in-person learning will be open for all requested students for the typical five day school week.

Schools with more in-person learning requests, however, will work on a "hybrid" system whereby students would attend classes in-person for just two days of the week. Students will be learning from home for the remaining three days of the week with "at least two hours of daily live instructions for each child."

Students who opt for at-home study will similarly have the two hour live instruction rule applied to them.

Students across the United States have been attending classes from home via group call applications such as Zoom as a supplement for studying in-person. Such measures were taken by school districts to shield students and teachers from coronavirus.

The practice has generated much controversy, with many parents outraged that schools are refusing to open their doors to in-person learning. Supporters of in-person learning have argued that children are not generally at risk of experiencing the more serious effects of coronavirus. They have also pointed out that student performance has sharply dropped across the country in 2020, blaming the drop in performance on online learning.

Since at-home learning began, the number of students failing courses has skyrocketed across the country while average grades in general have fallen.