Cobb County students will have the opportunity to continue learning remotely when the new school year begins in August.
School district staff said this week it will accommodate parents who may not want their child to return the classroom when the 2021-2022 school year starts on Aug. 2.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said the district’s upcoming virtual learning model will change.
This year, virtual students are learning remotely using the Cobb Teaching and Learning System. Classroom teachers use technology to simultaneously educate both students who are learning in person and virtual students using CTLS.
Next year, remote pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade students will enroll in online learning through their local school, while sixth- through 12th grade students will register with the Cobb Online Learning Academy. Cobb Horizon Academy will host an online alternative school for its students and the Cobb Virtual Academy will be reserved for part-time learners.
Ragsdale said the top priority of the district was to remove the requirement of teachers to educate both in-person and virtual students at the same time. However, teachers of subjects where there are fewer educators available, such as advanced placement chemistry, could have some class periods where they only teach either in-person or remote students.
While he expects the majority of Cobb students will return for in-person learning in August, Ragsdale said there could be another “unforeseen” event that topples the district’s plans.
“If that happens, all of this could be for naught and we are back to what we’ve been in,” he told school board members this week.
Cobb’s 107,000 students will also return to a five-day-a-week schedule. Students currently learn remotely or in-person Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; Wednesdays are reserved for all students to conduct independent learning remotely through CTLS.
Jennifer Lawson, the district’s chief academic officer, said the virtual model could also group some students from different schools into one classroom. For example, if one elementary school has five students enrolled in the virtual option and a neighboring school also has a small number, the district could combine those students into one class under the same teacher.
Beginning next week, Cobb parents can begin registering their children for the virtual learning options. The sixth- through 12th grade registration window will be March 22 through April 1. The elementary school window is set for April 19 through May 2.
Ragsdale said the tight timeline will allow the district to make sure it has enough teachers in place.
“There are students and teachers that are thriving in that environment, and I think that it’s incumbent on us as the local education agency … to make sure that we are doing everything we can to provide those opportunities for every single student to be successful in whatever environment they thrive within.”
Cobb County schools started the 2020-21 school year with a remote-only option due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but began offering both in-person and virtual learning options in October. The district said about 66% of its families, which represents 70,529 students, chose the face-to-face classroom option for the second semester. Cobb’s remaining 36,449 students chose to stick with virtual learning.
As of March 12, the district reported nearly 4,200 known cases of COVID-19 among staff and students.
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