Education
Georgia day care centers take in older students for online lessons
About 20 students between five and 13 gathered this week in a colorful classroom in Star Light Learning Academy in Kennesaw to start a school year unlike any other. They sat in front of laptops and tablets at socially-distanced tables and logged on to meet their teachers and classmates for the first time on their […]
Georgia universities lack clear COVID-19 threshold to move classes online
With class back in session Thursday at the University of Georgia during the coronavirus pandemic, the University System of Georgia says it still has not established an infection threshold that would force all classes online. Lance Wallace, the USG associate vice chancellor for communications, said the governing body of the state’s 26 public universities and […]
Monday’s big online return to Georgia schools needed tech support
Students in three of Georgia’s largest school districts – in Cobb, DeKalb and Fulton counties – started fall semesters with online classes Monday and widespread glitches left some families coping more with tech support than learning. Rhea White of DeKalb County was on the verge of tears after spending the morning trying to get her […]
College football financial losses in Georgia could be staggering
Gov. Brian Kemp, while refusing to require face masks in Georgia’s public areas, for months instead dangled the incentive of preserving a 2020 college football season as reason enough for anti-mask sports fans to cover their faces anyway. “If people, especially our young people, don’t start wearing a mask when they’re going out in public […]
Teachers are on COVID-19 front lines, let them tell us what’s happening
In this moment, more than at any other time, it is non-negotiable that leaders of Georgia’s public schools operate with transparency. Georgia’s State School Superintendent Richard Woods issued a four-page statement Thursday using almost those exact words. He’s right. We are in a pandemic. School administrators and their human resources enforcers must make it clear […]
Coronavirus cases prompt a second Cherokee County school to close
Another Cherokee County high school is suspending in-person classes after more than a dozen students have tested positive for COVID-19 and hundreds more have been put under quarantine. Woodstock High School became the second one in the county to move to online learning following Etowah High School’s announcement Tuesday it will temporarily close. Cherokee County […]
School quarantines pop up across Georgia, Cherokee still hot spot
A Cherokee County high school is going temporarily online after nearly 300 students and staff have been placed on two-week quarantine on the seventh day of the school year, Superintendent Brian Hightower announced Tuesday. “We recognize this decision still may create hardships for Etowah High School families and is disappointing for students who want to […]
Kemp says he won’t order public school students to wear masks
Georgia will not tell school districts to require masks, Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday at a new COVID-19 testing site at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta where he was accompanied by U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams. “We’ve given the responsibility to the schools, to the local systems. Like most things in education, I’m a firm […]
Georgia schools off to bumpy start as virus spreads and mask politics erupt
Schools should not penalize students for sharing concerns about COVID-19 safety, state Superintendent Richard Woods said Friday in a statement seemingly directed at administrators in some of the state’s earliest-opening districts who have threatened discipline for students who share images showing their schools in a bad light. “To be very clear, discipline decisions are constitutionally […]
Georgia college staff, students say dorm memo shows safety secondary
As students and teachers anxiously prepare to return to college campuses during a pandemic, some of them are buzzing about a letter a private dorm operator wrote to the state Board of Regents calling on Georgia State University and other schools not to limit the number of students staying in dormitories this fall due to […]
COVID-19 leaves mark on early school start with quarantines, viral photos
Quarantined classes and viral photos of crowded hallways are marking an anxious first week of school for Georgia students in some of the state’s earliest-opening school districts, especially in Cherokee County where more than 60 students and school employees were sent home so far after several positive COVID-19 tests. Georgia students are among the first […]
Georgia college students, faculty want more COVID-19 safety on campus
Nearly 1,000 graduate students and supporters from across the state are calling for changes to the University System of Georgia’s reopening plans. With many Georgia college students set to return to campuses this month for in-person instruction, the students’ open letter represents the latest tension between the university system, which is urging face-to-face classes, and […]