As School Begins Amid Virus, Parents See Few Good Options

John Barrett and his daughter Autumn pose for photos outside Bascomb Elementary School in Woodstock, Georgia, last month. Barrett says he will educate his daughter virtually and keep her out of in-person classes in Cherokee County schools, even though he’s worried she will fall behind on her special education plans, because of concerns about COVID-19’s spread.

Jeff Amy / Associated Press

John Barrett plans to keep his daughter home from elementary school this year in suburban Atlanta, but he wishes she was going. Molly Ball is sending her teenage sons to school in the same district on Monday, but not without feelings of regret.

As the academic year begins in many places across the country this week, parents are faced with the difficult choice of whether to send their children to school or keep them home for remote learning because of the coronavirus pandemic. Many are unhappy with either option.

“I definitely think it’s healthy for a child to go back to school,” said Ball, who feels her sons, William and Henry, both at River Ridge High School in Georgia’s Cherokee County district, suffered through enough instability in the spring. “At the same time, I wish they weren’t going back to school right now. It’s very scary.”