COBB COUNTY, Ga. — We now know Cobb County’s plan to bring kids back together for in-person learning.

Phasing back into the classrooms is what Cobb County school officials would like to be doing this week, but because there’s still a huge public health risk, students won’t be going back to face-to-face learning just yet.

School officials laid out the phased plan on the Cobb County school district’s website.

Here’s the plan from Cobb County officials:

Phase One’s start date will be determined by analyzing public health data specific to Cobb County provided by the Department of Public Health and the Cobb/Douglas Board of Health including the level of community spread, effective contact tracing, and efficient COVID-19 test timelines. When we are able to safely offer a face-to-face classroom option and a remote classroom option, we will use the following phased model.

*Phase One: All kindergarten through fifth-grade students for full-day instruction. ASP will resume for students in face-to-face classrooms. All kindergarten through twelfth-grade low incidence special education classes will have a face-to-face option starting in phase one.

*Phase Two: All sixth through eighth-grade students for full-day instruction. Phase two will begin two weeks after the start date of phase one.

*Phase Three: All ninth through twelfth-grade students for full-day instruction. Phase three will begin two weeks after the start date of phase two.

Prior to the start of each phase, parents will be given the opportunity to choose between the face-to-face option and the full-remote option.

Parents, teachers clash on school plan

Some parents want the option to send their kids back to school, they even protested about it.

“I’m here for my kids, they need to be in school. We did the online, 5th grade wasn’t bad, 4th grade wasn’t bad… at the end of the year, there’s just not as much to learn but these two, it was not good, they need to be in school,” said parent Lois Schulz.

However, Channel 2 Action News spoke to a representative at a education association who said the school year needs to start at home for everyone.

“Our schools don’t open in a vacuum and so that community context is really important to consider when we make decisions about which employees report to work and when we open schools,” said Margaret Cicarelli.

Officials say they are going to closely monitor the data in the county, so things could easily change next semester.

Gwinnett County Schools announces plan to allow students back into classroom in phases The school district will return to school on Aug. 12 with all students receiving digital instruction.

Cox Media Group