‘It’s Chaos’ as Schools Confront Omicron

The Omicron surge threatens to upend any sense of peace in the nation’s education system.

After a holiday break that saw Covid-19 cases spike unrelentingly, a small but growing list of districts — including Newark, Atlanta, Milwaukee and Cleveland — moved temporarily to remote learning for more than 450,000 children.

Even if they are only for a week or so, these closures are a step backwards after months in which schools largely remained open even during a Delta variant’s fall surge.

Mayor Eric Adams of New York, and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, vowed to keep schools open, there were growing fears from parents and educators that more districts would soon turn to remote learning — even though in-school transmission of Covid-19 has been limited.

Those decisions could, in turn, radiate through the country, affecting child care, employment and any confidence that the pandemic’s viselike grip was loosening.

“It’s chaos,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, which has polled families throughout the pandemic. “The No. 1 thing that parents and families are crying out for is stability.”

Some families were only given a few hours notice about school closings. This caused the all-too-familiar panic scramble to adjust child care arrangements and work schedules. Atlanta Public Schools, as an example, announced on SaturdayThe classes will be available online for the first week in January, just days after classes were announced in person.

Ms. Rodrigues’s own sons were home on Monday morning after their schools, in Somerville, Mass., announced on Saturday a two-hour delayed start to test staff and distribute KN95 masks.

Ms. Rodrigues stated that parents are being burdened by the virus’s continued presence in the country, despite the fact that a winter surge was predicted and that policymakers had months for testing and distribution of masks and tests.

“No grace is extended to us,” she said of parents who would have to go out to work, whether or not their children’s schools were open.

The emotional, academic, and social toll of school closings has been well documented. After a contentious year in which the debate over opening schools was one of America’s most divisive, politicians, labor leaders, teachers and others now support school buildings being kept open.

A vast majority of the nation’s school districts — including most of the largest ones — appear to be operating relatively normally, in large part because of vaccines. Still, the closures this week appeared to be concentrated in regions, such as the Northeast and upper Midwest, where Democratic Party policymakers and teachers’ unions have taken a more cautious approach to operating schools throughout the pandemic.

The country is experiencing an average of more than 300,000. New cases are being reported every day for the first time since the pandemic. However, hospitalizations have been growing at a slower rate. Principals have reported that there are large numbers of staff who call in sick because they are suffering from Covid-19 or other illnesses.

Many of these districts are home to predominantly Black, Hispanic, and low-income students. This raises concerns about the educational gaps that have widened in the wake of the pandemic.

“There is a casualness with which some have approached closing schools that I find deeply concerning, precisely because of the severe harms we’ve seen accumulate over the past year when schools were closed,” said Joseph Allen, a Harvard University professor who studies indoor environmental quality, including in schools.

Yet, even though New York City had schools open, only about a third showed up. This indicates that parents were hesitant to let their children go.

There are also signs that some unions are becoming less supportive of in-person teaching. Chicago Teachers Union members will vote on Tuesday whether to refuse to report for school the following day. The union, which has repeatedly clashed with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration, had demanded that every student be tested for the virus before returning from winter break, a step the district did not take.

The largest district in the country offered students an option to take-home P.C.R. Parents were required to take the tests before winter break to a FedEx dropbox.

It became evident that the testing effort had failed in large part on Monday. 24843 of the 35,590 tests that were taken by the district during the week ended Saturday had failed. 18% of the tests that produced results were positive.

A district official stated that test vendors were investigating the reasons for inconclusive results.

At a news conference on Monday, the union’s vice president, Stacy Davis Gates, expressed her anger at having “to continuously fight for the basic necessities, the basic mitigations.”

Governor Florida Ron DeSantis reiterated on Monday that officials would not allow the state’s public schools to close, despite a major spike in coronavirus cases.

“You have worse outcomes by closing schools,” said Mr. DeSantis, a Republican who has increased his national profile by rejecting coronavirus lockdowns and mandates for much of the pandemic. “Kids need to be in school.”

Furthermore, Mr. DeSantis said, children “do not need to be doing any crazy mitigation” such as testing or wearing masks, unless their parents want them to. He added: “Just let them be kids.”

In the New York area, there was a growing divide between the city, where nearly all schools opened on Monday morning with beefed-up virus testing protocols, and the surrounding region, where a growing list of smaller districts shifted to remote learning, generally citing the surging number of Covid-19 cases within the community — not specific instances of in-school spread of the virus.

The school board president in Newark, Dawn Haynes, said in a statement, “The lives of all of our students mean more to me than anything else, especially since three of them are actually mine.”

Jonathan P. Raymond, New Rochelle’s school superintendent, wrote Dec. 31 that a week in remote learning would allow the district wait for a shipment from the state and sign up more students to in-school surveillance testing.

Some schools announcing their decision to temporarily close cited the closing of other districts — adding to an uneasy sense of falling dominoes. Mt. Vernon, N.Y., announced a two-week period of remote learning, he pointed to the closure of some schools in Maryland, where, on Dec. 17, Prince George’s County became the first major district to announce an extended shift to virtual teaching.

Omicron is more contagious that previous iterations, but early signs suggest it is less severe. Harvard Dr. Allen stated that schools can still follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s existing recommendations, particularly because children are so low-risk of developing serious complications from Covid-19. These measures include vaccinations, masking, handwashing, and the use of portable filters. Cracking windows is also an option.

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine boosters for 12- to 15-year-olds, but child and teenage vaccination rates have been disappointing in many places.

The C.D.C. The C.D.C. recommends that you test to stay. This involves having close contacts with positive virus cases given frequent rapid tests. Only those who are positive must stay home.

Many schools lack the rapid antigen testing they need.

Dr. Allen acknowledged that rapid testing were rare.

“We’ve been calling for rapid testing for a year and a half,” he said. “I find it stunning that the country has so failed to prioritize kids.”

Still, many parents said that despite the difficulties of closures, they trusted their children’s schools to make the right call.

Lorenzo Spencer, whose son is a freshman at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, said he was not surprised by the district’s announcement of a three-day closure — without remote learning — to test its 8,000 employees.

“There’s no playbook for what we’re going through,” Mr. Spencer said. “As long as they’re doing what they can do to stay safe, I’m all for it.”

Reporting was provided by Giulia Hiward, Patricia Mazzei, Tariro Mzezewa, Eliza Shapiro Mitch Smith.