What will the upcoming school year look like?

FOX 29's Chris O'Connell has the story.

GARNET VALLEY, Pa. - What will back-to-school look like this year? Some districts are already announcing plans to open schools for full in-person instruction, while others will use a "hybrid" online approach. Either way it will be way different this fall.

“I don’t know how they are going to get everybody in the school at the same time, the spacing,” said Sharon Kistler, the parent of a rising Springfield High School senior.

Like Kistler, many people have questions about how school will be conducted in the fall. The Springfield School District has announced that they plan on having in-person instruction in the fall.

“In the classroom, I’m concerned about the closeness factor and the germs and that sort of thing. But I do want him to go back to school,” said Kistler.

“We have foggers [and] hand sanitizing stations. We’re changing out water fountains to put in the bottle fill stations,” said Marc Bertrando, the Superintendent of Garnet Valley School District.

Garnet Valley Schools will also have a host of new safety rules, including a three to six foot social distance model and a ‘mask and hygiene’ program. Officials say that though they have become more precautionary, canceled classes have set them back.

“What is really negatively impacting our kids is not being in school. Not having the social interactions. Not having the academic interactions. And perhaps that’s doing more to them negatively than actually COVID is,” said Bertrando.

Kevin Hogan, writer and editor for MarketScale, has written about education technology for quite some time. He says that parents should be prepared for a hybrid of in person and online learning, as well as alternating days in school.

“I think you’ll have half the amount of kids in the classroom. I think you’ll have to see some attempts at social distancing,” he said. “This whole school year is going to be one big long experiment on the reinvention of education. And what we’ll have to do is take the best parts of it and use it to apply, and hopefully have a better new reality.”

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