Alex ArgerAround the country, efforts to reopen schools... pushed in many cases by parents anxious for their children to get out of the house ... and back into the classroom.
"We believe that we have to reopen schools. We've been closed for almost a year now. And as a school system we're starting to see the effects of being closed. Many of our students aren't logging on. We are seeing African-American and Latinx students being particularly hard hit. And our goal is to give every parent an option."
But not everyone is on board, including some teachers. They want vaccinations and other protocols put into place before coming back, setting up a showdown Monday in Chicago. Teachers unions are also pushing back in places like Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Oakland...Buffalo, New York.
"This is the one time, we're in the middle of a pandemic, we have a new variant coming. This is the one time teachers just can't do it all without any resources. We actually need someone to help us."
President Joe Biden wants most Kindergarten through eighth grade students back in class by late April as long as there are safety measures in place.
Though Dr. Anthony Fauci has supported the CDC's guidelines to reopen, he told teachers unions last week that the president's time frame might not be possible with new virus variants spreading through the country.
Nationwide, it's hard to tell exactly where and how many schools currently have in-person learning because of the size and nature of the school system. But a study looking at two K-12 U.S. schools found kids didn't spread the virus in schools that had aggressive COVID prevention protocols.
