All Fulton County High Schools Transition To Remote Learning

FULTON COUNTY, GA — Due to an increase of coronavirus cases in the community, Fulton Schools Superintendent Mike Looney made the decision to switch to remote learning for all high schools beginning Wednesday. Wednesday through Friday are already half-days due to final exams, and with the higher number of recent cases occurring at the high school level, the decision was made to switch to remote learning until the end of the week. North Springs High School, however, began remote learning on Tuesday, due to the impact of quarantining and staff absences. Schools will communicate schedule details regarding those days.

For elementary and middle schools, the district said it will continue to follow the school-by-school process when determining whether to switch to remote learning, hoping to keep schools open as long as it is safe and operationally possible.

However, due to the number of cases and staff quarantines, the following schools have reached a Level 2 on the Fulton County Schools Closing Matrix and will switch to remote learning through Friday:

• Renaissance Elementary School
• Evoline C. West Elementary School
• Hopewell Middle School
• McNair Middle School
• Webb Bridge Middle School

Return-to-School Plan – Second Semester

Fulton County's return-to-school plan for the second semester includes a two-week transition that begins remotely for staff/students and ends with in-school learning.

• Week of Jan. 4-8:
  • Second semester begins for students on Jan. 6.
  • Jan. 5, was added to Jan 4, as a teacher workday/student holiday because many schools are election polling sites.
  • All PreK-12 students will participate in remote learning Jan. 6 - 8.
• Week of Jan. 11-15:
  • Middle and high school students will participate in remote learning on Jan. 11 and Jan. 12, while elementary students return to school for Face-to-Face instruction, if they chose the in-person learning model for second semester.
  • On Jan. 13, PreK-12 students (except those who chose remote learning) will come back for Face-to-Face instruction.

Voluntary COVID-19 Testing

Similar to the return from Thanksgiving break, students and employees are encouraged to seek COVID-19 testing before returning to a school or a Fulton County Schools workplace if they:

1. have traveled out of state/country during winter break
2. participated in any large gatherings
3. suspect being exposed to COVID-19
4. currently have/had flu-like or COVID-like symptoms

On Jan. 2, Fulton County Schools will again partner with CORE to host drive-up testing sites at two Fulton County Schools locations, one in North Fulton and one in South Fulton. These locations are still being confirmed and will be communicated before the end of the week. Each site can administer up to 500 tests, so families and employees are encouraged to undergo testing through any health provider – a family physician, urgent care center, CORE test site, health department, pharmacy drive-up lane, etc. This link is not an exhaustive list of all local providers who offer COVID-19 testing, but it provides information on free test sites coordinated specifically by the Fulton County Board of Health.

COVID-19 testing is completely voluntary. However, being able to identify individuals with COVID-19 is a critical, proactive measure to keeping infected individuals from unintentionally spreading the virus to others. When COVID-19 testing was recommended after the Thanksgiving holiday, the two Fulton Schools CORE test sites reported 64 positive results, which led to notifying those individuals so they could quarantine and not continue to spread the virus. The Jan. 2 test date aims to similarly identify infected individuals so they do not return to school or work until they are well.

CORE has again agreed to expedite the reporting process from the Fulton Schools sites, with most results reported within 48 hours. Those not receiving results within that timeframe should not come to a Fulton Schools workplace or school until results are received. Parents whose children undergo testing are reminded to make a report to the school district’s Parent (Student) COVID-19 Reporting Portal. Employees should email covid@fultonschools.org (with their phone number) if they have a positive result, are still waiting for their test results, or have had direct contact with someone testing positive.