Schools across the US are bracing for impact as Omicron spreads and threatens to disrupt in-person learning

• Schools are reopening their doors and implementing new measures to protect against the Omicron variant as it sweeps the nation.
• Some teachers have called on schools to reopen virtually until the surge of the virus dies down.

As the Omicron variant spreads nationwide, schools across the country are bracing for impact, with many taking new measures in an effort to protect students and employees from the spread of the virus.

In California, the Los Angeles Unified School District — the second-largest in the country — will require a negative COVID test for all students and employees regardless of vaccination status once in-person learning resumes on January 11, a spokesperson told Insider. Some districts, like Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida, are re-enforcing strict facial covering requirements for all students and faculty members. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, the school district decided to shut down for two days after the winter break to test students and faculty against the coronavirus ahead of their return.

These sweeping updates reflect an uncertain educational landscape as the coronavirus pandemic endures and the highly contagious Omicron variant leads to a surge in cases.

Meanwhile, most schools in the US have remained open for in-person learning despite battling staff shortages. In New York — once again considered the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic — urged parents to send their kids to school.

"We lost almost two years of education," Adams said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "We can't do it again."

But parents like Caitlin Meister, a Brooklyn mom and the founder of a private tutoring educational consulting practice, told Insider her office has been nonstop fielding calls from anxious New York City parents.

"We have been inundated with calls, texts, and emails from parents concerned about the Omicron variant, how it's affecting their kids' schools, how different schools around the city have changed plans (sometimes multiple times in a few days), how they're feeling about sending their kids to school, and how they're planning to provide stability to their kids as schools grow increasingly unstable," she said.

A teacher shortage is forcing schools to either adjust quickly or disrupt in-person learning

Ahead of the return to the classroom on Monday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said superintendents were "getting phone calls learning that some of their schools may have 5-10% of their staff not available due to COVID-19."

To navigate staff shortages, local governments and school districts have taken distinct measures to fill vacancies by reallocating employees, opening positions to retired teachers and college students, and providing pay incentives.

In Michigan, a new law was put in place ahead of the return to school, allowing staff like cooks and bus drivers to fill in as substitute teachers.

"Allowing schools to employ school staff that students know as substitute teachers will help keep school doors open and students learning in the classroom the rest of the school year," Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said when she signed the bill at the end of December.

A spokesperson for the Houston Independent School District in Texas told Insider that it's partnering with local universities and nonprofits to "help source talent to fill the gap and to develop a pipeline for talent for future years."

Chicago Public Schools has a 2.7% teacher vacancy rate, a district spokesperson said in an email to Insider. While the school system had a teacher attendance rate of 82% as of January 3, school administrators are trying to cover classes and have an ongoing search for substitute teachers, the spokesperson said. As an incentive, the district is offering an extra $1,000 a month to substitute teachers who come into work during the entirety of January 2022 and hit specific teaching assignment quotas.

But some teachers have expressed a fear of working in person because of Omicron. One New York City high school teacher, who requested anonymity due to a fear of retaliation, said she believes there are "essentially no additional COVID mitigations amidst the Omicron spread."

"They have not done enough to actually make schools safe while they're open. We already had so many students testing positive," the teacher said. "It's just a Petri dish. Everyone who goes is going to be exposed, guaranteed. And it's absurd that the mayor is pretending like schools are safe and that the union is also not doing enough to protect us."

A spokesperson for the United Federation of Teachers told Insider that the city's public schools received over 1 million rapid test kits, and schools have access to over 1.25 million KN95 masks for adults working at the schools.

Even so, the high school teacher said the distribution of the masks has been spotty, and students usually struggle to keep them on all day. While data from the Department of Education was not available for January 3, approximately 2,010 students and 1,324 staff tested positive as of December 30, 2021.

Michael Mulgrew, the leader of the United Federation of Teachers, advised Mayor Adams "that it would be safest to allow our school system to go remote temporarily until we could get a handle on the staffing challenges," a UFT spokesperson told Insider.

However, Adams "feels strongly that schools need to remain open," Mulgrew said, according to a statement.

During the first week of January, school closures spiked, according to Burbio, a website that tracks school closures and school responses to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 3,200 K-12 public schools closed nationwide, the data says, surpassing the rate at any other point since August 2021, when the threat of the Delta variant loomed.

Government officials including Education Secretary Cardona continue to direct schools to "act with urgency" and to leverage the federal aid allocated for COVID-19 relief to contend with staff shortages.

Low vaccination rates put children at risk

Students have been left vulnerable to contracting COVID-19, especially since vaccination rates among children between the ages of 5 to 11 are low and hospitalizations are at a record high.

A recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation has found that enthusiasm among parents when it comes to vaccinating their kids "appears to have slowed," especially children aged 5 to 11.

Dr. Amira Roess, an epidemiologist and professor at George Mason University, told Insider that children who have not received their shots are most at risk and emphasized the importance of keeping asymptomatic individuals who test positive out of school.

"​​School age students will be more likely to become infected at school. However, vaccinated students and most healthy children will have mild symptoms or will be asymptomatic," Roess said. "One issue we are facing is that among unvaccinated children the rate of severe illness is significantly higher than among vaccinated children. While the rates are low overall the sheer number is starting to increase as more children become infected."

The New York City teacher told Insider she believes her students would be safer in a remote-learning setting.

"We should utilize remote [learning] as a tool when there are outbreaks, like now. Remote is manageable," she said. "Teachers have done it, and we can do it again. It's not ideal, but it's better than letting Omicron or any next outbreak go wild when we have this tool that we already know how to use."