College reopenings push K-12 schools online

The temperature was in the 70s in State College, Pennsylvania on Friday, but the local school board voted to call a “snow day,” cancel classes, and have students in the town’s public schools stay home. Cases of COVID-19 in the area had spiked, and the school district’s board of directors needed time to decide what to do.

No students or staff in the district were sick. Instead, the local increases were driven by outbreaks at Penn State University.

“We knew that we were opening schools at the same time Penn State was opening,” Amber Concepcion, the school board president, said during a meeting. “We knew there would be a growth curve.”

COVID-19 cases are climbing in college towns around the country, and those outbreaks are forcing local...

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