It’s the final day of the Atlanta school year, and the first Wednesday in months that students will be in school buildings.
During the pandemic, Atlanta Public Schools reserved Wednesdays for asynchronous learning. Students taking in-person classes remained at home like their virtual classmates and worked independently.
But today , the roughly 40% of students who are learning in-person are expected to come to campus. The district also is asking the remaining online students who have been learning virtually to log in.
Though some parents criticized the four-day-a-week teaching schedule, district officials said it allowed teachers to devote Wednesdays to planning and to supporting students who needed help through one-on-one and small-group sessions. They said it also provided a midweek break to clean school buildings.
In August, APS will do away with asynchronous learning. When classes resume for the 2021-2022 school year, teachers will provide instruction five days a week.
The default option for learning next year will be in-person, though APS did allow students to sign up for a virtual format.