As students returned after winter break in early January, Vermont schools struggled to hold classes amid a surge in cases. Faced with staffing shortages and students out sick, many closed their buildings just days after reopening.
Fast-forward to last week. Students returned from spring break amid another rise in Covid-19 cases. School mask mandates are a thing of the past. And, after state officials ended Covid-19 testing programs in schools, many students are not getting tested for the virus, administrators say.
Attitudes around the virus in schools appear to have undergone a dramatic change in the past three months. In interviews or in messages, administrators around the state described school communities that were no longer preoccupied with Covid-19 – in some cases, despite rising case counts and fears that the virus is spreading undetected.
