APS considers summer school for all students, conducts COVID testing

By Collin Kelley

Atlanta Public Schools is considering a plan to require students in all grade levels to attend three years of summer school classes to make up for “unfinished and lost learning,” according to Superintendent Dr. Lisa Herring.

Herring said during last month’s Atlanta Board of Education meeting the APS Academic Recovery and School Based Intervention Plan would be a multi-year plan to address learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Herring said the Summer Academic Recovery Academy would focus on literacy and math for 15,000 elementary students, 5,000 middle school students, and 8,000 high school students. Classes would be offered inperson or virtually at home.

“This would be a full five-day schedule over several weeks,” Herring said. “In addition, there would be social, emotional, behavioral, and wellness support as well as transportation.”

Herring said an extended school year for students with disabilities is also under consideration along with additional schoolbased learning during the academic year to address literacy, math, and to conduct comprehensive assessments of each student’s education.

APS students returned to the classroom for the first time in nearly a year in phased return that began at the end of January. The school system is using surveillance testing to prevent an outbreak of the virus in schools.

The surveillance testing program, being conducted by local vendor Viral Solutions, is part of APS’s strategy to mitigate COVID-19 in schools and the community by providing extensive testing for students, teachers, and staff with and without symptoms and those who have had contact with someone with COVID-19 in the school or workplace.

As part of its testing strategy, APS has developed cluster-based testing options (Jackson, South Atlanta, Washington, and Mays) at its health clinics for students and staff. APS also partnered Viral Solutions and Emory University to start a drive-up and walk-up testing site at Douglass High School.

For more information on APS’s COVID-19 testing strategy, visit atlantapublicschools.us/COVID-testing.