Study shows most U.S. schools will open remotely; 25% on campus

Aug. 11 (UPI) -- More than half of K-12 public school students in the United States will attend classes remotely to start the fall period, a study showed Tuesday.

Data service provider Burbio found that 52% of U.S. students will attend classes online, at least initially, and 44% will attend in-person either full- or part-time.

The survey found that a quarter of students at public K-12 schools will attend in-person each day.

"We expect this situation to stay fluid for the entire academic year and we will continue to measure it," Burbio co-founder Julie Roche said. "Many districts have thresholds for COVID-19 levels that could result in converting back to remote learning. Other districts are planning to revisit the 'online' decision as soon as September and could convert to in-person models."

The figures were compiled with data from 80,000 public district calendars in all 50 states and showed a shift toward remote learning.

"We have seen a dramatic shift to online only learning in the past three weeks," she said. "Large districts such as Chicago, and Sun Belt cities such as Houston and Miami, along with large suburban districts such as Fairfax County, Va., were all setting plans to return with in-person learning and shifted to fully remote."

The shift to remote learning is especially prevalent in the United States' 200 largest districts -- 66% of which will begin the year with remote learning.