Missouri schools add virtual, hybrid options as COVID-19 cases mount

Claudette Riley
Springfield News-Leader

As of Thursday, 88 percent of all Missouri school districts offered students the option of learning in person at least part of the week.

However, only 181 of the 557 districts rely solely on in-person learning, and most are small.

A growing number of Missouri districts have added virtual learning options or moved to hybrid models, a mix of in-person and virtual learning each week.

That trend will likely continue until there are fewer COVID-19 cases in communities and across the state.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has kept track of the changes through its "Patterns of Instruction" map. There have been shifts since classes started last month.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has been tracking patterns of instruction during the 2020-21 year.

Mallory McGowin, communications coordinator for DESE, said districts developed plans to make changes as the situation warranted.

"One of our primary goals throughout the pandemic has been to look at what flexibility we can provide schools and school leaders and what barriers we can remove so that they can be laser-focused on responding to this pandemic and altering their operations to make these necessary adjustments," she said.

More:MO teacher union requests DESE track, publicly report COVID-19 cases

The state's map is updated as needed. "When we are aware there has been a shift by a (district) we make an adjustment," she said.

As of Sept. 17, 255 districts — or nearly 46 percent — were seated with a virtual option. A hybrid or blended option was available in 58 districts, or slightly more than 10 percent, and 63 districts were fully virtual.

There are 181 districts, or 32 percent, that only offer in-person learning but many are smaller. They represent only 93,119 students or 10.5 percent of the state's entire K-12 enrollment for last year.

DESE uses different terminology for its map: "Onsite" is in person, "distanced" is virtual and "blended" is hybrid.

As of Sept. 11, McGowin said: "There had been 24 (districts) across the state that have changed from one pattern of instruction to another so that is about 4.3 percent."

Additional changes were recorded this week including Niangua. The district resumed Aug. 11 with options. About 90 percent of students chose to learn in person, 7 percent opted for virtual and 3 percent chose hybrid.

The Niangua district has 320 students.

This week, Niangua switched to virtual only and will remain that way until at least Oct. 6 after two employees and a student tested positive for COVID-19. Quarantine would be a challenge as all 320 students learn on the same campus.

"We share all the kids and have some teachers that teach all the grade levels. We knew if we got cases we'd have to go virtual, so we planned for that," said Superintendent T. J. Bransfield. 

"We made the decision early Tuesday morning that we would go virtual."

He said the district started preparing for the possibility of moving to full virtual learning in the spring. Niangua used federal CARES Act funds to buy take-home technology for the students plus WiFi hotspots.

T.J. Bransfield

He said all school leaders he communicates with regularly developed contingency plans because of the pandemic.

Bransfield, also the principal for grades 6-12, said parents and teachers were aware the switch might happen this fall. "We knew it was going to hit us at some point, and we were prepared."

In southwest Missouri, Niangua is one of only four districts that are fully virtual. Others include Bronaugh, Northeast Vernon County and Bolivar.

There are a number of sizable districts that are fully virtual elsewhere in Missouri, including Kansas City, St. Louis City, Columbia and St. Joseph.

Springfield, the largest district in the state, is a hybrid model. Currently, 26 percent of the students are fully virtual and the others learn virtually at least one day a week. Most are virtual learners three days a week.

More:Springfield district enrollment drops by 1,397 students this fall

"As SPS developed its re-entry plan, staff consulted with a number of Missouri school districts similar in size to gather information and share strategies. Most of them were in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas," said Stephen Hall, chief communications officer. "We also reviewed general hybrid models that have been deployed in Missouri and across the country."

Kraft Administration Building

Hall said none of the districts that Springfield initially consulted ended up with the same hybrid model.

More:Amid COVID-19 surge, West Plains schools flip to hybrid model

"While initially many of the Missouri school districts planned to deploy a blended model like SPS, some ultimately modified their plans due to the evolving impact of COVID-19 in their communities," he said.

The hybrid approach was adopted by districts in the Kansas City area including Liberty, North Kansas City, Park Hill and Independence.

Districts in the southwestern part of the state that use hybrid learning include Cabool, Dallas County, Lebanon and West Plains. 

Claudette Riley is the education reporter for the News-Leader. Email news tips to criley@news-leader.com and consider supporting vital local journalism by subscribing. Learn more by visiting News-Leader.com/subscribe.