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Usually, this time of the year is filled with back-to-school plans and last-minute vacations as families get prepared for the end of summer vacation.

This year many of those vacations have been canceled and back to school seems to be filled with more question marks than answers. 

It’s important that our students are able to get back to learning in some capacity, whether that’s in-person or through some form of virtual learning, but to be honest, we’re not sure anyone knows exactly what that’s going to look like right now.

We’re sort of all holding our breath, hoping to wake up in a COVID-free world, but that’s not going to happen any time soon.

Our students and teachers are likely going to be heading into a classroom environment unlike any we’ve ever seen. It’s possible that students will be required to wear masks in the classroom.

Some parents might want to keep students at home, where they are safer, rather than send them to school where they might be exposed to the virus. How do they learn, and would those students fall behind those in the classroom?

The Troup County School System is expected to release back to school plans in about a week, and we’ll communicate those plans as quickly as we can. 

The only thing we know for sure is that the return to school won’t be like previous years, and parents will have a lot of questions. 

TCSS and other local schools should make it a mission to over-communicate the message in a variety of formats to ensure parents and students know their options and what they need to do to for the first day of school. 

Over-communicating — especially at a time when people can’t easily congregate — is going to be extremely important as we all march forward into this unknown together.