School leaders across the D.C. region are scrambling to prepare classrooms for students in the fall.

In Northern Virginia, school systems in Fairfax County and Loudoun County are giving families an option of sending students to school twice a week. In D.C. Public Schools, Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee told teachers the school system would rely on a mix of virtual and in-person instruction.

But at least one charter school in the District, D.C. International School, says it will remain closed and continue with distance learning for most students until at least the end of the first grading quarter, which ends in October. 

Mary Shaffner, the school’s executive director, told parents in an email Thursday that  the school would not be able to accommodate students’ schedules or follow social distancing guidelines in classrooms because of space constraints.

“Everybody wants kids to be back in school,” Shaffner said in an interview. “But we also have to balance the healthy and safety of students.”

Shaffner said the school, which is located on the Walter Reed campus in Northwest D.C., will provide optional, in-person instruction for about 200 students who struggled with distance learning in the spring. D.C. International educates 1,420 students in grades 6 to 12, all of whom participate in the International Baccalaureate program. 

The District is in Phase 2 of reopening, which allows schools to partially open. Under Phase 2, students must remain in the same group of 12, including at lunch and in the restroom, according to guidelines from the Office of the State Superintendent for Education. The guidelines also require six feet of distance between each person in a school. No more than 12 people will be allowed in a room at once.

Shaffner said her staff could not create class schedules that matched students’ needs and kept them in the same group of students. Charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run, have also long struggled to find building space in the city. 

D.C. Public Schools have yet to release detailed school reopening plans to families at its 115 campuses. School system leaders plan to offer 11,500 students an optional, in-person summer program for two weeks in August to help students transition into the third, sixth and ninth grades. 

Charter schools, which educate nearly half of the city’s public schoolchildren, can make individual decisions about reopening, as long as they comply with public health guidelines.  

School systems across the Washington region and country are grappling with how to safely return to school after the coronavirus forced teachers and students to hastily transition to distance learning in the spring. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics, a national association of pediatricians, has advocated for in-person classes in the fall. The group said remote learning will likely result in severe learning loss and social isolation that can lead to serious emotional and health issues for students. 

Families in Fairfax County Public Schools, one of the largest school systems in the country, can choose between two plans. Under the first, students would attend class virtually four days during the week and spend one day learning independently. Under the second, students would spend at least two days a week in school and would learn independently on the days they are not in school. 

Many parents have urged school systems to reopen, and this week President Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from schools that remain closed. But teachers unions have argued that plans for reopening have not adequately addressed health and safety concerns, including who will pay for personal protective equipment.  

“Washington’s teachers fully support efforts to return to in-person learning,” Washington Teachers Union President Elizabeth Davis said last week. “But it must be done in a manner that protects the health of our teachers, students and communities.”