This story was last updated on July 22 at 8:25 a.m.

Three large public school systems in the Washington region will start the school year virtually, joining a growing number of districts that have decided to keep students out of classrooms as coronavirus cases continue to rise across the region.

The Fairfax County School Board approved a new plan Tuesday night  to only provide online classes in the fall, backtracking from earlier plans to give parents a choice between limited in-person instruction and remote learning. Hours later, the Loudoun County School Board endorsed a similar plan for online-only instruction, following a recommendation from Superintendent Eric Williams.

Montgomery County Public Schools also announced Tuesday it would teach virtually through January, instead of gradually bringing students back into classrooms in the fall.

Fairfax Superintendent Scott Brabrand told the school board he recommended starting the school year online because of rising coronavirus cases and incomplete health data. In a letter to the community, Brabrand said the school system arrived at the decision after reviewing health data and gathering input from teachers, students and parents.

“We have determined that full-time online instruction is the only safe option at this time,” he said.

Brabrand said infection rates in Fairfax County are stable but one-third of school workers live outside the county. 

Remote learning will start on September 8 with a four-day week. Braband said he will reassess the situation before August 15 to determine whether schools could offer in-person learning for “our most vulnerable students.”

More school systems have decided to start fall classes online in the last week, as educators increasingly said they do not feel safe returning to campuses in the fall.

Elsewhere in Northern Virginia, school districts in Arlington and Prince William counties will offer virtual-only instruction at the start of the school year. In Maryland, students in Prince George’s County Public Schools will continue with distance learning through January.

Last week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser delayed a decision to reopen schools because she said the city needed more time to monitor COVID-19 trends.

In Fairfax, the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers and the Fairfax Education Association, the county’s teachers unions, sent a letter to Brabrand urging the 189,000-student school system to continue with distance learning. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos singled out the county’s springtime virtual learning as “a disaster” and insisted Fairfax and other school districts “must fully open.”

Brabrand’s proposal to move all classes online caught members of the Fairfax board off-guard. School board member Megan McLaughlin said the county could do more to provide alternatives, including using federal relief money from the CARES Act to improve ventilation inside buildings or teach outside.

“I feel totally blindsided,” McLaughlin said. “Telling us to stay home, on our best behavior, for the foreseeable future, is not the response that I expect from the county.”

On June 23, the school board voted to give families the choice between two learning options.

Under the first option, students would have attended classes virtually four times a week. Under the second, students would have attended school at least twice a week and participate in independent study the rest of the time.

In surveys, students and teachers were divided about returning to school.

Sixty-percent of Fairfax students and 48 percent of teachers indicated they wanted to return to in-person classes. Forty-percent of students and 52 percent of teachers preferred to stay online only.

In a letter to families on Tuesday, Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jack R. Smith said county health officials advised against reopening schools.

Smith said schools will stay closed until at least November 9, the end of the first semester. The school system, which educates nearly 163,000 students, previously planned to start classes online and transition to in-person classes, if county officials deemed it was safe.

“This decision is incredibly difficult as we know how much students need school for their academic success and social-emotional well-being,” Smith said. “We take the immense responsibility of ensuring staff and student safety, educating our students and creating opportunities for all seriously.”

This story was updated to include the Fairfax County Public Schools decision to offer only virtual learning and to include the school board’s final decision in Loudoun County. This story was also corrected to change the attribution of a quote from Megan McLaughlin; an initial version attributed her quote to Laura Jane Cohen.