Summer school won’t be available to all eligible elementary-age students in Arlington County this year because teachers aren’t signing up to take slots, the school system told parents Monday.

“Despite having offered financial incentives to teachers to teach summer school, there are fewer applicants than the number of students who are eligible for summer instruction at the elementary level, making it impossible for APS to offer summer strengthening support to all eligible elementary students,” says a letter to families posted on the school system’s website.

Previously, Arlington County planned to offer in-person summer school classes five days a week to all eligible students, but said programs would be contingent on staffing.

“We understand that this decision is disappointing to families whose children will not be able to participate in summer school and regret that we are unable to serve all elementary students who met the initial eligibility standards as we cannot accommodate waitlists,” the letter says.

The system still plans to offer virtual and in-person summer learning to select elementary-age students, including some students with disabilities, English language learners, and all pre-K students about to enter kindergarten. Eligible children who cannot attend summer school can still receive learning materials remotely. APS expects to release more information about secondary summer school programming next week.

Officials have touted the importance of summer school to help make up for learning loss during the pandemic. The latest federal COVID-19 relief package includes $30 billion for summer school, after-school and other enrichment programs, but teachers across the country have been slow to sign up for teaching slots.

“We’re hearing from the districts that there’s a real staffing challenge for this summer,” the CEO of the National Summer Learning Association, Aaron Dworkin, told Axios.

Teachers nationwide say they’re demoralized and exhausted after more than a year of virtual learning. Many students feel the same way.

In Alexandria, the city’s public school system is now asking parents to fill out a survey about their summer school preferences. The city’s “Summer Learning for All” program includes virtual learning and limited in-person instruction for “targeted students” selected with a “prioritization matrix,” according to ACPS’ website.

Parents in Arlington and Alexandria have lambasted school officials for keeping kids in virtual learning three days a week during the regular school year, while kids in nearby Fairfax and Loudoun returned to school four days per week last month.

In Maryland, the public school systems in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties are offering both in-person and virtual summer learning. D.C. Public Schools plan to provide in-person and virtual summer learning to students in every grade, with the capacity to enroll 23,000 students across all of its summer programs, the city’s Deputy Mayor for Education, Paul Kihn, told the D.C. Council earlier this year.

In Fairfax County, Schools Superintendent Scott Braband told WTOP that summer school will be provided in-person five days a week, and the program “will be at a scale 10 times what is normal for summer school.”

Arlington Public Schools plans to host a virtual meeting about summer learning on Monday, May 17. Another meeting on May 18 will focus on summer learning for students with disabilities.