Tens of thousands of public school students in the District are scheduled to return to classrooms in less than a week. Adina Ellis does not know if her six-year-old son, Cassius Cato, will be among them.

“For our family, it’s going to be a game day decision,” Ellis said.

Ellis wants her son to continue learning at home, as he did all of last school year. But city officials are only allowing children to participate in distance learning for the 2021-2022 year if a physician determines it is medically necessary.

An increasingly vocal contingent of parents are raising issues with the District’s reopening plans and have demanded the city broaden virtual options to children under 12 until that age group is eligible for coronavirus vaccines. They say the delta variant, a highly contagious strain of the virus that is driving most new infections in the country, should change the calculus on bringing students back to buildings.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has held firm on her decision to fully reopen campuses. At a press conference last week D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee said the school system has no plans to expand virtual instruction.

“The best place, the most ideal place for our students is in the classroom,” he said. “There are so many benefits academically, socially and emotionally, that we can’t wait to get back.”

So far, the school system has granted 98 medical exemptions for in-person learning for the upcoming school year, which begins Aug. 30. About 150 families applied, according to Ferebee.

Charter school operators, which educate about half of the city’s public school students, are also responsible for granting medical exemptions of their own. The city is not tracking how many have been granted through charters.

Ellis, whose son is entering the first grade at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Public Charter School in Brookland, said her father died after contracting COVID-19 last year and she fears sending Cassius back to school as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations rise. She is exploring homeschooling, an option record numbers of families in D.C., Maryland and Virginia chose last last year after learning moved mostly online.

“I know what it looks like for someone to have COVID,” Ellis said. “I’m just deeply concerned about putting my child in a situation where I don’t feel like he is fully protected.”

Ten percent of new coronavirus cases in the District are occurring among children 5 to 14 years old, D.C. Department of Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt said earlier this month.

More children are likely becoming infected with COVID-19 because delta is far more transmissible than the original strain of the virus, but it is not yet clear if the variant is more harmful to young people.

Physicians groups and teachers unions have urged that schools fully reopen with precautions such as masking. In May, the D.C. chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement reiterating the value of in-person learning.

“Schools and school-supported programs are fundamental to child and adolescent development and well-being,” the statement said. “Virtual, distance-learning should be available only when necessary, to students with certain high-risk medical conditions.”

Still, some school districts in the region have created more flexible policies on virtual learning.

In Maryland, Prince George’s County Public Schools is offering an online option to students in kindergarten through sixth grade until a vaccine is available to children under 12. Montgomery County Public Schools will allow students to participate in a virtual academy if they or someone they live with has a qualifying health concern or another extenuating circumstance.

And Arlington County Public Schools in Virginia, which educates about 26,500 students, provided a virtual option to all families for the upcoming school year. About 800 students are enrolled, according to the school system.

While New York City Public Schools, the country’s largest school system, is not offering any form of fully remote learning, other major cities are offering more flexibility. Los Angeles Unified School District allowed all students to opt-out of in-person instruction. The School District of Philadelphia expanded its preexisting virtual academy to students in younger grades.

The push for virtual learning in D.C. has generated traction in recent weeks. Nearly 1,000 people have signed an online petition urging the city to offer distance learning to young children.

Several parents and educators expressed skepticism over the city’s reopening plans during a State Board of Education meeting last week. Some wanted the city to strengthen safety protocols for in-person learning, others pleaded for an option to keep their children home.

One of the parents who testified was Tyesha Andrews, a Bellevue resident who has two boys enrolled at Plummer Elementary School and at Jefferson Middle School Academy. Neither of her children — ages 5 and 11 — are eligible for a coronavirus vaccine and do not have health conditions that would qualify them for a medical exemption.

If Andrews had the choice, she said her children would stick with virtual learning. But she plans to send them back when classes start next week because she fears the consequences of defying the city’s in-person mandate: children 5 through 13 who accumulate 10 or more unexcused absences within a school year must be referred to the city’s Child and Family Services Agency, according to D.C. law.

“Sending my children back to school is putting their lives at risk,” she said. “It’s shameful for them to be required to attend during this pandemic.”

Even if the city expands virtual instruction, distance learning simply isn’t an option for some families. Many parents need to return to work because protections in place during the pandemic will soon end, including the the city’s eviction moratorium and extended unemployment benefits, according to Marla Dean, head of the Ward 7 Education Council.

It has put families at a loss.

“People are just trying to figure out what options they have because they are clear that they need to go to work, they need to figure out how to pay their rent,” she said. “People are afraid.”

City leaders have sought to assure families of health and safety measures on campuses. All schools are requiring face masks indoors, cafeterias will be set up for social distancing, and all staff must get vaccinated or agree to weekly coronavirus testing.

Bowser said last week that coronavirus cases in schools will likely rise as more students return to classrooms, as it did when summer camps opened or as travel increased. She said the city monitors cases daily and will notify families of any concerning trends.

“We will see more cases but we don’t anticipate those cases will be more than what we see in the general population,” Bowser said.

But some parents want the safety protocols to go further. A coalition representing dozens of parents submitted a letter to Bowser requesting several changes, including weekly testing of more students and staff who return in person.

D.C. Public Schools currently plans to test 10 percent of students each week but students must get written permission from parents, raising concerns many students will not return the required form. Instead of having students opt-in to testing, the coalition of parents wants all students and staff to get tested unless they opt out.

They also want the city to require people to quarantine if they share a room with a person who tests positive for COVID-19, regardless of vaccination status. Schools are following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which say vaccinated students and staff who are close contacts of someone who tests positive do not need to quarantine if they are not showing symptoms.

Sapna Pandya and her wife have been preparing their three-year-old daughter for preschool since April. They created a learning pod with another family to ease their child into the idea of “big school.” They started bringing her on trips to the grocery store so she could practice wearing a face mask for longer periods of time. The preschooler picked out a Doc McStuffins backpack.

But Pandya is reconsidering sending her daughter to school amid the rise in the delta variant. She would feel more comfortable sending her daughter to school if preschoolers ended the day before nap and lunch so the children do not spend time together unmasked.

Pandya sees the value of having her daughter socialize with peers. The girl once freely approached other kids on the playground but now backs away from others.

As the first day of school draws near, Pandya remains torn.

“I go to sleep with a pit in my stomach every night,” she said. “And I wake up, it’s like Groundhog Day. We still have this dark cloud looming over us.”