Private and independent schools have far more autonomy in the decision-making process as opposed to schools in the districts like Shelby County. 

When it comes to returning children to school or keeping them home during a world pandemic, school systems and parents must decide independently what's best for them.

About 80% of public school students are under Shelby County Schools and will start the academic year online. But some suburban schools, charter schools, and state-run schools plan to have a mix of online and in-person instruction.

U of M will reassess the situation in early September. In the meantime, President Rudd notes that the campus never closed and has density of students and staff of 35%-40%.

Collierville's Board of Education passed a resolution Tuesday night calling for five days a week of in-person classes, and giving the superintendent the ability to open schools in "the least restrictive manner" possible. The resolution will be sent to state legislators.

Shelby County teachers held die-in in front of the county building Monday to demand safe schools locally, statewide and nationally as the coronavirus pandemic grows. 

Some parents protested the district’s new in-person option for five days per week. Others feel the district made a difficult call, but the right call.

District officials are also looking for community partners to help parents unable to be home with their school children. 

A protest about police funding moved from Overton Park to the steps of the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center on Saturday. When protesters attempted to move inside 201 Poplar, they were turned away by sheriff's deputies.

But citing the need for districts to adhere to social distancing guidelines, the board granted 56 requests to waive duty-free lunch breaks for teachers. 

The president says the university is lucky it doesn't have many classes with a large-lecture format. 

The $5.9 million investment from NIH builds on $10.8 million the University of Memphis and its partner universities received in 2014 to make better use of medical data collected by sensor devices.

The college will open for virtual classes Aug. 12, and will monitor coronavirus case numbers to decide whether to reopen the campus after Labor Day.

The state Board of Education will consider the first round of requests Friday. That vote will offer an early glimpse of how far Tennessee will go to help schools navigate COVID-19 at the expense of statewide policies aimed at improving the quality of public education. 

A Memphis protest echoes a growing call from teachers to start the school year online as coronavirus cases rise nationwide. A recent study of nearly 65,000 people in South Korea showed that children over age 10 spread the coronavirus as easily as adults do.

Teachers in Tennessee and across the nation face hard choices. Should I return to my school building? Should I pursue a remote teaching option if my district offers one? Should I leave the profession altogether?

The responses from candidates in the five school board races on the Aug. 6 ballot got lively during two forums sponsored by Chalkbeat Tennessee and the social justice organization MICAH.

University Schools — Campus School and University Middle — have announced they will go all-virtual instead of the hybrid plan it previously released to parents.

As leaders around the country make decisions based on wishful thinking, Rhodes College postponed on-campus eduction for the fall semester because it determined it could not safely bring students, faculty and employees back to campus. "It’s about setting your values and having the courage of your convictions," said president Marjorie Hass. If only more leaders would do the same. 

What will happen when some of them test positive for COVID-19? The answers are troubling, and in many cases yet to be determined.

Most schools are planning for a semester combining on-campus and online learning.

Mauricio Calvo’s withdrawal accented the opening day of early voting in Memphis. Preliminary numbers show more than 5,000 people voted early Friday. In getting out of the District 5 school board race, Calvo cited his duties as executive director of Latino Memphis and the disproportionate impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on Latino Memphians. 

Parents who depended on a world where children had places to go and things to do were left to figure out how to teach school-age kids and occupy preschoolers. In many cases, they also had to work while doing those things.

The case pits school districts in Memphis and Nashville against the state over whether Tennessee allocates enough money for K-12 education, especially for its urban students.

If conditions improve, Rhodes is prepared to bring first-year students back to campus in the fall.