Most Fayette students will be back in class by March 15. See return dates for all grades.

In-person return dates were set for all Fayette school grades Tuesday night, with school district officials saying most K-12 students would be back in class by March 15.

Kindergarten through second grade students in Fayette County were able to return to school Monday and will continue in-person learning. Under the new schedule released Tuesday night, additional grades will be added to in-person school starting March 3, when grades 3, 4 and 5 will go back to school.

On March 8, students in grades 6, 9 and 12 at the district’s main middle and high schools will return to in-person classes.

The following week, on March 15, grades 7, 8, 10 and 11 at the main middle and high schools will return, as well as preschool students.

At that point, the majority of students in the district will be back to in-person learning. For full details of the plan, go here.

The plan does not offer a return date to in-person school for students who attend some special programs. The district hopes to make an announcement about special programs prior to March 15. In the meantime, several special programs will continue to learn virtually: Carter G. Woodson Academy, Family Care Center, Martin Luther King Academy, Opportunity Middle College, STEAM Academy, Success Academy, The Learning Center and The Stables.

The uncertainty about those programs is tied to a shortage of school bus drivers that the district laid out in detail Monday night.

The determinations are based on expectations that the spread of COVID-19 will continue to decrease. Cases among students or staff could lead to intermittent quarantines or closures of individual classrooms or schools.

“We continue to face challenges with having enough school bus drivers to serve the students enrolled in special programs at the middle and high school levels,” a district news release said. Teachers and leaders from those programs are making individual contacts with families who have chosen in-person learning for their students to determine transportation needs and find solutions.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Fayette County continues to decline, and according to the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department, Tuesday’s 7-Day average is down to 83. Together with the other transition factors in an In-Person Learning Matrix, the data enables the district to continue a graduated return to in-person learning, officials said.

The Fayette district website sets the total student enrollment at 40,981. Some families have asked that their children continue to learn remotely.

On Tuesday, Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order recommending all public and private school districts offer or expand some form of in-person instruction beginning either on March 1, or seven days after school personnel have received their second dose of the vaccine. Beshear said 165 of 171 -- all but six -- Kentucky districts have returned to some form of in-person instruction.

Of those, 38 have all students back in person four or five days a week, 103 have a hybrid schedule of virtual and in-person, and 17 have elementary students in person and middle and high schools on a hybrid program.

Beshear said Kentucky was on track to become the fastest state in the United States to get educators vaccinated.

“At the end of the day, we didn’t vaccinate our educators for nothing,” said Beshear. He said it was so students could return to in-person learning.

Despite lower COVID case numbers, Beshear said there is still concern about transmitting COVID at schools. The executive order requires universal masking for everyone in a school building all the time. He’s asking districts to reduce the density of students in classrooms, halls, buses and other areas and to establish pods of students that stay together.

Beshear is asking districts to evaluate school ventilation systems, provide meaningful virtual learning options, and to regularly review the COVID incident rate map. Beshear is as of March 1, discontinuing a state color coded chart with regard to school reopening decisions.

Beshear at an afternoon news conference said the Fayette County school where where he attended would have to consider how to reduce density because of the number of students and the configuration of the building.

Beshear didn’t mention the school by name, but his online biography said he graduated from Henry Clay High School. Prior to Fayette school’s announcement Tuesday night, Beshear said he didn’t think every student at Henry Clay could attend five days a week and achieve the needed density.

Fayette’s announcement Tuesday did not specifically address density. K-2 students who returned Monday faced a range of new procedures rules related to COVID-19, such as temperature checks at the door, masks-wearing and plexiglass dividers at desk.

Beshear said larger school districts in Kentucky would have greater challenges in having a safe return than small districts, but he thought it was possible.

This story was originally published February 23, 2021 at 9:11 PM.