ATLANTA — This is the last full week of summer break for Atlanta Public Schools students. Classes start next week and will be in person. Students will be required to wear masks.

Dr. Lisa Herring said Atlanta Public Schools is ready to start Aug. 5 with in-person classes and mask-wearing. The school system has a layered safety plan that includes testing for COVID-19.

“We will continue to do surveillance testing; it is available to every child and every employee in Atlanta Public Schools, and we will be doing that weekly,” said Herring.

This year, every child in APS will complete an assessment. This will be used by teachers to identify any pandemic learning gaps.

“We’re also doing this for behavioral and mental health services, universally meaning across all grade levels and across the district so that we have a sense of where they’re starting out, and we’ll progress, monitor that and provide interventions,” said Herring.

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For parents who aren’t comfortable with sending children to school, there’s still a virtual option with separate APS teachers.

Parents who are interested can click here.

This year, APS will be dedicating 30 minutes a day to catching up on reading, math or whatever subject that may require additional time from the student.

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