NATIONWIDE — According to the Pew Research Center, in a normal year nearly 80% of students would be back in school full time by Labor Day. This year, a fraction of students will be back in school in order to limit the spread of COVID-19.

There are obvious reasons to reopen schools: It’s better for kids’ education, mental and emotional well-being, and enables parents to get to work. For children who rely on schools for meals, it’s also a source of stability. But is there a safe way to do it?

Early attempts to reopen point to the challenges of in-person schooling.

A student at Greenfield Central Junior High School in Indiana tested positive within the first few hours of school reopening. In Georgia’s largest public school system, 260 employees tested COVID positive or reported that they’d been exposed to someone who was. In each case, quarantines followed. 

And districts are still adjusting their re-opening plans, with many becoming far less ambitious.

One superintendent in Arizona is so concerned he’s taken his worries national: In a first-person account to the Washington Post, he explained that some of his staff has already tested positive, essential COVID-safety supplies haven’t arrived and he doesn’t know how to keep his students or staff safe. 

“Do I risk opening back up even if it’s going to cost us more lives? Or do we run school remotely and end up depriving these kids?” he asked.

On the other hand, keeping kids home creates added strain for parents who can’t find or afford child care. According to Goldman Sachs, up to 15% of parents with school-age children who were employed pre-COVID, are in danger of dropping out of the workforce if in-person school doesn’t resume in fall. This is likely to be felt hardest by women.

Dr. Fauci says that re-opening schools should be a hyper local decision. “What you like to see is that the infections in your community are on a down trend,” he told News Not Noise. 

“There may be counties in any given state where the infection dynamics in that county is so low that you could open up the school with no restriction and yet in the same state or in a neighboring state, the dynamics may be such that you want to be really careful when you open and do some modification,” Dr. Fauci said. “There are so many things that you can do that are different than just all open or all shut. Those extremes don't have to exist.”

And officials are listening: The majority of states have left the decision to re-open to local school districts. Most have opted for full or partial online classes in the fall.