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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is continuing to assert that schools will reopen for in-person instruction in the fall, announcing Monday that all students will be required to wear masks in school buildings. Murphy said the state Department of Education has updated its reopening guidance document to require face coverings “for all students at all times while inside a school building regardless of social distancing,” unless doing so would inhibit the individual’s health. The updated guidance also includes exceptions for students with disabilities. (Sitrin, 8/3)

This week, 44 Mississippi school districts are resuming in-person instruction for the first time since March, many with safety precautions like mandatory mask-wearing, temperature checks and daily sanitizing. Another six districts are starting this week with only remote instruction. (Willingham, 8/3)

The percentage of parents who say they want full-time, in-person school for their children in the fall has fallen 20 points in recent months, although more still favor it than fully remote classes, according to Gallup. Thirty-six percent of K-12 parents say they favor resuming in-person, full-time classes in the fall, down from 56 percent in May and early June. Twenty-eight percent are currently in favor of full-time remote classes, up 21 percentage points from earlier in the year. Another 36 percent now favor a combination of the two options. (Budryk, 8/3)

Early childhood classrooms are going to look different this year, even if school buildings are open – no desk clusters with kids sharing materials, no cozy circles on the rug, no holding hands on the way to the bathroom. CDC guidelines recommend social distancing, keeping students in one classroom throughout the day, and masks for adults. (In many schools, young children will be encouraged but not required to wear masks.) (Bouffard, 8/4)

As the United States and other countries anxiously consider how to reopen schools, Israel, one of the first countries to do so, illustrates the dangers of moving too precipitously. Confident it had beaten the coronavirus and desperate to reboot a devastated economy, the Israeli government invited the entire student body back in late May. Within days, infections were reported at a Jerusalem high school, which quickly mushroomed into the largest outbreak in a single school in Israel, possibly the world. (8/4)

One overcast morning in a farming village in hilly western India, a group of schoolchildren sat on the mud floor of a wooden shed for their first class in months. There was no teacher, just a voice from a loudspeaker. The recorded lessons form part of an initiative by an Indian non-profit spread over six villages that aims to reach 1,000 students denied formal classes since the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close four months ago. The children sang rhymes and answered questions, with some of them speaking of the loudspeaker as ‘Speaker Brother’ or ‘Speaker Sister.' (Waydande, 8/3)