The state's largest school districts began their week with open doors while at least four smaller districts announced districtwide shifts Tuesday to virtual instruction.
In Clarksville, roughly 100 miles northwest of Little Rock, a surge of covid-19 cases led to a yo-yoing on the school district's reopening decision.
Last week, the Clarksville School District shifted to virtual instruction beginning last Wednesday. After one day of in-person learning, the district -- which has about 2,500 students, according to state data -- on Tuesday announced a shift back to remote learning.
School districts Monday observed the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.
"Yesterday, when the decision was made to reopen schools for onsite instruction, the district had enough staff and substitutes to cover all classes," the district stated Tuesday on its Facebook page. "Overnight an additional 20 staff members became quarantined or sick. Unfortunately, that number has continued to rise today."
The district "will attempt to reopen" Thursday, the message said.
Reopening at the Little Rock School District occurred without any sudden shifts announced Tuesday, though the district's website noted that remote learning would take place all of this week at Baseline Elementary School. Last week, more than 12 schools in the district shifted to virtual instruction for all or part of the week.
Other large districts Tuesday continued with in-person instruction, including the Bentonville School District.
The Springdale School District -- the state's largest -- had most schools open to students Tuesday, but its Sonora Middle School shifted to virtual learning. On Tuesday, the middle school announced in-person learning would resume today, though it also announced that a "major substitute and bus driver shortage" had yet to end.
Another Springdale school, Helen Tyson Middle School, was expected to continue with remote instruction through today.
Among the state's other largest school districts, the Rogers School District, after having a remote learning day Friday, reopened Tuesday.
Elsewhere, smaller school districts -- including the Greenwood School District -- announced Tuesday a shift to online instruction. In Greenwood, southeast of Fort Smith, all of the district's roughly 3,800 students will shift to remote learning for the rest of the week "due to increased staff illness and lack of substitute teachers."
The West Fork School District on Tuesday announced that today and Thursday would shift to remote instruction "in light of a significant increase in COVID -19 cases amongst our students and employees alike." The district, which is south of Fayetteville, has about 870 students.
The Waldron School District announced Tuesday that for today, school would "not be in session," with the district using an "approved" Alternative Methods of Instruction day. The district has about 1,400 students and is roughly 45 miles southeast of Fort Smith.
CASE DISCREPANCIES
Data on covid-19 in colleges and universities showed large discrepancies between cases reported by individual colleges and totals reported by the state Department of Health.
The state report listed 230 active cases of covid-19 among students and workers at the state's colleges and universities as of Tuesday, including 79 at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and 33 at John Brown University -- the two schools listed as having the most active cases.
But UA-Fayetteville alone reported having 149 active cases as of Tuesday. The state report did not list Arkansas State University as having five or more active cases, but the Jonesboro campus listed on its website Tuesday having 97 active cases.
For kindergarten-through-12th-grade schools, the statewide report listed 10,124 active cases among students and staffers at public school districts, down about 16% from an active case total of 12,109 listed in Thursday's statewide report.
Some school districts showed steep drops in cases compared with Thursday, with active cases in the Little Rock School District declining to 220 from 420.
Tuesday's report listed the Bryant School District as having the most active cases with 411, followed by the Fort Smith School District with 352 and the Bentonville School District with 307.
On Jan. 6, the state Department of Education presented new isolation and quarantine guidelines for schools that included a shortening of the isolation time for those with covid-19 to five days, as long as symptoms are gone or improving and no fever is present.
The state's guidelines for schools come after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued similar guidance for the public at large.
But when it comes to reporting cases for the state's covid-19 schools report, "changes in isolation and quarantine did not change the definition of an active case," Health Department spokeswoman Danyelle McNeill said in an email.
As stated previously by McNeill, a case is not considered a recovery until a minimum of 10 days have passed from the onset of symptoms or, for asymptomatic patients, the date of a test.