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Across the country, students are headed back to school. And across the country, the Delta variant is causing spikes in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, particularly in places with low

vaccination rates.

U.S. schools have been operating in a pandemic for nearly a year and a half, yet the tension between wanting to provide in-person learning and keep school communities safe seems to be at an

all-time high. Debates over COVID precautions are raging, too. And all of it has educators and school leaders fatigued.

Still, the bell sounds. The school doors open. And, kids (some vaccinated, some masked, and some not) flood in. Even the anxiety and uncertainty of today can’t overtake the nerves and

excitement that typically characterize the first days of schools.

What does this mix of emotions look like? Take a look at our photo gallery to get a sense of how back-to-school is going.

a student a high-five as parents, city officials, teachers, and others welcome students back for the first day of school at Shannon Elementary School on Aug. 5.Thomas Wells/The Northeast

Mississippi Daily Journal via AP Students wait for their teacher on the first day of school at the Normont Early Education Center in Harbor City, Calif., on Aug. 16. California, as well as

14 other states and the District of Columbia, require students and adults to wear masks in school.Brittany Murray/The Orange County Register via AP Joann Marcus of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,

left, cheers as she listens to the Broward County school board's emergency meeting on July 28, in Fort Lauderdale. Florida, and seven other states, have prohibited school districts from

imposing mask requirements.Marta Lavandier/AP Swartz Creek resident Amy Rouleau holds up a sign that labels wearing masks as child abuse during a protest against a mandatory mask mandate in

schools on Aug. 18 outside the Genesee County Administration Building in Flint, Mich.Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP Protesters against a COVID-19 mask mandate gesture as they are escorted

out of a Clark County school board meeting at the government center on Aug. 12 in Las Vegas. In Nevada, masks are required to be worn in schools.Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal

via AP Resident Holly Sweet, who supports wearing masks, walks into the Charles C. Mason Education Service Center in Tulsa, Okla., before a school board meeting on Aug. 11.John Clanton/Tulsa

World via AP Rosa Vargas and her son, 9th grader Victor Loredo, walk home after getting tested at a Los Angeles Unified school district COVID-19 testing and vaccination site on April 15.

California was the first state in the nation to require all teachers and school staff to get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.Damian Dovarganes/AP Raizah Touch swabs her son

Skyzell Touch, 6, for a coronavirus test at Northridge Middle School in Los Angeles on Aug. 11. The L.A. school district is embarking on a colossal effort to screen every single student,

teacher, and staff member—more than half a million people—for COVID-19 once a week.Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via TNS Registered nurse Dianne Moellering, left, gives Jose Luis

Villanueva Hernandez his first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine as his daughter Natalie, 2, watches during a vaccination clinic at Ritenour High School on Aug. 11 in St. Louis County, Mo.

"I didn't feel nothing," said Hernandez.David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP Davis Eidahl, a science teacher at Pekin High School in Packwood, Iowa, says he has no plans to get the

COVID-19 vaccine, despite public-health guidance. So far, nearly 90 percent of teachers across the country have been vaccinated, according to a recent EdWeek Research Center surv

ey.Rachel Mummey for Education Week Principal Andrea Harper hugs a student as she and Superintendent Kent P. Scribner greet students on Aug. 16, the first day of classes at T.A. Sims

Elementary School in Fort Worth, Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott has issued an executive order preventing mask mandates across the state.Yffy Yossifor/Star-Telegram via AP Russell Rakestraw II hugs

his son, Russell Rakestraw III, in front of the 4th grader’s elementary school on the first day of classes in Richardson Texas, on Aug. 17. Despite Gov. Greg Abbott's executive order banning

mask mandates, the Richardson Independent district and many others across the state are requiring masks for students.LM Otero/AP Orchard Knob Middle School Assistant Principal Michael

Calloway squirts sanitizer onto students’ hands as they arrive for the first day of school at Orchard Knob Middle School in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Aug. 12.Robin Rudd/Chattanooga Times Free

Press via AP Student ambassadors line up for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and the first day of school at the new Hannah Marie Brown Elementary in Henderson, Nev., on Aug. 9. At schools in and

around Las Vegas, masks were required.Yasmina Chavez/Las Vegas Sun via AP Victoria Dickens wears a mask and face shield as she waits for her class assignment at Summit Elementary School in

Summit, Miss., on Aug. 5, during the first day of the 2021-22 school year.Matt Williamson/The Enterprise-Journal via AP Masked students wait to go to their classrooms on the first day of

school at Enrique S. Camarena Elementary School on July 21 in Chula Vista, Calif. The school was among the first in the state to start the 2021-22 school year with full-day, in-person

learning.Denis Poroy/AP Students make their way to class for the first day of school at Tustin Ranch Elementary School in Tustin, Calif., on Aug. 12.Paul Bersebach/The Orange County Register

via AP

Jaclyn Borowski Follow Unfollow Director of Photography & Videography,  Education Week Jaclyn Borowski is the director of photography and videography for Education Week. twitter email

linkedin Stacey Decker Deputy Managing Editor for Digital,  Education Week Stacey Decker was the deputy managing editor for digital at Education Week. twitter linkedin Related Tags: Back to

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