News Bite

Largest School Districts In Michigan Haven't Opened Classrooms

They’re limiting more than 200,000 students to online instruction only

Not one of Michigan’s 10 largest public school districts have currently opened classes for live instruction. Each of these districts has limited all grades and all students to online, remote instruction only. The 10 districts enrolled 204,449 children in the 2019-20 school year, or 14.2% of all public school students statewide.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District offered face-to-face instruction from Sept. 8 through Nov. 16 and suspended the face-to-face school instruction due to the elevated number of COVID-19 cases, according to the school district.

All told, as of early December there were 398 Michigan school districts in the state, or 48% of all districts, where no classrooms were open for live instruction and all students were limited to online instruction only according to the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative. In just 11 districts, or 1%, where all children can still go to school for in-person teaching in all subjects. The other 51% school districts are providing a combination of online and in-class teaching.

The 10 largest districts are: Detroit Public Schools Community District, Utica Community Schools, Dearborn City School District, Ann Arbor Public Schools, Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, Chippewa Valley Schools, Rochester Community School District, Grand Rapids Public Schools, Livonia Public Schools School District, Warren Consolidated Schools, Walled Lake Consolidated Schools.

Editors note: The information on Detroit Public Schools Community District was added to this story.

 

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.