SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — After a full year of distance learning, San Francisco’s high school seniors will get to return to classrooms for “at least one day” before graduation in a deal between teachers and the school district that drew quick criticism.

The teachers union announced the “exciting news” last weekend that the Class of 2021 will be able to return to classrooms starting Friday. But it left out the details: It calls for seniors to come back to school “for at least one day before the end of the school year,” there will be no in-person instruction and just two of the city’s 15 high schools will be reopened, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday.

Critics said the plan is merely a ploy to tap state funding while failing to serve students.

The announced return date for seniors is one day shy of a May 15 deadline public schools need to meet to qualify for their share of $2 billion in state reopening funds, part of legislation approved this year to encourage school districts that closed in the pandemic to bring students back.

Assemblyman Phil Ting, who authored the legislation, called the plan disappointing. He said he didn’t know if the district’s plan meets the state requirements to receive funding.

“It definitely doesn’t meet the spirit of the law,” the Democrat from San Francisco told the Chronicle. “Kids were supposed to come back in person. Kids were supposed to come back to learn.”

The deal between the district and teachers union does not call for in-person instruction. Instead, it includes “in person supervision” in which students will have activities that might include “end of high school conversations,” or “college and career exploration,” said district officials. San Francisco public schools end the term in early June.

The school board was expected to discuss the plan in more detail at a Tuesday meeting.

San Francisco Unified School District was among the last large school systems in the country to bring students back after campuses were shuttered during the pandemic. Elementary students returned in April.

Its much -criticized reopening followed months of political back-and-forth, labor talks and a lawsuit.

District elementary schools and preschools reopened on a rolling basis, with about 22,000 of the district’s 52,000 students in classrooms. Most middle and high school students have continued with remote learning, though 2,000 upper-grade students in at-risk populations such as special day classes, foster care and homeless situations returned on April 26.

Under Ting’s legislation, school districts were eligible for their full share of funds if they reopened campuses to elementary students and at least one full middle or high school grade by April 1. Districts lose 1% of funding each school day they remain closed after that date and forfeit their entire share of grant funding if they do not meet the minimum requirements by May 15.

Some parents criticized the plan as a blatant money grab that does not address students needs.

“Does this show them that they matter, or just that the money matters?” a school reopening advocacy group, Decreasing the Distance, said in a statement. “One senior told us she wants to return, but not like this. Her reaction: ‘It’s too little too late. School’s over.’”

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President Joe Biden has met his goal of having most elementary and middle schools open for full, in-person learning in his first 100 days in office, according to new survey data, but the share of students choosing to return has continued to lag far behind.

The survey, conducted in March by the Education Department and released Thursday, found that 54% of public schools below high school were offering full-time classroom learning to any student who wanted it. It marks steady progress since January, when the figure was 46%.

But most students were still learning at least partly away from school. Almost 4 in 10 students continued to take all their classes remotely, the survey found, and an additional 2 in 10 were split between classroom and remote learning.

The disparity reflects a trend that has alarmed education officials at all levels: Even when schools reopen, many families have opted to keep students at home for remote learning. It has been most pronounced among Black, Hispanic and Asian American students, most of whom spent no time in a classroom in March, the survey found.

“While we’ve made important progress, I will not be satisfied until 100% of schools are safely open for full time in-person learning for all students,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “The department will continue to work with students, families, educators, states and districts, to ensure our education system serves all students, not just some.”

Among students of all races, there was a modest shift toward classroom learning in March, but gains were largest among whites. Just more than one-half of white students were learning entirely in-person, compared with about one-third of Black and Hispanic students. Only 15% of Asian Americans were learning entirely in the classroom.

Progress has been equally uneven based on geography. One-half of all students in the South and Midwest were learning entirely in-person in March, compared with less than one-fifth in the West and Northeast. Still, the Northeast saw the largest gains, with Connecticut doubling its share of fourth grade students learning fully in-person, from 17% to 35%.

Wyoming had the largest share (94%) of fourth grade students attending full time in the classroom; California (5%) had the lowest. Schools in rural areas were the most likely to be opened. Schools in cities have been the slowest to reopen.

Younger children, who are less likely than adults to get seriously ill from COVID-19, have returned to the classroom at higher rates. As of March, more than 4 in 10 fourth grade students were back in the classroom full time, compared with one-third of eighth graders.

Among Republicans, the survey’s findings were seen as a failure by the White House. North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx, the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, said Biden’s “weak stance” on school reopening has contributed to students’ learning loss.

“Fifty-four percent is a failing grade in any classroom and we need to treat it as such,” Foxx said in a statement. “There is no excuse for this administration’s level of incompetence.”

The latest survey reflects a period of growing momentum in the push to open schools.

In March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said students could sit 3 feet apart in classrooms as long as they are wearing masks; earlier guidance suggested 6 feet. Several states adopted the revised recommendation, allowing more students to return to schools.

At the same time, Biden was pushing states to make teachers and other school workers a priority in vaccine rollouts. Some governors went on to order some or all of their schools to reopen in March, including in Arizona and Oregon.

Since then, schools have continued to reopen. States including Massachusetts and New Hampshire have ordered districts to invite students back to the classroom, and major districts elsewhere have started to reopen, including in San Francisco.

The administration started the survey this year to track the pandemic’s effect on schools and students. It’s based on responses from 3,500 public schools that serve fourth graders and 3,500 schools that serve eighth graders. Several states have declined to participate, including Montana, West Virginia and Utah.

The survey does not include high schools, which pose additional challenges and have been the slowest schools to reopen. Biden has acknowledged that high schools will take longer to reopen because of the higher risk of contagion among older students.

Schools have been a priority for Biden as he works to jump-start the economy and address learning setbacks among students. In March he signed a $1.9 trillion relief bill that included $123 billion to help schools reopen and recover from the pandemic. Last month he proposed a budget that would significantly expand education funding, with a proposal to double Title I money for low-income schools.

Biden in December pledged to reopen “the majority of our schools” in his first 100 days in office. In February he reframed the goal, promising to have most schools from kindergarten through eighth grade opened five days a week in that period.

Cardona has rallied behind Biden’s efforts, saying schools will need help addressing disparities worsened by the pandemic. On Thursday, he urged schools and education officials to “maintain a high level of urgency” even as more schools reopen.

“This success is the result of hard work and intentional collaboration between the administration, states, school districts, educators and families across the country,” he said. “Nothing can replace in-person learning, and thousands of schools have made that a reality for millions of students.”

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Parents of schoolchildren learning from home shouldn’t necessarily count on reclaiming the dining room table any time soon.

After seeing two academic years thrown off course by the pandemic, school leaders around the country are planning for the possibility of more distance learning next fall at the start of yet another school year.

“We have no illusions that COVID will be eradicated by the time the start of the school year comes up,” said William “Chip” Sudderth III, a spokesperson for Durham, North Carolina schools, whose students have been out of school buildings since March.

President Joe Biden has made reopening schools a top priority, but administrators say there is much to consider as new strains of the coronavirus appear and teachers wait their turn for vaccinations.

And while many parents are demanding that schools fully reopen, others say they won’t feel safe sending children back to classrooms until vaccines are available to even young students. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top public health expert, said late last month the Biden administration hopes to begin vaccinating children by late spring or early summer.

By then, districts will be deep into preparations for the next school year.

“As far as 2021-22, at least some part of that school year is likely still going to be pandemic response-related on the assumption that children won’t have access to the vaccine, or at least many won’t,” said Superintendent Brian Woods, of Northside Independent School District, among the largest districts in Texas.

That could mean a more teacher-friendly version of the mix of in-person and remote learning happening now, one that doesn’t require teachers to simultaneously instruct two groups. That could be accomplished either by splitting staffing or rearranging schedules, he said, adding longer term may see an all-remote option for students who have moved on permanently from traditional school.

“There’s going to be some element of the genie not being able to be put back in the bottle,” Woods said. “I think that there now will always be a group of families who want a virtual option. … We know we’re able to, but are we willing to do it?”

Faced with the same reality, California’s West Contra Costa Unified School District is planning a new K-12 Virtual Academy for 2021-22.

“One thing that we have learned during the pandemic is that teaching and learning is now different, and it will not fully be what we used to think was `normal’ ever again,” read the January agenda item before the Board of Education.

The pivot to distance learning last march has proved a lifeline for the education system, but concerns have grown with each passing month about the effects on racial inequities, students’ academic performance, attendance and their overall well being.

In Durham, North Carolina, schools — which has been fully remote since March — announced last month that it would remain that way through the end of the current academic year.

Beyond that, Sudderth said, “the prevalence of the disease will determine what we are able to do.”

The guideline for whether the 32,000-student district could move from remote to hybrid learning in January was a testing positivity rate below 4%. But it’s unclear whether that metric or others that until now have been set by states or districts will hold.

Biden, in an early executive order, directed his education secretary to provide “evidence-based guidance” and advice to schools to safely conduct in-person learning.

“I’m hoping that we don’t have to do hybrid, but I don’t want to be in a position where we haven’t thought it all through,” said Eva Moskowitz, whose 47 Success Academy Charter Schools enroll 20,000 students in New York City.

Success students have been signing in for full days of live remote instruction on school-provided laptops and tablets since the beginning of the school year, an exhausting undertaking that Moskowitz plans to end for the current school year on May 28. The 2021-22 school year will then begin Aug. 2, possibly in a hybrid format.

“I honestly don’t know what the chances are” of continuing remote learning into the next school year, she said.

“Logic would tell me that we shouldn’t have to, but my knowledge of government makes me a little more hesitant,” she said, noting the sometimes conflicting guidance from the city and state and the slow start to the rollout of vaccines.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has vowed that schools in the nation’s largest school district are “going to be back full-strength in September.”

“Everyone wants to be back,” he’s said.

But the head of the powerful teachers’ union, Michael Mulgrew, says it’s too soon to commit. Schools currently are providing some in-person classes to elementary and pre-K students who want them. A plan announced Monday by De Blasio will reopen middle school buildings Feb. 25 but there is no plan yet for high schools.

“It’s a goal of mine, but I can’t say they’re going to open” the United Federation of Teachers president said in an interview. His view of the mayor’s pledge: “This is not about what you want. This is about what you can do safely.”

Chancellor Richard Carranza acknowledged that while the goal is in-person school, distance learning “is going to stay with us” past the pandemic.

“We’re looking at this being a component,” he said during a news conference Monday with de Blasio.

Mulgrew said it will take more than teacher vaccines to open schools fully and safely.

He noted that scientists aren’t yet clear on whether vaccinated people might still be able to spread the virus, even if they aren’t sickened themselves. And he wonders how comfortable families will feel about having unvaccinated children and young teens begin the new year unvaccinated.

“This is where it gets tough. So how do you say you’re opening in September when we need to get these questions answered?” he asked.

A parent coalition in Evanston, Illinois, has asked Superintendent Eric Witherspoon what assurances he could give that Evanston Township High School will provide in-person learning in the 2021-22 academic year.

“We are witnessing a real crisis in our community,” Laurel O’Sullivan, the parent of an Evanston high school junior, said by phone. “We are a coalition that includes medical and mental health experts who are, in their practices in the community, daily seeing kids experiencing a huge surge in mental and emotional health crises. … It’s a social, emotional and academic crisis that we’re seeing.”

The district did not respond to a request for comment.

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