After School Programs Relieve Pandemic Pressure on Children, Parents

At Tuesday's weekly coronavirus response briefing, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced the state was on target to vaccinate the 180,000 eligible healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents and staff in phase 1A of the rollout. Given that progress, he said the state would start making the COVID-19 vaccine available to some people in group 1B sooner than originally planned.

Mental health professionals are reporting more children and adults are seeking out their services during the pandemic. We speak with parents, teachers and therapists to find out how the global health crisis is impacting students as they attend school in person, virtually and everything in between. For more information about the free and anonymous Stay Positive Arkansas program, click here.

Two days before the Thanksgiving holiday, the superintendent of the Springdale School District announced all schools would be pivoting to remote learning until Dec. 7. Superintendent Jarred Cleveland said there were too many staff who had tested positive for COVID-19 or had to be quarantined due to possible exposure that they weren't sure there would be enough substitute teachers to fill those roles for a number of days.

Three months into the school year, we check in with two teachers we spoke with ahead of the start of the school year in August. One is a French teacher at Fayetteville High School, the other is a fourth grade teacher at Ballman Elementary School in Fort Smith. They discuss the added workload, student compliance with safety measures and their concerns about the upcoming holidays.