It’s almost time to send the kids back to school, and that means Facebook will soon be flooded with those cute back-to-school pictures.

But what information should you exclude from those pictures? And how much information is too much?

We spoke to experts who say any information we put out there gets stored somewhere, even if our accounts are set to private.

“We love seeing them from our friends and family, but we're certainly creating a digital footprint every time we do that,” said Heather Starr Fiedler, professor of social media at Point Park University. "We're still creating this digital log of information that can be used for lots of different reasons by lots of different people."

Starr Fiedler says to stay away from posting any identifying information like your child’s full name, the school they attend, their teacher’s name or classroom number.

You should also avoid photos of your child wearing their school uniform, especially if the school’s logo is on it.

Make sure your street sign, house number or your child’s bus number is not in the photo as well.

"Those are the things that I think are the most dangerous that we want to try to avoid," Starr Fiedler added.

In addition to scammers, in the most extreme cases, you could be putting your child in harm's way by unknowingly offering up sensitive information to child predators.

“Child predators online are looking to build profiles for people to build relationships, and they can use that information at a later date to form a trusting relationship,” said Scott Argio, assistant special agent in charge at the FBI’s Pittsburgh office.

Argio says privacy settings can help, but there is one thing to keep in mind.

“The main thing about posting things on social media is, you're posting it for the world to see," Argio said.

Starr Fiedler says parents should also be cautious of putting any information out there that would help someone document you or your child’s habits.

Like hints about when your kids get picked up, dropped off or start their after-school activities.

“That's telling them we're not with our children right now. We're somewhere else," she said.

Starr Fiedler adds that once your child has their own social media accounts, make sure you have those important conversations about safety and privacy.

As school districts across the country prepare to send kids back to school in-person, many bus drivers are voicing concerns about the potential for COVID-19 to spread on school buses, where oftentimes social distancing is nearly impossible.

For the better part of 32 years, Cheryl Merritt has driven a school bus in Hanover, Massachusetts. She has driven in every kind of weather condition imaginable, but this is the first year she’ll be driving a bus during a pandemic.

“I just want all the kids on the bus to stay safe and the drivers to stay safe. If we have a driver who gets sick, they’re going to be out for at least 14 days,” she lamented, as she turned her bus onto a side street in a residential New England town.

Merritt’s concerns are shared by school bus drivers and districts across the country. Many school bus drivers have retired from other professions, meaning their age makes them more susceptible to catching the virus.

“I don’t want this, I don’t. I’m not ready to die,” the 61-year-old Merritt said.

School buses are presenting a particularly difficult challenge as districts try to send kids back to the classroom. When fully loaded with kids, most school buses fit about 77 students. Cramming students into a bus though would be a perfect place for COVID-19 to spread, so many states are advising bus companies to have only one student per bench. But taking some bus capacity down to about 12 kids means school districts would need to run double or triple the number of trips each day just to pick every child up.

Transportation experts say adding more buses would be nearly impossible given a nationwide bus driver shortage, which existed long before the outbreak.

“It doesn’t matter what you’re gonna do with kids once you get them to school, you have to get them there first,” explained David Strong, who works with the School Transportation Association of Massachusetts.

Strong’s other concern is that kids won’t adhere to social distancing guidelines or mask-wearing requirements once they get onto a bus.

“There’s almost no way to realistically social distance on a bus,” he added.

To address concerns about the spread of COVID, many school districts are mandating that school buses keep their windows open year-round to help with the flow of air. Some districts are also adding bus monitors to ensure kids, especially elementary school students, are following new guidelines.

As for Merritt, she sees herself and other bus drivers as the first line of defense when it comes to keeping COVID-19 out of the classroom.

“When you stop to pick up a child look at them, make sure they don’t look sickly or they’re coughing,” she said.

In a few weeks, thousands of college students will begin their yearly right of fall by returning to the campus of Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, but a return to campus life this year will mean testing and quarantining for those students who chose to come back.

Like colleges and universities across the country, Tufts is experimenting with a new plan that will allow more than 5,000 students to come back to campus while at the same time, instituting rigorous new guidelines in an effort to keep COVID-19 from spreading.

The key to success, testing.

“We wanted to test for COVID at a frequency that would catch people when they’re asymptomatic before they have a chance to spread,” explained Tuft’s President Anthony Monaco.

Tufts plan for the fall is as complex as the virus itself. Students from outside the Northeast will be brought back to campus first, where they will be forced to quarantine for 14 days. Health officials expect at least a small portion of those students to test positive for COVID-19 the moment they step back on campus. Because of that, the university has constructed an extra 200 modular units of dorm space. The idea of the modular facilities is to give campus health officials a contained area to monitor students who test positive for the virus, while at the same time, keeping them out of the general population.

After students from outside the Northeast are brought back to campus, students from the general area around New England will return.

Every single student will be tested twice a week for COVID-19, something experts say will be a key component to safely reopening college campuses this fall. Regardless, school officials expect students to test positive for the virus throughout the fall.

Researchers at Yale’s School of Public Health have been advising Tufts and hundreds of other colleges who are planning to resume some form of in-person learning this fall.

“If we don’t test frequently, we give silent spreaders an opportunity to grab hold and this virus is hard to play catch-up with,” explained Professor A. David Paltiel, who recently published a study on how quickly the virus can spread through colleges if left unchecked.

To study the virus, Paltiel and his colleagues used epidemic modeling to assemble hypothetical situations resembling a college campus. The study found that if you take 5,000 healthy students and add in only 10 students who have COVID-19, hundreds, if not thousands, of kids will be sick by Thanksgiving.

“At that point, the only thing that keeps the virus from getting out of control is Thanksgiving break,” he said.

That is why testing is key, the study found. When Paltiel took those same 5,000 kids and added in 10 students who have COVID-10, but tested every student twice a week, the study found that only about 100 students ended up catching COVID.

“Many universities are planning to only test students who have symptoms, in our view that is a recipe for disaster,” he said.

Only adding to the uncertainty of the situation, about 40 percent of college students said they would return to live near campus even if classes were held virtually. Paltiel and other health officials say because of that, it’s more beneficial to have students on-campus where they can be monitored and tested frequently.

“It’s hard and it could be a nightmare, people who say we shouldn’t open campuses should remember the nightmare doesn’t go away,” he said.

TAMPA, Fla. — Many parents are opting to keep their kids home to give distance learning a try amid the pandemic.

With many districts pushing back the first day of school, you got time to get in line.

"Now that we have time to plan it’s a beautiful thing," Anne Flenner with Florida Virtual School said.

She recommends parents making a dedicated space for your child. It can be a desk, the kitchen table, or an empty guest room.

You also want to get them involved in making the space functional.

"Whether that’s adding some posters that inspire them or whether it’s just getting color-coded notebooks that they’re going to use," Flenner said. "That actually can bring some excitement for them for this new school year when it’s a really hard time for them."

Once you got that figured out, it is time to set up what Flenner calls a “pace chart.” It’s basically the agenda your kid is familiar with, but for you too. Some parents put it on a big whiteboard or just a piece of paper attached to the fridge.

"Parents can really do that important part of organizing them so that they can really focus on their job which is to learn the content," Flenner said.

She also suggests after getting access to the virtual learning platform, go in and click on everything. Then, organize different binders or folders for each course.

If your kids are sharing devices with each other or you, make a folder on the desktop for their own work. Or buy each child their own flash drive.

"The biggest help that will get you in gear for virtual learning… is to throw out what you know about the traditional school day. We call it chunking their time together," Flenner said. "Most students will work three to four hours like on one course alone to get everything done before they move on."

Flenner and the crew at Florida Virtual School have been doing this for more than 20 years. They are professionals and they understand we are far from that. And that is okay.

"I want to tell parents to take a deep breath and do the best you can," Flenner said.

This story was originally reported by Jasmine Styles at WFTS.

WCPO 9 News presented a look at Tri-State schools and their plans to reopen -- or keep students home -- during the coronavirus pandemic.

You can watch each segment of the WCPO special in the video players below. You can also find more information and important updates on back-to-school plans for each district on our Back to School tab.

Schools moving class starts online

Schools moving start of school online

Parents express childcare concerns at CPS virtual town halls

Parents express childcare worries at CPS virtual town hall

Tracking students who fall behind in online learning

Tracking students who may have fallen off

Wyoming Fine Arts Center using learning pods

Wyoming Fine Arts Center using learning pods

Tri-State schools preparing for socially-distanced learning

Tri-State schools preparing for socially-distanced learning

Pleasant Ridge parent volunteers make learning tools for families

Acts of Kindness: Parent volunteers make learning tools for families

COLUMBIA, SC. — A nationwide teacher shortage is deepening, and many teachers said the pandemic is a major reason why they left the profession they once loved.

Almost half of the teachers who quit in 2020, 44%, reported the pandemic was the main reason they left. They say it magnified existing stressors and added new ones.

Sixty-four percent didn’t feel they were being paid enough to offset the newfound duties, stress, and risk. One fifth said stress alone was what drove them to quit.

Jodi Chumley taught elementary school in South Carolina for more than three decades. She decided to retire last year after COVID-19 made her already time-consuming job overwhelming.

“Last year was something else, and it was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Chumley. “I would take it home every single solitary night. The only night I refused to work was Saturday, and this is not just me, this is everyone on my team.”

Chumley said the pandemic made the job more stressful worrying about health and safety, but there was also more stress in trying to make sure students learned critical reading and math skills remotely.

She agonized over her decision to leave. “I would teach for less, I think, because I love the profession if I weren’t so stressed all the time to get things done,” she said. “I hate it, and it’s really sad because I loved teaching, but I didn’t have a life.”

Chumley’s case hints at a bigger trend around the country – including in South Carolina. Sherry East is a teacher and the President of the South Carolina Education Association, and said the shortage is becoming more and more dire every day. “We don’t have a shortage of students, we have a shortage of everyone else. There’s really more than one issue here to tackle this problem, but we really need to get on it now, because there’s students in the classroom now that don’t have a certified teacher in front of them,” said East.

The state started last school year with 700 open teaching positions. It left an estimated 14,000 students without a certified teacher on the first day of school.

Then, between October 2020 and February 2021, about 170 teachers quit each month, statewide.

The stress driving teachers out isn’t expected to get any better this year.

Patrick Kelly, the Director of Governmental Affairs for the Palmetto State Teachers Association said he’s worried this is only going to get worse in the next few months.

“Unfortunately, morale is really low among teachers right now. There's no other way to slice it. The teachers that are remaining, they've got additional burdens on them, the burdens that come with understaffed schools,” said Kelly.

He said he is shocked to hear what teachers are having to do outside the classroom just to keep their schools running. “There are teachers in South Carolina right now that are being asked to drive bus routes in the morning because districts can't find a enough bus drivers, they're being asked to pitch in in the cafeteria because we can't find enough cafeteria workers, to help clean the school after the day because we don't have enough staff in our custodial services. They're taking on larger class sizes because we can't find enough certified staff.”

Kelly said stress, low pay and lack of respect will continue to wear on teachers this school year.

“What we found was four consistent factors teachers leave the profession because of: a lack of respect, a lack of time, a lack of adequate support and inadequate compensation. It's always those four,” said Kelly.

The pandemic only added an extra layer to that conversation. “Now, for some reason, in the eyes of too many members of the public, they're the villain and very few people want to do this job and be the villain,” said Kelly.

Without urgent action, Kelly said he worries these waves of resignations will have long term consequences beyond the classroom.

“I think the most important thing for people to realize about this teacher shortage is that if we don't take urgent action now, it will continue to get worse and it will diminish our economic capacity. It will diminish our national security. It will diminish the opportunities available to our children,” he said.

Kelly said there are three solutions that could help keep teachers in classrooms: smaller class sizes, more trust and support from districts, and protection against harassment and disrespect.

He said helping keep the teachers we have now can start with something as simple as support from families and students, even if it’s with words of encouragement.

MEMPHIS — Dealing with COVID-19 has been a sticky situation for schools.

But at the Bornblum Jewish Community School in Memphis, they’re turning to new technology to keep air quality clean.

“We have a new filter system being installed in the school right now,” said Daniel Weiss, the head of school at Bornblum.

Proper ventilation and air quality are part of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations for keeping schools open and children safe.

“More or less it works like a human nose,” said Clemens Sparowitz, chief operating officer of Dexwet, which makes the air filters that are being installed at the school.

They are coated with a sticky substance that is designed to catch particles in the air.

“The filters get moistured with liquid and so any particle that collides with the filter is permanently bonded in there,” said Sparowitz.

Air quality is a concern for small schools like Bornblum as well as large schools like the ones in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), where more than 600,000 students learn every day.

“We upgraded to MERV 13. That’s 110 thousand filters. MERV 13s are made out of the same raw material that N-95 and hospital gowns are made out of,” said Robert Laughton, the director of maintenance and operations for LAUSD.

“We spent last summer, close to $3 million, re-wiring every air conditioner in the district, just to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he added.

The CDC recommends that air systems start running at least two hours before someone needs to be in the room. All of the improvements, big and small, can be expensive.

The COVID-19 relief bill, passed in March, included over $120 billion in funds for schools, some of which is specifically earmarked for ventilation improvements.

“The biggest concern always was, how's the air inside the building?” said Weiss.

For Weiss, focusing on air quality and experimenting with new technologies is helping him keep his students exactly where they need to be.

“There’s nothing better than having a full classroom on campus, learning with their teacher, being able to experience all of the things the teacher wants them to do. You can’t do that in the same way when you’re learning virtually. We needed to be on campus," said Weiss.

EAU CLAIRE, WI. — As students head back to school, safety is top of mind as COVID-19 cases spike around the country. On one college campus, students are taking their safety and health into their own hands.

“We're in a public health crisis. We’re in a global pandemic. We have to do something about this,” said Professor Crispin Pierce.

Pierce and fellow professor James Boulter helped a group of students develop an experiment to see how well-ventilated each classroom is on campus. Their data is helping the university make changes to keep students safer.

“It started off as a small project, and it kind of just exploded to really trying to evaluate the campus as a whole,” Danielle Zahn said.

Zahn is a student studying public health at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. She and a group of students teamed up to test airflow in classrooms to answer the question in every student’s mind.

"Are we still safe returning back to campus, especially when we have a student body from all around the world?” asked Zahn.

Here’s how their experiment works: the students will get an inquiry from a professor or the university to check a specific classroom or space for airflow. They will set up carbon dioxide monitors, then use dry ice to fill classrooms with carbon dioxide: the same gas we exhale when we breathe. Fans spread it all over the room to simulate a classroom full of students.

In a real class, as carbon dioxide builds up, if there are any sick students, COVID-19 will build up in the air, too.

The students are testing how fast the building’s built-in ventilation clears the carbon dioxide from the room.

The faster the carbon dioxide clears, the faster clean air comes in and COVID goes out.

“We definitely see a difference in those older rooms,” said Zahn.

Typically, the older the building, the slower the air filtration system, and the higher the chance COVID could linger in the air.

The students are bringing that data to their university, and school leaders are taking action.

“What is the thing that facilities are looking at changing about these rooms that are underperforming? What are we going to add?” Professor Boulter quizzed his students.

Zahn was quick to answer: “Add an extra air-filtration unit.”

Freestanding air filters are being delivered to classrooms that need them based on the data from the students.

“For students to see their data, in a very short time, just a matter of weeks, affect decision making at the university, that’s very exciting, because it doesn’t always happen,” said Professor Boulter.

The most exciting part is the chance to help outside their own school.

“I definitely think that this is something other schools can replicate,” said Zahn.

“There’s the potential for high schools, maybe even middle schools, to take this on,” said Boulter.

The experiment is one piece of a bigger picture this group hopes to be part of.

“Public health students do feel that kind of duty. You want the safety of the people you care about, so why isn't your entire community someone that you want to care about and help with?” said Zahn.

“There is tremendous potential for good—in this country and around the world,” said Boulter.

Zahn said she is hopeful this work will help her fellow students have the college experience they dreamed of having, all while staying as safe as possible. She said doing this work is incredibly inspiring in helping her own career, too.

“This is what I want to do. This is something that I can enjoy and still help people in the community,” she said.

“It’s that incredible transition between being scared to go to school and being proud to go to school,” said Pierce. “It just moves me very much and makes me very, very glad to be a professor.”

In the weeks and months to come, the students are looking to expand their experiments even further. They are looking at how they can test the airflow of larger spaces or spaces like dining halls, where masking is impossible.

Some Tri-State colleges are back in the classroom Monday, and there are some changes in place at these schools to keep students and staff healthy and safe.

Northern Kentucky University and the University of Cincinnati are back in session, and both schools have mask policies in place for their students.

"Unfortunately, the risk of infection with the delta variant of COVID-19 is very high in our region and we must take steps to protect our campus community," NKU officials wrote in a release. "Given the high level of community spread of the Delta variant... we have no choice but to require masks indoors on campus for all persons, vaccinated and unvaccinated."

NKU will provide reusable masks to all faculty, staff and students. Limited quantities of disposable masks may be available at the Welcome Center, Student Union and University Center Information Desks, Steely Library Distribution Desk, and Campus Recreation during normal business hours.

NKU is offering free COVID-19 vaccines at their Health, Counseling and Wellness office. Call 859-572-5650 or email hcsw@nku.edu for an appointment. Kentucky residency is not required.

UC is also requiring masks for all students, regardless of their vaccination status. Outdoor masks will also be required for people who are not fully vaccinated if they cannot also maintain social distancing.

Students who are vaccinated can send a picture of their vaccine card to UC Public Health. Students who are not vaccinated must either show proof that they have recently tested negative or receive a COVID-19 test from the university and consent to restricted campus access until their results arrive. UC will provide COVID-19 tests for students.

UC will also hold a drawing each week for students who have been fully vaccinated to win cash prizes of $2,500 or $5,000. The university plans on distributing $50,000 this semester for the drawings.

As Cincinnati Public Schools welcomed back nearly 36,000 students to their classrooms Thursday, district officials said they're making an extra effort to address potential learning loss that might have resulted with some students due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Noting one way the district is working proactively to address any slide in preparedness among students, Amat said, "We got a great start on it with our Summer Scholars program. So we had students come in for a month. So we started building those relationships and monitoring where they were academically, taking that knowledge and building forward."

The district also hired 45 reading specialists, citing literacy as the primary need among students catching up, along with additional social workers.

"We hired more social workers to help with those wrap-around services for our students and families," Amat said. "We want to hit it from both ends, making sure we’re taking care of the heart and mind."

Amat began the first day of school with reading in mind. She sat and read with first-graders at Rothenberg Preparatory Academy in Over-the-Rhine, where Alena Smith is principal. Smith said students being back in the classroom is a refreshing return to some semblance of routine, but the challenges need that proactive approach.

"It feels good to have a certain level of normalcy," she said. "We focus a lot on safety, so ensuring that our students still understand the expectations and the procedures. We're being very intentional. We'll have our bi-weekly data meeting where we are meeting with every teacher. We're identifying what strategies they're putting in place."

GROESBECK, Ohio — Back in March, before the COVID-19 vaccines became available to the general public, Ned Heeger-Brehm was providing an in-demand product for free from the drive-thru window of his branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County: at-home COVID tests.

"We were giving out quite a bit of it," he said. "Then it kind of slowed down."

But now, with the virus' new delta variant surging through the region, Heeger-Brehm said demand has begun to spike again. And with thousands of children — many of whom are not eligible for vaccination — heading back to their classrooms, Heeger-Brehm said he's almost out of stock.

"There's been a recent uptick in the last couple of weeks, and it just went crazy this past week," he said, recounting that hundreds of the at-home test kits have flown off his supply shelf.

"I've had some people say that it's like kids going back to school; they figure they're going to have to get tests for when there's an exposure in school," he said. "I think it is a lot of people going back to work and people visiting people in nursing homes, things like that."

Erlene Robinson was in line Wednesday, waiting to stock up on some at-home tests. She said they're for her grandchildren.

"The test is just ... precautionary to make sure that they're not going to be, you know, affecting other people," she said.

The at-home tests are generally easy to use, according to nurse practitioner and director of health services at Northern Kentucky University Rose Tempel.

"You know, you just go up into the nose (with the swab) about an inch, so it's not painful," she said.

But are they effective in detecting the virus?

Tempel said they're "pretty effective," but mostly when someone is experiencing COVID-like symptoms.

"The effectiveness of people with symptoms is about 95% of picking up a true positive case of COVID," she said, but noted that it's probably not worth administering unless symptoms are present.

But she added that the delta variant has a wider range of symptoms than earlier strains, some that are also common among other illnesses.

"So now, headache, nasal congestion and sore throat seem to be more common of what we see presenting with the delta variant, versus initially (when) it was fever, cough, things like that," she said.

An additional note about at-home tests: Some require the self-swab along with the ability to teleconference with a practitioner over a computer, to guide you through the rest of the testing process.

In addition to the Groesbeck branch, these other branches are offering drive-thru access to at-home tests:

• Anderson
• Covedale
• Delhi Township
• Downtown
• Reading
• Symmes Township

Due to increased demand, library officials recommend calling your local branch first to ensure they still have some in stock.

Anyone not comfortable administering a self-test can also consult their local pharmacy.

COVINGTON, Ky. — As students in Covington Independent Public Schools return to the classroom, schools in the district received grants to help those students navigate any trauma they may have from the pandemic.

Holmes Middle School, Ninth District Elementary, Sixth District Elementary, Latonia Elementary and Holmes High School received $100,000 from the CARES Act with the explicit purpose of supporting the mental health of students through social emotional learning materials. The grants will also provide mental health training for teachers and families.

"We are excited to have these additional funds to help our children and families get back on track emotionally as we recover from the impact of the pandemic," Dr. Janice Wilkerson, the assistant superintendent of Covington Independent Public Schools, said.

Officials said that when schools went to virtual learning, some students withdrew from classes and others failed multiple classes.

“We have found some problems exacerbated as students were isolated for long periods of time," Renata Watts, Youth Services Center coordinator for Holmes Middle School, said. "We know that if (students) cannot connect to their emotions, they cannot thrive academically. We know that we must address the emotional well-being of our students."

Wilkerson said the funds will help students get back on track, and Watts said the grants will make a difference.

"We know it will take some time, but we are prepared to receive our students at where they are, and most importantly, focus on their well-being, thanks to the grant," Watts said.

As schools head back to the classroom, many people have questions about what, if anything, will change in schools after the pandemic.

WCPO 9 anchor Julie O'Neill talked with Lakota Local Schools Superintendent Matt Miller about the upcoming school year, requiring students to wear masks indoors and how the district will handle pandemic setbacks.

JO: How much catching-up time do you think you need, generally speaking, for kids?

MM: There's one train of thought that calls that learning loss. I prefer to use the term school loss, because it's not just the academic piece. It's the relationships. It's the sports. It's the band. So I don't think we're going to be able to answer that yet until all the kids are back.

We are in a fortunate position in Lakota that our kids were at least offered in-person learning from the get-go last year. Last year at our peak we were at about 4,000 students that were on our virtual learning option. This coming school year we're down to about 350.

JO: Do you foresee some kids continuing with just online going forward, whether COVID's a threat or not?

MM: Yeah, I do think that there is a sliver of our student population that will want to continue to learn, the virtual learning option, moving forward. It's actually something at Lakota we've been talking about doing. Just providing as an option for our families even pre-COVID.

JO: What about the emotional peace for students? What are you doing here to prop them up?

MM: We have a pretty robust guidance program for our kids, and we actually have added to the social-emotional learning components in a class for our K through 6 kids, so we brought that online because we knew we were going to have some issues we were going to have to address.

One of the other things that Lakota has done is we've ramped up our therapy dog program for our kids. We have seven therapy dogs now for the district. The therapy dogs are trained to de-escalate, to help kids, and adults for that matter, with anxiety and things like that.

JO: All right, what do you want to say to the kids, to the staff as they head to school today?

MM: I think the biggest thing that I'm excited about with this new school year is welcoming our kids back. This just feels like a different year in terms of how different it had been in the past year and a half. Our kids do amazing things. I don't think our kids get enough credit for their accomplishments and what they do, and certainly that can also transcend into the teachers and staff. I'm just excited to welcome people back. Let's go.

An Alabama girl had an unforgettable end to her first day of school in the first grade this week thanks to her dad's dinosaur surprise at the bus stop.

Justin Bowen put on a full-body Tyrannosaurus rex costume and waited patiently for his daughter, Aria, and her cousin, Marleigh, to step off the bus Tuesday afternoon. As the girls' feet hit the ground, the T-rex charged, sending the giggling girls running for the house.

Bowen, a hardworking manager of a fast-food restaurant and volunteer firefighter, told sister station WVTM 13 he loves to see his children smile and he has some experience dressing up in costumes. Bowen plays Smokey The Bear for a community outreach program!

According to Bowen, little Aria called it "the worst day of her life." He hopes over time his first-grader won't feel so embarrassed and will one day look back on the epic dad joke and smile.

Until then, dad said he will "come up with something" to top the T-rex at the bus stop.

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HARRISON, Ohio —

Four new schools are ready to welcome students this fall.

The Southwest Local School District held a ribbon-cutting Sunday for three new elementary schools and one new middle school. The buildings will serve students in grades pre-K through 8.

Crosby Elementary, Harrison Elementary, Miami Whitewater Elementary and Harrison Junior School each had their own ceremony to celebrate.

District leaders said the facilities will offer a modern learning environment and help prepare students to graduate in the 21st century.

"The technology in there is beyond compare," said Matt Lindley, principal of Harrison High School. "It's going to be great for our kids, our teachers and our administration to start in buildings like these."

The project behind the new schools, called "Facilities for the Future," has been years in the making. The district said the schools were planned and designed with parent, student, teacher and community involvement.

Students will start school in the new classrooms on Aug. 17.

CINCINNATI — College students – and their professors – found themselves forced online in spring 2020. Suddenly, every class was a virtual one and the idea of limited classroom time continued into the fall, as the pandemic dragged on.

WCPO surveyed local universities to see how online enrollment and virtual or hybrid class numbers changed since 2019. We found a steady, but not rapid, increase in online learning in our area.

"You can't just snap back to 2019 and expect this stuff to work," said Matthew Cecil, Northern Kentucky University's new provost. "We need to know our students better. That's the challenge for everyone in higher education."

Cecil started at NKU in highland Heights this summer and said he plans to spend the next six months or so meeting students and listening to what they want in terms of mix of in-person and online learning.

WCPO

Data provided by NKU shows 4,500 students enrolled in accelerated online programs -- generally graduate or professional certifications -- for the fall, which equals out to one in four students at the university. This fall, 27 percent of other courses will be online, up from 18 percent in fall 2019.

"I do think it will stick," Cecil said. "I don't know exactly where the percentages will come down, but I think it is highly likely that we will see this kind of mix [going forward]."

Other local universities are seeing more mixed moves toward online learning.

Thomas More University in Crestview Hills told WCPO it will offer 114 courses online in the 2021-22 school year, up from 80 courses in the 2018-19 school year. Enrollment is climbing, too. 798 students have enrolled in online courses for the upcoming school year, compared to 683 in 2018-19.

Miami University is offering 724 online courses across all its campuses this fall, or 15.6 percent of courses, up from 528 in fall 2019, representing 11.1 percent. But that's down dramatically from the forced online presence of 2020, when Miami recorded 2835 online courses.

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It will also offer 157 hybrid courses this fall, or about three percent of courses.

At Xavier University in Evanston, a spokesman said "nearly all" courses were returning to in-person, but did not have exact numbers readily available for fall 2021.

The University of Cincinnati also did not provide exact numbers to compare its fall online courses and enrollment, but said it offers "a good mix of online and in-person options."

UC noted, like Xavier, it was returning to a more traditional fall semester, but had an eye on online-only options moving forward.

So, if you thought the pandemic was pushing the end of the days of huge campus construction projects, new dorms, and a college building boom – think again.

"The reality, of course, is that there's always going to be an audience of students who want that on-campus residential experience," said NKU's Cecil. "You still have to attract that audience that wants the nice dorm rooms, the dining halls, all the activities you have on campus."

Cecil warned, though, that colleges and universities needed to meet more students – and prospective students – where they are.

"I need to know more about the students, and what their experiences were during COVID – and we know they weren't always what they wanted them to be – and what they need from us going forward," he said.

Cecil jokes that one day some university will make lots of money by figuring out a way to provide virtual courses in a similar space as newly popular workout programs, like Peloton.

Online-only universities fared particularly well during the pandemic.

Columbus, Ohio-based Franklin University has seen steady growth through the pandemic. According to data it provided to WCPO, its enrollment has grown from 4,333 in spring 2019 to 5,352 in spring 2021.

"The way the world is now, we're always moving," said K.L. Allen, president of Western Governors University Ohio. "It forced us to pivot and, luckily, we were already 100 percent online and students were able to continue to live their life and go to school."

WGU Ohio has seen enrollment grow more than 13 percent this year, and its graduation rate has increased 33 percent.

Michael Benedic

"[My students] always look on my wall – I have pictures of when I was in school, my first teaching job – and they always ask me questions like, 'That's you in that picture? Where did you go to school at?'" said Jaton Kershaw, a teacher at Cincinnati's Woodford Academy. "And I tell them, 'I didn't go to a traditional school where you would go into a building. I graduated from an online school."

Kershaw got her teaching degree online after she left the University of Cincinnati when tragedy struck and turned her life upside down.

In 2004, she was at the Black Family Reunion along the riverfront downtown when gunfire erupted. Kershaw was shot and spent time in the hospital and then at home recovering, dreading returning to school.

"I conquered my fear, I did," she said. "I had a lot of anxiety and didn't want to go into a lot of public places. I didn't trust large crowds."

The numbers show more people are taking Kershaw's approach to higher education – more options, less expensive, on their time.

"We now have lives we have to live, we have responsibilities as adults to take care of our family, we want the American Dream on our time," said WGU's Allen.

But there is not a dramatic shift happening to online courses, hastened by the pandemic. At least, not yet.

Backpacks, notebooks and pencils are standard back-to-school supplies, but families have another item to consider this year: a COVID-19 vaccine.

Believe it or not, most Tri-State school districts return to classes in a month or so, and that's about the same amount of time it takes for the two-shot vaccination regimens from Pfizer — the only vaccine authorized for use in people under 18 — to take full effect. That's why some health officials are reminding parents that, if they want their kids to be vaccinated by the first day of school, it's time to book an appointment.

For Grant County Middle School eighth-grader Gracee Hutchinson, the decision to get the shot came down to a single factor.

"I just don't want to wear a mask," she said. "So I just got it."

But for her mother, the decision was a bit more complicated.

"I do believe there are a lot of children that are immune-compromised," said Rebecca Hutchinson. "My daughter had a medical condition when she was younger and being exposed to certain illnesses would've been life-threatening to her."

With these things in mind, Gracee rolled up her sleeve Thursday at Holmes High School in Covington, Kentucky, which held a vaccination clinic that afternoon for students hoping to get their shots before school starts next month.

Gracee is near the bottom of the eligible age group, which cuts off at age 12.

Doses must be spaced three weeks apart, giving students like her just enough time to get both doses before school resumes. Covington Independent Schools hosted Thursday's clinic to line up with their students' Aug. 19 return.

Dr. Robert Frenck, director of the Center for Vaccine Research at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, said the only reason case numbers have trended down in recent months is because of the vaccine.

"This virus, we're getting ahead of things, we're getting better," he said. "Our rates are dropping. That's only because we're vaccinating. If we stop, the virus is going to pop back up again. … It's not if. It's when."

Encouraging students to get vaccinated in time for the 2021-22 school year, Frenck said, is a must to continue those trends.

"Most of them don't get that sick, but some of them do get very sick," he said. "And I can't predict who that is, and that's why I need to vaccinate everyone to protect every child because I don't want to see any child hospitalized or die from something we could've prevented."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 3% of people ages 12 to 15 years old have gotten at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine. For ages 16 to 17, it's only 2%. Frenck said he hopes to see those numbers increase.

"Kids are getting infected, and the percentage of them getting infected are (sic) increasing," he said.

Rebecca Hutchinson hopes to see more kids get their shots, too.

"I think it's important for our society to build this immunization to COVID so we can go back to normal," she said.

It remained unclear Thursday when the FDA might authorize the vaccine for children younger than 12. Health officials predict it likely will not be any earlier than September and could be as late as January 2022, depending on when the government grants the Pfizer vaccine full approval.

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