After a tense week of back and forth between parents and school administrators, Fairfax County Public Schools announced Thursday they plan to keep students in the classroom despite the surge of COVID-19 but are preparing for potential teacher shortages.

While Monday's snowstorm gave Richmond-area students extra days off after winter break, behind the scenes public school districts were scrambling to keep schools up and running with hundreds of teachers out sick or quarantining as the omicron surge of coronavirus cases continues.

RICHMOND - A new measure sponsored by state Sen. Travis Hackworth, a Republican from Tazewell County, seeks to overturn legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled General Assembly almost two years ago that requires school districts statewide to adopt a set of guidelines by the Virginia Department of Education in dealing with nonbinary and transgender students.

The holiday break for students has meant climbing instances of COVID-19 in area schools. The omicron variant is leading to more mild or asymptomatic cases and a shortage of tests means cases are surging across the country, including Rockingham County Public Schools and Harrisonburg City Public Schools. Total cases since Aug.

Dave Ress covers the military. He's been a reporter in Virginia since 1990 and before that for Reuters in Canada, Britain and Africa. Dave has a PhD in history from the University of New England (Australia) and is the author of 4 books on U.S. and Australian history.

The Richmond teachers union said Thursday that it's "deeply concerned about our ability to conduct in-person classes" after a return to school in which 160 teachers and multiple bus drivers were expected to be absent because of COVID-19.

CHESAPEAKE - Police are investigating social media comments directed at Chesapeake School Board members that alluded to violence. The comments were posted on Instagram after a special meeting Dec. 31 at which the board reinstated a mask mandate in schools.

Governor Ralph Northam has named Rosa Atkins as acting superintendent of public instruction to replace James Lane, who served as the leader of the Virginia Department of Education from June 2018 to January 2022. Atkins joined the Virginia Department of Education in July as assistant superintendent for talent acquisition and development before being appointed the [...]

At the Henry County School Board's first regular meeting of the year Thursday, the board learned that a surge in COVID-19 cases is causing concern within the school system. "Before the [winter] break it was going down, but the spreading is rampant right now," said Superintendent Sandy Strayer.

Most Northern Virginia families celebrated the arrival of 2022 confident in the belief their children would soon return to school. They were in for a surprise. School was supposed to start up Monday for the roughly 300,000 students that attend school in the Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Arlington and Alexandria City public school systems. But a surprisingly strong storm dumped about 12 inches of snow on some parts of the D.C.