Some districts are investing in teacher training to improve the quality of distance learning and work to support students with special needs and those who speak English. This means that many districts offer distance education at the same time, which is a fundamentally different job for schools and teachers. For example, California recommends that students be divided into small groups who spend the rest of their time in distance education two days a week, every other week, or morning and afternoon. It does not know how to take the time to give “your” personal instruction – several times, to different student cohorts – when planning and conducting distance education. Throughout the United States each district makes its own decisions based on guidelines, not on instructions from the federal government, states, experts, educators, parents, and local health officials. Dozens of teachers, parents, and district officials across the country told NPR that the homecoming season, a favorite annual ritual, is full of confusion. Conversely, even in some cases in the wider community, if one school has five or more positive tests, it can take at least two weeks to close to give people time to isolate themselves and recover. In San Mateo, in the bay area, some teachers want to start the year only remotely, while parents and administrators ask for more presence. In May, the House of Representatives passed a $58 billion school district law and the Senate, controlled by the Republican Party, has so far taken no action, despite the president’s strong support for school renewal. “We’re all terrible teachers,” says Ashley Ruiz, mother of two South Florida children, about her and her distance learning friends. Jinna Hwan, who teaches math at San Mateo High School, says she cannot create a warm and welcoming culture in the classroom if everyone wears a mask, and she must impose physical distance. Could the school do better next year? “I think we’re running out of time,” Turner Lee says. We hear time-bound versions of the plan everywhere, from New York City, the country’s largest school district, to Omaha, Heaven. Seattle, Seattle and West Bloomfield, Michigan. At the same time, the districts are interviewing parents and teachers to see if they’re ready to come back. “We all now understand that teachers should receive $1 million in cash and tax-free dollars for what they do,” Ruiz said. Education officials said the schools may need more than US $200 billion for what they do,” Ruiz said. In the form of new federal funding to fill those gaps and meet new needs, Ruiz said.