Tallulah Falls School is among the latest Georgia schools to pause in-person learning as COVID cases continue to rise. The private school in north Habersham County announced Thursday students will shift to online learning until after Labor Day weekend.
“In an effort to minimize the risk of exposure, particularly from asymptomatic students that may have been exposed in our community, we are moving to online learning for the next week,” says President and Head of School Larry Peevy.
Tallulah Falls joins schools in over 20 mostly rural districts in Georgia that have switched to virtual learning because of the current COVID surge. The majority of TFS day students are from Habersham, Stephens, White, Rabun, and Banks counties where test positivity rates range from 15.2% in Rabun to 27.1% in Stephens.
“Our risk management committee and I continuously evaluate the effects that COVID-19 has in our home communities,” says Peevy. “We layer our protocols to provide the greatest protection to our students, faculty and staff. He says the school has received “tremendous positive support” since notifying parents of their decision.
Health officials say children between the ages of 5 and 17 are now more likely than adults as a whole to test positive for COVID-19. According to data from the Georgia Department of Public Health, more than 1% of school-age children in Georgia have tested positive for the virus in the past two weeks.
