RETURN TO LEARNING: Lancaster County students begin school year unlike any other

LANCASTER COUNTY, S.C. — More families are gearing up for a return to learning as students in Lancaster County start classes Monday morning.

For those learning virtually, they nearly ran into a major roadblock involving their Chromebooks.

In a message on the Lancaster County Schools website and Facebook page, it said an issue with the web-based Cloud filter may possibly be due to a widespread Internet outage affecting large portions of the county.

But, this could have affected some 4,000 Lancaster County students -- some who plan to start learning virtually Monday morning.

Students are on an A-B schedule so they will alternate in-person and at-home learning.

This adds to the challenges for students in the county, especially if they already didn’t have reliable Internet or Chromebooks.

Channel 9 was there Friday when the district handed out more than 5,000 Wi-Fi hot spots. The money to pay for them came from the federal CARES Act.

Eyewitness News anchor Blaine Tolison also noticed signs at a county elementary school pointing to Internet access areas.

The district said it worked to resolve the issue with the Chromebooks Monday morning, and it was fixed before students began classes.

Schools in Lancaster County give thousands of Wi-Fi hot spots to families

In addition, the school discussed the extra safety measures they are taking this year starting at the bus stop.

The schools will have a staggered bell schedule, which means buses will have fewer students. Officials said most of the buses will have fewer than 30 kids, and they usually hold about 60.

There are signs about wearing masks with drivers enforcing the policy. The district will be disinfecting everything -- handrails, seats and they even have an electro-static sprayer they will use several times a day.

The district also wanted to remind parents to make sure students aren’t bunched up at the bus stop.

Cox Media Group