Alyson Zawitz and her 8-year-old daughter, Roree, sit with their dog, Charlotte, at their home in the Mars Area School District. Zawitz enrolled her children in cyberschool again this fall out of concern over COVID-19 policies.

This week, students will file in through the doors of Mars Area School District buildings for the first day of school under a mask-optional policy.

But not all children in the district will be returning. A growing number of parents are choosing to keep their kids out of in-person school and move them — or return — to online cyberschool programs. They're making their choices in response to what they believe are inadequate COVID-19 safety policies in the face of a rising delta variant.

Alyson Zawitz has two daughters, ages 8 and 12. Because of COVID-19 and the district's mask-optional policy, she said, this is the second year they will attend PA Cyber Charter School instead of Mars Area.

“We have our kids enrolled in PA Cyber Charter School because I need consistency for our girls,” she said. “I don't want to risk the back and forth possibility of going back to school and back and forth.”

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