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Chicago’s school reopening plan is hanging in limbo after the city’s teachers’ union filed an injunction that could delay a return to in-person learning.

Public school students in Chicago, the nation’s third-largest district, have been learning remotely since March. A proposed phased reopening would have brought some pre-K and special education students back to classrooms on Jan. 11. Students in kindergarten through eighth grade would have begun a return to hybrid learning on Feb. 1.

“It’s a really tense time for everyone involved,” Monica Davey, the Chicago bureau chief for The Times, told us. “You have teachers and families and — most of all — students left in limbo.”

The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times and local cable networks have doggedly covered this raging fight for months. The basic breakdown: The union says the district isn’t bargaining in good faith to create a safe plan; the district says the union hasn’t proposed concrete suggestions.

At a national level, unions have largely joined a growing scientific consensus that reopening elementary school is relatively safe during the pandemic.

“Unlike adults, elementary school students actually follow the rules, and actually have been really good at wearing their masks and adhering to physical distancing,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

In an interview with Politico, Weingarten blamed the dispute in Chicago on a communication breakdown, which she called “completely disrespectful and counterproductive.”

“You need to actually have people talking to each other, sharing the data and solving problems,” she said. “I don’t care if you hate each other. You have to talk to each other if you are being real about caring about children.”

In Chicago, as in many districts across the country, remote learning has not gone well. Enrollment has plummeted, especially among Black and Latino students enrolled in pre-K. And despite a push to provide laptops and internet access for every student, many still struggle to get online, the union said.

One possible explanation for depressed enrollment: family uncertainty. The union filed its injunction to delay on the very same day that parents in Chicago had to decide whether they would send their children back to classrooms in 2021. In New York City, when a shutdown loomed over parents making a similar choice, only a fraction chose to switch their children to in-person learning.

New York City’s reopening gap

The reopening of some city schools this week has highlighted the racial disparities that have long plagued the system. Many white families have returned to classrooms, while more families of color have chosen remote learning.

One key statistic reported by our colleague Eliza Shapiro: There are nearly 12,000 more white children returning to public school buildings than Black students, even though there are many more Black students in the system over all. Asian families also disproportionately chose remote learning.

Given the persistent problems with remote learning, the trend threatens to widen New York City’s racial education gap, in which Black and Latino students make up the overwhelming majority of students, but are underrepresented at selective schools.

Schools During Coronavirus ›

Back to School

Updated Dec. 8, 2020

The latest on how the pandemic is reshaping education.

• • As New York City schools reopen, many families of color are choosing to keep students home. That disparity is raising alarms, given the shortcomings of remote learning.
  • Elementary school students who were learning remotely in the spring fell significantly behind in math and reading, according to a new analysis.
  • Some colleges are planning to bring back more students in the spring, saying they have learned how to manage the pandemic on campus. Not everyone is so confident.

  A similar trend can be seen across the country, with nonwhite families more likely to keep their children in remote learning. A nationwide survey by public health researchers found that Black, Latino and Asian families are significantly more likely to support bans on in-person teaching during the pandemic.

  All families, in New York and beyond, have had to make difficult choices about school during the pandemic based on individual circumstances, not just their racial background. But Eliza reports that data and interviews suggest that Black and Asian-American families in particular are less likely to trust the city to keep their children safe.

  “Clearly, there are Black families who are hesitant, which only makes sense after the disparities they experienced during the heights of the pandemic,” Bill Neidhardt, the mayor’s press secretary, said in a statement.

  Around the country

  College update

  Bates College delayed the start of its spring semester as cases rise in Maine.

  The University of Kentucky suspended a fraternity for two years because it failed to comply with pandemic regulations.

  The University of Michigan canceled its upcoming game against Ohio State because of an outbreak. The two rivals have played each other every year since 1918. The University of Cincinnati and the University of Tulsa also canceled their regular-season finale.

  The University of Arizona will require testing next semester, and will lock students out of campus Wi-Fi if they haven’t logged a negative result.

  A student eye: Noah Cortez, a student at Stanford University, took photographs of obstructed basketball hoops across campus — still and lonely metaphors of a semester on pause.

  A good read: Like several colleges across the country, the University of Missouri in Columbia canceled fall graduation, but kept football games (and in-person attendance) going. “I wouldn’t be upset if it was all or nothing,” one student told NPR. “It seems like the university is picking and choosing what events are important to have, which doesn’t really seem fair.”

  K-12 update

  President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. said opening schools would be one of his top priorities in the first 100 days. By that time, though, school could be near an end in some districts.

  Parents in the Atlanta area rallied to press schools to reopen.

  The state superintendent of schools in Maryland urged the state to reopen, citing failing grades and a growing mental health fallout.

  Although the positivity rate remains low in Bay Area classrooms, most schools are still closed.

  A teacher remembered: Sylvia Garcia, a 60-year-old teacher in Las Cruces, N.M., died after contracting the coronavirus. She taught for almost 30 years, often intervening to help students in free-fall. “Her ability to seek out the root cause of challenges students were experiencing was a gift,” wrote Karen Trujillo, the superintendent at Las Cruces Public Schools.

  Student poets tell their stories

  The Boston Globe’s education newsletter, The Great Divide, is an invaluable education resource for New England and beyond. (Subscribe here, if you’ve not done so already.) This week, they sent the first of a series of student artwork, chronicling their experience with the virus.

  Here’s an excepted stanza from Tariq Charles, 18.

  My mother was given oxygen and a TV remote.

  Inside, those hospital walls were cold and lonely; that’s where she was.

  Inside the walls of my own home felt dreary.

  That’s where I was.

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