Isle of Wight County pre-K through fifth graders will return to five days of in-person instruction Feb. 16.

School officials announced the decision Feb. 8. They announced Jan. 28 that a return to five-day-a-week instruction could be possible based on their assessment of local health data, including positive COVID-19 cases and quarantines.

“The mitigation strategies in place at all of our schools are working and preventing transmission of the virus. Since school opened on Sept. 8, there have been no cases of student to student spread, student to teacher spread, or teacher to student spread,” the school division’s statement said.

The division said they consider all students to be on a continuum — some are learning remotely, some are in person and others are on a hybrid track. This decision does not affect students on the virtual learning model for the second semester.

“Should we start seeing numbers of cases or quarantines increasing, the superintendent can close a classroom, a school, or even the entire division and quickly return students to temporarily remote or hybrid learning if necessary,” said officials, who added that they will continue to monitor the data while considering allowing additional grade levels to resume in-person school five days a week.

Updated bus schedules for elementary schools will be posted by Feb. 12 on the division’s website. All schools and offices will be closed on Feb. 15 in observance of the Presidents Day holiday.