Colorado Springs school districts only offering summer school to select grade levels

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Denver Public Schools announced that it will be holding courses remotely this summer, and many districts in Colorado Springs are following suit.

"We moved everything to online learning for summer school," says Allison Cortez, Director of Communications for Academy District 20. "It will be only for middle school and high school - and even middle school will be really scaled back".

District 20 aren't the only ones re-configuring their usual summer courses. 

Harrison District 2 says they're also conducting their summer school virtually - but only for high school students - as those are programs are used by them to recover credits. 

Woodland Park School District says they're also going virtual - but don't know exactly what their programs will look like or what grades it will include. 

Widefield District 3 is still in the planning stages , as well. 

Regardless of what district your student is in - playing "catch-up" over summer can be a daunting task - especially without a teacher physically present. 

District 20 officials say they've mitigated those risks - and since they had to make their decision on summer programs a few weeks ago - their options seemed very limited under Colorado's "stay-at-home" order. 

"If you think back a few weeks ago as we were planning, it felt like online was our only option. Now, as you look at the rules that are in place, it ended up being our only option," says Cortez.  

With the challenges virtual learning presents to students who may already be behind, teachers are prepared for the possibility that students won't be where they should be next year. 

"Our goal is that everyone slides into the next school year at the right level, but if we have to play a little catchup, we're prepared to do that", says Cortez.