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For the final time in 2020, the Chambers County School District released its COVID-19 numbers.

Nine students tested positive for the virus, while two students were sent home for exhibiting symptoms.

The number of quarantines has been a big emphasis for the school district since the Thanksgiving break. On Friday, the school district reported 156 students were in quarantine.

The number of quarantined students was the reason the district allowed the students go virtual from Tuesday to Friday, as more than 100 students were quarantined starting the weekend of Dec. 12.

“We had to make a decision, so we allowed everyone to choose this week whether you need to send your students traditionally or do their work virtually,” CCSD Superintendent Dr. Kelli Hodge said at Wednesday’s school board meeting. “We had said at the beginning that you had to make this decision at the start of the nine weeks, but a big break is coming up. There are a lot of parents that need to send their kids to school. They don’t have anyone to watch their kids and don’t have the ability for someone to be there to make sure their kid logs in. We just felt that was the best thing to give people a choice of what fit them.”

Eight CCSD employees tested positive for the virus this week, while six are quarantined for exposure.

The CCSD will return to in-person learning on Jan. 6.

Lanett City Schools reported 13 COVID-19 cases this week. LCS will start the 2021 semester virtually. When LCS returns to in-person learning, students will return to campus three days a week instead of the two days it had been doing since November.