Here's what parents need to know Author: Jade Cunningham / WWL Eyewitness News Published: 7:03 PM CST January 6, 2021 Updated: 10:13 PM CST January 6, 2021 NEW ORLEANS — Orleans Parish Public School students are switching to distance learning starting Thursday. It comes as a historic number of new COVID-19 cases are being reported statewide. For months, Orleans Parish Public School students have gone to school in-person. However, change is coming. "Last Wednesday we made the decision to return school to normal on Monday using our Hybrid Model because at the time, that's what the data supported," said Tiffany Delcour, Chief Operations Officer for the Orleans Parish Public School System. "And then as we moved through the end of last week, and into the weekend, we saw significant and sudden rises in the number of new cases the average case count over the weekend rose to over 200 average cases per day. We haven't seen those numbers since April."