Mid-July is usually a perfect time for school administrators and teachers to catch up on reading, take a family vacation, or polish mostly finished plans for the fall semester. But a normal summer break is another victim of COVID-19: Education officials nationwide are grappling with plummeting budgets, rapidly changing state and local health protocols, and uncertainty on just about every front. Meanwhile, the clock relentlessly counts down toward the start of the new school year.

After finals wrap up and the semester ends, students’ GPAs serve as some of the only concrete evidence of what they accomplished in the classroom—almost certainly all that a future employer will see. From ninth grade forward, grades often represent the quality of work a student can produce, but a new system called labor-based grading evaluates students based on the amount of work they exert, not their mastery of a subject.

Since the 2015-2016 school year, new enrollment of international students at U.S. universities has dropped 10.4 percent, according to the National Immigration Forum. This dip places the United States behind Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom in the growth rate of international students.

Administrators’ back-to-school wish lists will include some additional items come fall: face masks and cleaning supplies, more janitors, bus aides to check students’ temperatures, and more.

The coronavirus pandemic has hastened the closure of private K-12 schools—especially Catholic ones—across the country, many of which were already struggling. But Protestant and evangelical schools are surviving by looking for new ways to attract students.

Sister Dale McDonald of the National Catholic Educational Association estimated that about 100 schools have folded in the past month or so. She said the number could double before fall.

Shelby Township, Mich., Deputy Chief of Police Mark Coil compares police officers who work in schools to the neighborhood cops of his grandfather and great-grandfather’s day.

“They walked the beat, and they knew Al owned the bakery and Sal owned the butcher shop, and they knew everybody well,” he said, noting that a school resource officer can fill the same community role. “He’s consistent. He’s there every day. And he knows his people because the school becomes his beat.”

West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee said the only way to guarantee college students do not get the coronavirus at school is to “keep everything shut down until we have a vaccine and until it’s working.” But that’s not economically or educationally feasible for the liberal arts school nestled between the winding Monongahela River and Cheat Lake just south of the Pennsylvania border in Morgantown. Instead, Gee expects to see the school’s nearly 30,000 students face to face again this fall.

“We will open, but it will be different,” Gee said.