The District of Columbia Public Schools said on Monday that it was canceling its plan to bring some elementary school students back to schools next week, after teachers staged a sickout to protest the plan.

Mayor Muriel Bowser announced in October that the district would bring back 7,000 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade on Nov. 9. Priority for in-person seats would be given to students who were homeless, disabled or learning English as a second language.

The plan had drawn opposition from not only teachers, but also some principals and parents, because of safety concerns, the way that students were chosen, and the fact that many students would have had to change teachers midyear.

Negotiations between the district and the teachers’ union fell apart over the weekend, with a major sticking point being the union’s insistence that no teacher should be forced to return to teaching in-person, the president of the Washington Teachers Union, Elizabeth A. Davis, said on Monday.

In a message to parents on Sunday, Ms. Davis asked them to join with teachers in opposing the mayor’s plan. “Tomorrow, Monday, November 2, many teachers across the District will be taking a ‘Mental Health Day,’” Ms. Davis wrote.

A number of principals informed parents on Sunday that teachers would be out on Monday and students could use the time to catch up on assignments.

Shortly before 10 a.m. on Monday, the district announced that it was reversing course and that all elementary school students would continue with remote learning.

At an appearance at a memorial to Covid-19 victims on Monday, Mayor Bowser was asked about why the district had withdrawn its plan.

“The teachers’ union has indicated that teachers won’t show up, so we have to make some adjustments to the timeline to ensure that the workforce is in place,” she said. She said the district was still working on plans under which some students could begin going to schools to engage in distance learning under supervision by non-teachers, possibly starting Nov. 16.

“As far as when teachers are going to return, we will continue to work with the teachers’ union,” Ms. Bowser said. “What we are unable to do is to say to parents and families and kids who need instruction in their school buildings that we’re going to write off the entire school year. I’m just not willing to do that.”

Experts are still divided on how much transmission schools may fuel, though there is increasing consensus that keeping elementary schools open does not pose a major risk, and that the potential for transmission in schools can be significantly reduced by safety measures such as mask requirements and adequate ventilation.

In other education news around the country:

More than one million parents in New York City must decide in the next two weeks whether to send their children into classrooms this school year or keep them learning from home, likely until at least next fall. The city had said parents could opt into the hybrid (part in-person, part online) program every few months, but the mayor changed course after only a quarter of the district’s 1.1 million students have shown up for in-person classes since September, far fewer than predicted.

Amid new restrictions on gatherings and businesses, Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts suggested that he did not plan to order schools closed in an effort tamp down transmission of the virus. Schools “need to stay open,” he said, adding that in-person learning is “hugely important for the educational and social development of kids.”

A Connecticut judge on Monday denied a conservative group’s emergency request to block Gov. Ned Lamont’s requirement that students wear masks in school. The group, CT Freedom Alliance, had argued that the mask requirement posed an immediate danger to students. The judge said in his decision that “no emergency exists” and that “there is very little evidence of harm at all.”

— Kate Taylor The New York Times