A new report by USA Today found that thousands of students across America are missing classes – in part because of the challenges of virtual learning.

As some school districts in New Jersey struggle to come up with the right plan to keep students safe during the pandemic, many students and parents say that the school day is getting more difficult as the weeks go on.

“Right now [my son] is home doing 100% virtual. His school started with the whole student body in school, but unfortunately, they discovered two of the students came down with COVID,” says Neil Petrocelli.

His son Aedan says that he is hoping things get better.

"It's not exactly the high school experience that I wanted,” says Aedan Petrocelli. “I’m hoping things will die down and I hope that I have the high school experience that I want.”

Remove learning presents its own set of issues.

"Sometimes they're not paying attention enough, sometimes we rely on the internet, the connection, that doesn't work - they miss class,” says parent David Zetino.

And there is the issue of being on what equates to a phone call for hours each day.

“As an adult, I don’t want to be on a phone call for more than five minutes. I don’t want to be in a meeting for more than a half-hour,” Neil Petrocelli says.

But everyone is trying to make the best out of a bad situation.

“We have to hang tight in there and see how everything works out,” says Zetino.

“Young people are learning resilience. They’re learning to be flexible,” says Neil Petrocelli.

And they are also learning the importance of a good lesson.

"Grades are still counted. You still have classes, you still have a school day,” Aedan Petrocelli says.

According to state officials, there are currently 81 school districts in the state that are open for all in-person instruction, while 403 districts are open with a hybrid plan. There are 278 schools that are all-remote and 40 are using some combination of remote, in-person and hybrid schedules.