Three of Hawaii’s biggest private schools have joined the public schools here in pushing on with in-person learning for the new semester, while the omicron surge has compelled a growing list of mainland school districts to postpone reopening or to switch to remote learning.

‘Iolani School, Punahou School and Kamehameha Schools each has adopted a slightly different tack, but officials said they feel safe opening their campuses this week because they’ve taken extra steps to ensure the safety of students and employees.

‘Iolani School, which is a federally certified COVID-19 testing center, had every member of the faculty and staff tested Sunday, a day before students returned to campus. “Because of our high degree of vaccination and the safety procedures we’ve adopted as a community, we had a 0.5% positivity rate,” said Michelle Hee, director of communications and public relations. More than 99% of the ‘Iolani faculty and staff are fully vaccinated, she said, as are 96% of the upper-school students in grades 7 to 12.

All ‘Iolani students also will be tested on campus this week, and weekly testing for everyone on the ‘Iolani campus will likely continue until the current surge passes, ‘Iolani Head of School Timothy Cottrell said. When student testing launched Monday, just eight cases out of 800 tests were discovered, for a 1% positivity rate.

‘Iolani is requiring masks both outdoors and indoors during the surge.

And assuming that the CDC signs off this week on Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots for children ages 12-15, ‘Iolani on Friday will partner with Safeway to host the latest in an ongoing series of on-campus vaccine clinics for its students and employees.

“We very committed to bringing the kids back together, and we have super rigorous protocols for bringing them back,” said Cottrell, who added that he has been consulting regularly with local and national medical and epidemiology experts. “We set the framework that we are going to follow the science.”

Starting today, Kamehameha Schools this week will gradually bring back students at all three of its campuses — Kapalama, Maui and Hawaii — but some grade levels will start instruction virtually until it is their turn to return, spokesman Darren Pai said.

All Kamehameha campus staff will be tested for COVID-19, and students will be offered free, voluntary COVID-19 testing, he said.

The Kamehameha Schools also require masks to be worn both indoors and outdoors, and are emphasizing distancing, hygiene and the use of technology to improve contact tracing.

“We remain committed both to the health and safety of our students, staff, and families as our highest priority, and to protecting the continued benefits of in-person learning,” Pai said in a statement.

Punahou resumed full in-person learning Tuesday under a multilayered approach that includes “increased testing for all faculty and students, strict mask enforcement and daily health check-ins with the school,” spokesman Robert Gelber said in a statement. “Our students, teachers and staff are highly vaccinated, which adds an extra layer of protection for our community.”

While the vast majority of public schools nationwide reportedly were operating as planned this week, the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant, along with labor and testing shortages, has led to growing disruptions and chaos.

In Chicago, for instance, students had resumed in-person learning Monday, but late Tuesday night a majority of members of the Chicago Teachers Union voted to shift to virtual learning. The vote triggered a last-minute cancellation of classes for today in the third-largest school district in the country.

The 75,000-student Milwaukee Public Schools system announced Sunday that it would temporarily shift to remote instruction beginning Tuesday, citing “an influx of reported positive Covid-19 cases among district staff.” In-person instruction there won’t resume until Monday at the earliest.

The Detroit school system, citing a record-high testing positivity rate of 36% in the city, canceled school for at least the first three days of this week, then announced virtual learning will run until at least Jan. 14. The 35,000 students in Cleveland will be on remote learning for at least a week, while 35,000 more students in Newark, N.J., will learn virtually for at least two weeks.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.