Mixed Reopen Plans for Public Schools in America
“Hey…if you had an elementary school aged child, would you send them back to school in the fall?” This was the text I received from a friend in early July when the initial announcement from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was made about the intention to move full steam ahead on public schools reopening. My exact response was, “No, not unless he tested positive for the antibodies, and even then maybe not because there is no proof he can’t get COVID again.”
I’m pretty sure that was already her decision and she knew what I would say and just wanted some encouragement that her choice was not too drastic, but now that the fall is looming, the lack of a real nationwide back to school plan is leaving me with a sense of dread. I don’t even have children.
(A pre-K graduation ceremony in Jersey City, N.J., in early June, 2020. Photo by Seth Wenig, via Associated Press.)
I have a cousin in the mid-west who is a public school teacher and she recently filled me in on how her school district will be moving forward. The union apparently negotiated 50% capacity with children attending 2-3 days a week on alternating weeks. When I asked why her union had not sued the state for an injunction to force everyone to go completely remote, she told me that the union had requested it, but that their Republican governor will likely never approve. She has asthma like I do because it runs on our side of the family, and luckily her case is much milder than mine, but I am suddenly as worried for her as if there had been another school shooting.
California's two largest school districts, Los Angeles Unified School District ansd San Diego Unified School District, announced last week that due to skyrocketing infection rates, schools will not open for any in-person instruction when the academic year is scheduled to start in August. Instead, students will continue to learn remotely.
(Teenagers on July 16, 2020, on a path near Heisler Park in Laguna Beach, CA, where the mask situation has become a controversial issue during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Don Leach, via Los Angeles Times.)
LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner made an announcement that "[his] goal is to welcome students back to school as soon as it is safe and appropriate for us to do so." Both school districts plan to return to in-person learning at some point during the 2020-21 school year, “as soon as public health conditions allow.” For now, the next step in the process will be negotiating with teachers’ unions over guidelines for distance learning and planning how those lesson plans will be implemented in the fall.
That seems to be the most reasonable approach I have seen so far from a school district in response to the rising infection rate. Many other major cities seem to be following suit as well — in Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, suburban Washington and elsewhere — school districts have indicated they will start the school year entirely with remote classes. It appears the threats of the Trump administration to pull funding for public schools, who don’t completely reopen for in-person classes, has had little effect in some of the larger districts.
Some school districts, most likely in conservative states with Republican governors who are still willing to obey Trump, are not willing to stay closed and the idea of home schooling has become a popular option for parents who can afford it. The number of parents who had never before considered home schooling and will now consider it for fall is increasing, and the concept of community home schooling with a small group of other families is gaining popularity as well.
(Children in a classroom in the United States sit close together before the COVID-19 virus created a world-wide pandemic.)
For school districts like the one my cousin is in, that are proposing hybrid plans, they have only succeeded in proving that remote learning is manageable because they intend to utilize it for half of the time. I occurs to me that while these locations may begin the school year with a 50/50 proposition, they will surely have to switch to 100% remote learning after the first major coronavirus outbreaks occur at school. It’s possible that the school districts, who are intent on in-person classes, are simply waiting for an outbreak to force their plan to shift, rather than starting the year remotely to protect everyone.
I keep thinking about my father, who passed several years ago. He was a public school teacher who lived for his job and never missed a day of school. He would have inevitably headed into work if he were instructed to do so, and done everything he could have to protect the kids he loved at the same time. He would not have complained or argued with the decision of the Norris School District or the governor of Nebraska, and he might have become ill or died because of it. I am grateful that I don’t have to see it in real time and I don’t have to argue with him about demanding basic protections from the school.
(A girl wears a face mask as students sit in a classroom of the Petri primary school in Dortmund, western Germany, on June 15, 2020 amid the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Ina Fassbender/AFP, via Getty Images.)
I am also curious to know from those of you who have school-aged children — have you made plans and what have your school districts told you so far? If you are a teacher, what have you been told from the school and from your union? The back to school plans in our communities will affect us all, regardless of whether or not we have school-aged children attending public schools when the virus levels spike in our areas. If you are comfortable, please leave a comment about where you live, if you are a teacher or school staff, if you have children and what your plan is for fall.
I’m hoping that others who read this, who may be struggling over what to do or how to advocate for their children, might see your comment here for your plans and get some ideas moving forward. You could help someone who has fewer options and doesn’t know what to do. Thanks for taking the time to read this, to comment and for being a part of this SHERO community. Stay safe out there.
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Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter and is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
I teach in Omaha, NE where our students will be going 2-3 days a week in two groups, so we’ll only have 50% capacity at a time. However, the staff will be in the building five days a week and teaching both the in-person students and creating remote lessons for the students when they are not in the building. We will also likely be subbing for teachers who are out of the building since we have had a sub shortage for quite some time, and the virus will only exacerbate that.
In addition to my return to school, my elementary aged children will be going to their school 2-3 days a week. Since my husband works full time, that means we need to find childcare for our kids the days they aren’t in the building. All of this greatly increases the odds that someone in my family will contract the virus.
I am scared. I’m scared for me, my kids, my family, my students, my colleagues, all of their families... With the cases of Covid increasing in our community, I just don’t feel now is the time to be returning to the building. Our district purchased iPads with cellular service for all of our students this year. Our staff has had professional development on remote teaching. I feel like we have the opportunity to create a really strong remote learning option that would keep our staff, students, and families much safer.
My daughter is a senior this year. This has been one of the hardest decisions I've had to make as a parent. We have until July 28 to decide on virtual-only school or a plan to eventually get kids back in classrooms. The hybrid plan will likely start off with totally virtual learning, go to 2 days a week in-person/3 days virtual when spread eventually slows to medium-risk, and to 5 days a week in-person when the risk is low.