Parents of schoolchildren learning from home should not necessarily count on the recovery of the dining room table soon.
After seeing two academic years abandoned by the pandemic, school leaders across the country are planning the possibility of more distance learning next fall at the start of another school year.
“We have no illusions that COVID will be eradicated when the school year begins,” said William “Chip” Sudderth III, a spokesman for schools in Durham, North Carolina, whose students have been out of school. school buildings since March.
President Joe Biden has reopened schools it’s a top priority, but administrators say there’s a lot to keep in mind as new coronavirus strains appear and teachers are waiting their turn to get vaccinated.
And while many parents are demanding that schools reopen completely, others say they will not feel safe sending children into classrooms until vaccines are available even for young students. Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top public health expert, said late last month the Biden administration hopes to start vaccinating children in late spring or early summer.
Then the districts will be deeply prepared for the next school year.
“Until 2021-22, it is likely that at least part of this school year will continue to be related to the pandemic response, assuming children will not have access to the vaccine, or at least many will not,” Superintendent Brian Woods said. , of the Northside Independent School District, among the largest districts in Texas.
This could mean a more appropriate version for teachers of the face-to-face and remote learning mix that is taking place now, which does not require teachers to instruct two groups simultaneously. This could be achieved by splitting the staff or rearranging schedules, he said, adding that in the long run a totally remote option can be seen for students who have definitely changed from the traditional school.
“There’s going to be some element of the elf that can’t be put back in the bottle,” Woods said. “I think now there will always be a group of families who want a virtual option. … We know we are capable of doing it, but are we willing to do it? “
Faced with the same reality, the West Contra Costa Unified School District in California is planning a new K-12 virtual academy for 2021-22.
“One thing we learned during the pandemic is that teaching and learning are different now, and it won’t be quite what we thought it was ‘normal’ ever,” he read the January agenda item before the Board of Education.
The pivot of distance learning last March has proven to be a lifeline for the education system, but with each passing month there have been growing concerns about the effects on racial inequalities., student academic performance, assistance and their general well-being.
In Durham, North Carolina, schools, totally remote since March, announced last month that they would remain so until the end of the current school year.
Beyond that, Sudderth said, “the prevalence of the disease will determine what we are capable of doing.”
The guideline for whether the district of 32,000 students could move from remote learning to hybrid learning in January was a test positivity rate of less than 4%. But it is unclear whether this metric or others that have so far been established by states or districts will be maintained.
Biden, in a first-order executive, directed his education secretary to provide “evidence-based guidance” and counseling to schools to conduct face-to-face learning.
“I hope we don’t have to do hybrids, but I don’t want to be in a position where we haven’t thought of everything,” said Eva Moskowitz, whose 47 schools at the Academic School enroll 20,000 students. in New York City.
Successful students have logged in for full days of live remote instruction on laptops and tablets provided from the school since the start of the school year, a grueling venture that Moskowitz plans to end the current school year on May 28 . The 2021-22 school year will begin on August 2, possibly in hybrid format.
“Honestly, I don’t know what the chances are” of continuing to learn distance learning next school year, he said.
“Logic would tell me we shouldn’t, but my knowledge of the government makes me a little more dubious,” he said, noting the sometimes conflicting orientations of the city and the state and the slow start of the deployment of vaccines.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio promised that schools in the country’s largest school district “will be full of strength again in September.”
“Everyone wants to come back,” he said.
But the head of the powerful teachers ’union, Michael Mulgrew, says it’s too early to commit. Currently, schools offer some face-to-face classes to elementary and early childhood students who wish. A plan announced Monday by De Blasio will reopen high school buildings February 25, but there is still no plan for high schools.
“It’s a goal of mine, but I can’t say they open up,” the president of the United Federation of Teachers said in an interview. His vision of the mayor’s promise: “It’s not about what you want. That’s what you can do for sure. “
Chancellor Richard Carranza acknowledged that while the goal is face-to-face school, distance learning will “stay with us” beyond the pandemic.
“We’re looking at this being a component,” he said during a press conference Monday with de Blasio.
Mulgrew said more than vaccines will be needed for teachers to open schools completely and safely.
He noted that scientists are still unclear whether vaccinated people could continue to spread the virus, even if they are not sick. And one wonders how families who are comfortable having unvaccinated children and teens starting the new year without vaccination will feel.
“It simply came to our notice then. So how do you say you open in September when we need to answer these questions? ” he asked.
A coalition of parents in Evanston, Illinois, has asked Superintendent Eric Witherspoon what guarantees he could give that Evanston Township High School would provide face-to-face learning in the 2021-22 school year.
“We are witnessing a real crisis in our community,” Laurel O’Sullivan, the father of an Evanston high school student, said by phone. “We are a coalition that includes medical and mental health experts who, in their community practices, see children on a daily basis experiencing a huge increase in mental and emotional health crises. … It is a social, emotional and academic crisis that we are seeing. “
The district did not respond to any requests for comment.
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Thompson reported from Buffalo, New York. Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz in New York City contributed to this report.