Katy Meza is well aware of the pain that distance learning is causing in her son, Matthew. The third grader struggles with isolation, is frustrated sitting in front of the computer for hours and is wasting academic time.
Still, Meza says she is not prepared for him to return so soon to study in person at Bryson Elementary School in South Gate.
Almost every family she knows has someone who fell ill with COVID-19. His neighbor died of the disease and his wife was hospitalized. And Meza is not confident that her son’s school – which before the pandemic often lacked toilet paper and soap – can keep him safe or prevent him from becoming infected with the virus and taking him home to his grandparents.
“I can try to teach you the multiplication table or fractions,” she said. “But we cannot recover our health or our lives.”
On Tuesday, an agreement reached between LA Unified and the teachers’ union that aims to bring students back to campus by mid-April put into action a critical decision among LA parents: should they send their children back? It is an issue that parents face across the county as lawmakers push for schools to start reopening across California and have earmarked $ 2 billion in education funds for primary schools that offer face-to-face learning next month.
There is a wide disparity of opinion between parents and caregivers on the subject.
Some parents, frustrated with the academic and mental health effects of remote learning, are eager to see their children return to the classroom and demand a quick resumption of personal learning.
“Schools can be reopened safely now, full time, five days a week, of course, with adequate mitigation,” said Megan Bacigalupi, an advocate for the parents of the newly formed group Schools open in California. “Our group will continue to fight until all the children go back to school.”
Others are suspicious – especially in places that have felt the devastating and unfair effects of COVID-19. Even if the school reopens, they keep their children at home with continuous distance learning, an option that school districts must offer during the pandemic.
“There is a lot of pain in the community,” said Maria Brenes, executive director of the Eastside InnerCity Struggle advocacy group. “There will have to be a lot of engagement for families to feel, ‘OK, there are conditions where I feel my child will be safe'”.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was possible to reopen school campuses safely with appropriate safeguards – including wearing a universal mask, social detachment, frequent hand washing, improved cleaning and ventilation of schools and other protocols.
Last month, LA County reached the state limit for reopening elementary school campuses, prompting many to open their doors or make plans to do so soon. High schools and high schools are likely to be allowed to reopen in a few days. Districts in wealthier communities led the movement for the rapid reopening of schools.
National and local district-level surveys highlight the positions of divided parents on returning, with families assessing many factors, including the impact that COVID-19 has had on their local community, whether they live in intergenerational families and whether they trust their school can keep your kids safe.
Mandy Zhou of San Marino said he hesitated when his son’s classroom reopened for face-to-face learning last month. She said most of her friends decided to keep their children at home in this wealthy neighborhood, where most students are of Asian descent.
Zhou said her decision to allow her son to return was influenced by the San Marino Unified School District’s frequent communication with parents asking for their opinion, she said. She knew that her son was getting bored with distance learning and felt that he needed a more direct interaction with the teacher and colleagues.
On the day he was due to return to campus, Zhou said, her son woke up and put his backpack on at 9 am, although classes didn’t start until almost noon. When she leaves, she sees him finding socially distant ways to play with classmates.
“Even though they are two meters away, they are still playing. They are throwing stone at a paper scissor, they are running, ”she said. “He is very happy.”
Recent research with families of elementary school students in the Unified School District of Arcádia found that about half wanted to continue distance learning, while the other half wanted to return to campus, said spokesman Ryan Foran. The district, where nearly two-thirds of students are Asian or Asian-American and about a quarter come from low-income families, is planning to reopen for elementary students in April.
Long Beach Unified, which is planning to open its doors to face-to-face education for students from kindergarten through fifth grade in late March, found a similar divide. About 50% of parents of elementary school students opted for online education, while 44% opted for face-to-face education. Five percent did not make a selection, said spokesman Chris Eftychiou. The majority of students in the district are Latino and about 65% come from low-income families.
Meanwhile, at Beverly Hills Unified, more than two-thirds of students were expected to return to face-to-face education when elementary school campuses were reopened on Monday, while 32% would remain online, spokeswoman Rebecca Starkins said. About 70% of students in the district are white and about 17% come from low-income families.
But at Inglewood Unified, where the majority of students are Latino and about 40% are black, about 71% of families in a survey earlier this year said they were not comfortable sending their children back to school afterwards that they were allowed to return, officials said.
Los Angeles Unified, which interviewed parents in November, reported that about 66% of families said they would prefer to continue learning online when students could physically return to campus. About 38% of black families, 30% of Latin families and 29% of Asian families preferred face-to-face learning, compared with 58% of white families.
LAUSD Supt. Austin Beutner said that in the coming weeks, parents will be asked to consider their choice again.
At the national level, the Pew Research Center in February found that public opinion about the reopening of schools varied based on race and income: black, Latino and Asian adults were more likely than white adults to say that the risk of teachers and students becoming infected or spreading the coronavirus should receive a lot of consideration in school reopening A large majority of black, Latino and Asian adults also said that schools should wait to reopen until teachers were vaccinated, compared with about half of white adults.
USC researchers Likewise, they found that the issue of reopening was divided into racial and economic lines. In a national survey, 63% of white parents were in favor of some form of return to personal learning, as well as 68% of those with an income above $ 150,000. More than half of black, Latino and Asian parents, in turn, preferred distance learning.
Parents on both sides of the issue said they felt excluded from decision making and many said that their school districts needed to do a better job of communicating and engaging with parents.
“I would like LA Unified to take us into account,” said Meza of South Gate. “These are our children. And they need to work with us to come up with a plan so that we can feel safe. ”
Lydia Friend of Watts, the grandmother of two fifth graders who attend LAUSD schools, is advocating for schools to reopen.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Lydia Friend, who has lived in Watts and has been an activist in the community for decades, said she was looking forward to her grandchildren returning to school. She worries about the mental health impact of children being isolated, she said.
“Our children are suffering at home,” she said. “Especially for parents who can’t afford a daycare, for working parents and children staying at home.”
Friend said she was constantly talking to families in the community and that many of them were reluctant to allow their children to return to campus, but she believes it is important that they have the option to return.
What makes her more frustrated, she said, is to feel as if parents and guardians have no say in decisions.
Brenes, who has two children in Eastside schools, said school leaders need to work more diligently to communicate with families if they want them to feel secure about their children’s safety.
“Our community has witnessed firsthand how harsh the pandemic has been,” she said, “and how they don’t always feel like they’re being prioritized or protected.”
This sentiment was continually reinforced during the pandemic, as black and Latino students were disproportionately left behind during school closures due to lack of access to technology. Black and Latino communities have been disproportionately harmed by the virus and vaccines have been disproportionately sent to rich, white communities, Brenes said.
All of this leads people to question: “Does the system really have our best interests in mind?” Said Brenes. “You can’t separate that from the reopening issue.”