Parents of students who learn at home should not necessarily count on recovering the dining room table anytime soon.
After seeing two school years diverted by the pandemic, school leaders across the country are planning the possibility of more distance learning next fall, at the beginning of another school year.
“We have no illusions that COVID will be eradicated when the beginning of the school year arrives,” said William “Chip” Sudderth III, a spokesman for schools in Durham, North Carolina, whose students have been out of school buildings since March.
President Joe Biden has made reopening schools a top priority, but administrators say there is much to consider as new strains of the coronavirus emerge and teachers await their turn for vaccines.
And while many parents demand that schools reopen fully, others say they will not feel safe sending children back to classrooms until vaccines are available to even the youngest students. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading public health expert, said late last month that the Biden administration hopes to start vaccinating children in late spring or early summer.
By then, districts will be in preparation for the next school year.
“By 2021-22, at least part of that school year will probably still be related to the response to the pandemic, assuming that children will not have access to the vaccine, or at least many will not,” said Superintendent Brian Woods of the Northside Independent School District, a of the largest districts in Texas.
This may mean a more teacher-friendly version of the face-to-face and remote learning mix that is happening now, a version that does not require teachers to instruct two groups simultaneously. This could be achieved by dividing the team or rearranging schedules, he said, adding that the longer term could be a totally remote option for students who have permanently left the traditional school.
“There will be some element of genius that cannot be put back in the bottle,” said Woods. “I think that now there will always be a group of families that want a virtual option. … We know we can, but are we willing to do that? “
Faced with the same reality, the West Contra Costa California Unified School District is planning a new K-12 Virtual Academy for 2021-22.
“One thing we learned during the pandemic is that teaching and learning are now different and will never be quite what we used to think was ‘normal’ again,” the January agenda item said before the Education Council.
The pivot for distance learning last March proved to be a lifeline for the education system, but concerns are growing every month about the effects on racial inequalities, students’ academic performance, attendance and their general well-being .
In Durham, North Carolina, schools – which have been totally remote since March – announced last month that they would remain so until the end of the current school year.
In addition, Sudderth said, “the prevalence of the disease will determine what we are able to do”.
The guideline for determining whether the district of 32,000 students could move from remote to hybrid learning in January was a test positivity rate below 4%. But it is not clear whether this metric or others that have so far been defined by states or districts will continue.
Biden, in an executive order, instructed his secretary of education to provide “evidence-based guidance” and advice to schools to conduct personal learning safely.
“I hope we don’t have to make hybrids, but I don’t want to be in a position where we haven’t thought of everything,” said Eva Moskowitz, whose 47 charter schools at Success Academy enroll 20,000 students in New York City.
Successful students have been applying for full days of live remote instruction on laptops and tablets provided by the school since the beginning of the school year, an exhaustive task that Moskowitz plans to end in the current school year on May 28. The school 2021-22 the year will then begin on August 2, possibly in a hybrid format.
“I honestly don’t know what the chances are” of continuing distance learning for the next school year, she said.
“Logic would tell me that we shouldn’t, but my knowledge of the government makes me a little more hesitant,” she said, noting the sometimes conflicting guidelines from the city and the state and the slow start to the distribution of vaccines.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has promised that schools in the nation’s largest school district “will return in full force in September.”
“Everyone wants to be back,” he said.
But the head of the powerful teachers’ union, Michael Mulgrew, says it is too early to commit. Schools are currently offering some face-to-face classes for elementary and pre-K students who want them, but elementary and high schools are remote – only after reopened for a period in the fall.
“It is my goal, but I cannot say that they will open,” said the president of the United Federation of Teachers in an interview. His view of the mayor’s promise: “It’s not what you want. This is about what you can safely do. “
The union president said it would take more than vaccinations for teachers to open schools fully and safely.
He noted that scientists are still unsure whether vaccinated people can still spread the virus, even if they are not sick themselves. And he wonders how families will feel comfortable having unvaccinated children and teenagers starting the new year unvaccinated.
“This is where it gets difficult. So, how do you say it will open in September, when we need to have these questions answered? ” he asked.
A coalition of parents in Evanston, Illinois, asked Superintendent Eric Witherspoon what assurances he could give that Evanston Township High School will provide personal learning in the academic year 2021-22.
“We are witnessing a real crisis in our community,” Laurel O’Sullivan, the mother of a high school student in Evanston, said by telephone. “We are a coalition that includes mental health experts and doctors who, in their practices in the community, see children daily experiencing a major outbreak of mental and emotional health crises. … It is a social, emotional and academic crisis that we are seeing. “
The district did not respond to a request for comment.
———
Thompson reported from Buffalo, New York. Associated Press editor Jennifer Peltz of New York City contributed to this report.