SCHOOL REOPENINGS ARE ALMOST HERE…WHAT’S YOUR PLAN?
President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are demanding elementary, middle and high schools return to in-person learning at the start of the 2020 – 2021 academic year. A video released today by Don Winslow brutally captures the concern many people feel about that aggressive push.
Parents agree distance learning is not an optimal way to learn and hindered their ability to work, but was a necessary mitigation measure. Other countries that have reopened their schools dramatically slowed the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which America has failed to do.
In response to the tough decision many schools face, a joint statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Education Association (NEA) and AASA, The School Superintendents Association was issued. The organizations made the following declarations:
- They will do everything in their power to help with the reopenings.
- They recognize being physically present in classrooms has benefits beyond academic enrichment, such as learning social and emotional skills, getting healthy meals and exercise, and mental health support and other services that can’t be replicated through distance learning.
- They believe that science must drive the decision-making and that public health experts should not be swayed by political considerations. (NOTE: This flies in the face of a comment that White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany made on July 16th about the push to reopen schools, which is that “Science shouldn’t stand in the way of this”.)
- Local school leaders, educators and parents must be part of the reopening process, which should not be based on a one-size-fits-all approach, and needs to place a premium on establishing safety protocols that fit each school district’s needs.
- Most importantly, the federal government must provide more addtional resources to help schools with their reopening.
I thought about those principles after learning more about the plan for reopening schools in my hometown of Washington, DC. My sons – Justin entering third grade and Brendan entering kindergarten – will be students at West Education Campus. At her press conference today, Mayor Muriel Bowser (D-DC) detailed her plan, which to be blunt was predicated on giving the city as much flexibility as possible going forward. It had the following components:
- The city will closely monitor COVID-19 trendlines for the remainder of July before making a final determination about how the school year, slated to start on August 31st, will repoen on July 31st.
- They have turned an in-person summer bridge program for third, sixth and ninth graders in mid-August into virtual learning.
- In the meantime they have proposed two options – A hybrid model that consist of having students attend classes two days a week, with virtual learning the other three days, or learning virtually all the time
This is a gut-wrenching decision for Bowser. If you were looking for clarity going into the press conference you are still looking for clarity. Clearly, she is buying time to make the most informed decision possible and is allowing parents to choose what learning model they are most comfortable with for their children. Bowser doesn’t want to follow the example of Florida, which has ordered in-person learning for five days a week when school starts despite experiencing an alarming spike in COVID-19 cases. Nor did she want to follow the example of Los Angeles and San Diego school districts that has already announced they will begin the year with distance learning while California fights to flatten their pandemic curve.
Bowser is like a lot of decision-makers who are channeling the message in that joint statement from the educational and health care stakeholders – proceed with caution, rely of expertise and make sure everyone is onboard with your decision.