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Permission granted by City School District of New Rochelle
Parents, teachers challenge school reopening decisions
Naaz Modan
July 13, 2020
Dive Brief:
Parents and teachers are pushing back in some districts that have
decided to reopen in August with in-person instruction as the Trump
administration mounts pressure for a full in-person reopening.
Arlington Public Schools in Virginia, for example, has announced it
will offer hybrid and full-time virtual instruction, but parents in the
district sent a letter to the school board and Superintendent Francisco
Durán requesting a fully virtual model instead. Their online petition
request reached 2,071 signatures as of Monday evening.
In Texas, the Houston Federation of Teachers called Houston Independent
School District's plan "unacceptably vague and hardly adequate,"
releasing its own reopening plan. “We won’t be bullied into reopening
schools prematurely and dangerously,” said Andy Dewey, the teacher
union's executive vice president, in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Districts are contending with sometimes contradicting views from
parents, teachers, students and state and federal leaders as they plan
for the 2020-21 school year. Recent surveys have shown both parents and
teachers are worried about reopening too soon, while the White House
and some state governments are pushing schools to open their doors in
the fall.
According to a May survey released by the University of Phoenix, 53% of
parents surveyed said they were uneasy with the idea of their child
attending school or daycare in person. In a more recent survey from the
online postsecondary provider, 70% of parents reportedly used negative
words, such as "worried" or "nervous," to describe sending their
children back to school or daycare.
Meanwhile, the National Education Association, American Federation of
Teachers, National Parent Teacher Association, Council of
Administrators of Special Education, National Association of Secondary
School Principals, and National Association of State Directors of
Special Education challenged President Donald Trump's push to reopen
last week.
"To safely re-open our schools, health experts should be relied on to
figure out the 'when' and educators and parents should be central to
figuring out the 'how,'" the organizations said in a joint statement.
"Public school educators, students and parents must have a voice in
critical conversations and decisions on reopening schools."
Some states that began reopening for business are rolling back on that
decision, impacting the probability schools in those places will reopen
with in-person instruction. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, for example,
announced Monday he would backtrack earlier guidance to reopen the
state, and the state's two largest districts, the Los Angeles and San
Diego Unified School Districts, decided to remain closed in the fall
with an online-only learning model. The move goes against the push from
Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to reopen in the fall.
Other organizations are also distancing themselves from the White
House's position. The American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization
whose stance favoring in-person instruction was heavily cited in the
Trump administration's push to reopen schools, clarified its opinion in
a joint statement with the AFT, NEA and AASA, the School
Superintendents Association.
"Returning to school is important for the healthy development and
well-being of children, but we must pursue reopening in a way that is
safe for all students, teachers and staff," AAP said in the statement.
"Local school leaders, public health experts, educators and parents
must be at the center of decisions about how and when to reopen
schools, taking into account the spread of COVID-19 in their
communities and the capacities of school districts to adapt safety
protocols to make in-person learning safe and feasible."
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