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Parents Plead For Consistency As Some NYC Students Head Back To School. Again. For Now.
By
Sophia Chang
Published Dec 6, 2020
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By
Sophia Chang
Published Dec 6, 2020
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As the city gears up for yet another (partial) reopening of its public schools, parents who spoke to Gothamist say they're grateful for the hard work of educators, but desperate for consistency in this tumultous year.
Mayor Bill de Blasio closed the public school system and transitioned all students to remote learning on November 18th once the seven-day average of coronavirus test positivity rates in the city hit 3%, his long-promised threshold for closing school buildings.
Now, the city’s positive test rate is even higher, with a seven-day citywide average of 5.15% as of December 3rd. Yet relying on the reportedly low positivity rates inside schools themselves, de Blasio’s new plan is to prioritize in-person learning for the youngest students and students with disabilities, while older students continue remote learning. About 190,000 kids in the lower grades and at special education schools are expected to return to school buildings this week, out of a district that has about a million students. 3K-5th grade students will return to school buildings on Monday, followed by District 75 students on December 10th. Middle and high schoolers will continue remote learning for now.
De Blasio has also promised that any school that has enough space will also move toward in-person instruction five days a week for all students who have opted into the blended learning model, though many educators have already said that’s not possible with social-distancing requirements and staffing issues.
Christa Savino, who has a fourth-grader at PS 40 in Manhattan, said she’s “thrilled” her son can be in school for even a few days a week. “I am grateful for the teachers who are having to constantly change their lessons last minute to accommodate (Chancellor Richard) Carranza,” Savino wrote in an email.
Debra Morello said she’s ready to send her first-grade daughter back to her class at PS 304 in the Bronx, because she’s worried she is falling behind with remote learning. “Online learning is not the same,” Morello said. “It's a different connection, the kids get really distracted, it's just not plausible -- it's hard.”
The 3K and elementary schools will still have to follow the protocols of closing classrooms and school buildings if students or staff test positive for coronavirus. If two unlinked cases are discovered at a school in two separate classrooms, a school we be required to close down for 24 hours, reopening while students and staffers who came into contact with the COVID-19 cases self-quarantine.
One parent, Ana Jelenkovic, said her kindergartner’s school building has already had multiple weeks of closures as per the DOE’s protocol, and she’s concerned these protocols are “very strict and arbitrary.” “I don’t know if the city plans to change these rules but if they do not, they will struggle to keep schools open,” Jelenkovic wrote in an email.
Parents said they were also concerned over the mandatory COVID-19 testing for students -- de Blasio said the testing consent forms will be mandatory for any student wishing to return to in-person school. Twenty percent of a school community is expected to be tested on a weekly basis, though the youngest kids in 3K, pre-K, and kindergarten are exempt.
Maria Christakos of Queens said her 7-year-old daughter was eager to return to her second grade classroom in Whitestone. But Christakos was worried about the testing by staffers she’s never met, and how they’ll conduct the swabbing: “She wants to see her teacher in person, she told me. She can’t wait to go back but I don’t want her to be tested in schools since the parent can’t be there with them,” Christakos wrote. “I don’t know the people who will be with her in the room. I don’t know their names and she is only 7 years old.”
Justin Perras said his two daughters have attended blended learning at PS 133 in Park Slope since school originally started back in September.
“I, and I think my fellow parents, just want consistency,” Perras said. “Hopefully the latest decision to reopen will provide as much certainty as possible for months to come. The biggest challenges have been trying to find childcare or having to rebalance work and other schedules with every new announcement.”
Parents have also objected to changes in how families can decide to enroll in in-person schooling. Originally the DOE announced parents would have four chances per quarter to opt-in to blended learning -- but as staffing issues arose, de Blasio announced there would only be one additional chance in mid-November to enroll for the rest of the school year. After that deadline passed, the DOE then announced the new changes to reopening only to the youngest students and District 75 students.
“I also think that parents who didn’t opt in during the recent window to do so should have another chance to do it under the latest guidelines,” Perras said, adding “the whipsawing back and forth and not seeming to be able to plan for various contingencies is a real problem. Get on the same page, plan for a variety of possibilities, and communicate the various scenarios to parents, teachers, staff and others ahead of time so we can do our own planning.”
Some families of older students said they missed their in-person learning experience and hoped the DOE will eventually allow them to return as well.
One parent said she yearned for her son, a freshman at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, to be able to go back to in-person school soon. He “was always looking toward to his once a week 2.5 hours in-person art class with great eagerness,” Tatyana Schlesinger said. "Unfortunately, that ended a couple weeks ago...This poor kid is definitely very stressed by what's going on in his life (real lack of human interaction) and we don't really know how to help him cope.”
Schlesinger added, “Having to read Farenheit 451 for his English class was not really helpful either and the stress of year long academic classes compressed into a semester is quite overwhelming. So I hope this will change and high schoolers will be able to go back to school as well.”
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COVID-19
coronavirus
schools reopening
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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