Back To School or Back to Zoom?

As we get closer and closer to the first day of school, in many states many parents are left wondering what to expect. Will their kids be back in school, will they be online, or will it be a combination of both? In recent weeks, many districts have announced that they will at least be starting the school year off virtually, some will resume in-person classes, and some have announced they are doing a mix of both. So that leads us to the all important question… which is the ‘right’ answer? 

I say ‘right’ simply because I don’t think there is a one size fits all answer but I wanted to gather information that pertains to both sides because the ‘back to school’ topic has been polarizing across the country. 

Opening Schools Back Up:

Many that are in favor of having schools reopen this fall have pointed out the fact that kids need to be socialized and being in class gives more opportunities to lower income students

When I look back at my time in school (college included), one of my favorite parts of school was seeing my friends (if you know me, you know that’s not shocking, I just love being around people). Who didn’t love catching up with their friends during passing time? In the early spring when schools shifted to distance learning students’ social lives were also distanced. 

Distance learning for many was a simple transition, if you have internet that is. Nearly 7 million kids have been home since the spring with no internet. Meaning they cannot access their online video lessons or their assignments and homework leaving some low-income homes at an even greater academic disadvantage. 

In addition to the social and economic impacts opening schools would have some supporters also suggest that there is evidence that children are less affected by COVID-19 than adults. A recent study found that both children and teenagers are half as likely to contract the virus than adults. And while we won’t know the longer term effects of coronavirus, kids that do test positive only show symptoms 21 percent of the time compared to 69 percent of positive results.  

Virtual Schooling Route:

A large reason some districts are holding back on reopening isn’t just due to the risk that we could be putting on students, but also their teachers and the parents of students. What is unknown is the ease of transmitting the virus from a student to a teacher or a parent, and for most the risk of the spread isn’t worth the positives of going back to school. Some feel that if children are found to spread the virus while showing no symptoms it could be a very easy (and not to mention fast) way to spread the virus across their community.

Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, believes that opening up schools and day care facilities would be risky, pointing to other studies suggesting that kids could be serving as vectors, passing the virus onto others in their family as they do with stomach bugs and sniffles. “I haven’t seen enough evidence to convince me that children are less involved in the transmission of COVID-19.”

The decision of whether to open schools back up or to continue virtual learning is going to take a focused assessment of ALL the risks. We all need to be advocates for our cities and think about the complete picture. If districts go forward with reopening their schools, procedures need to be put into place, teachers and students who are older or are immunocompromised should be given the different options. Maybe schools should start reopening in phases, maybe schools in hot spots should remain closed, and if kids start getting ill schools should close immediately. But all of those are guesses and calculating risks is difficult to assess across the board because what might be right for one student, or school, or district, might not be right for another. Schools are just one area of concern, what about nursing homes? Do you let them isolate alone with no family contact or do you risk infecting them? What about the economy? Do you knowingly disable the economy knowing its best to stay home? It is hard for another to say, including experts, to know exactly where we should move in the coming months.

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Additional Sources:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/will-schools-reopen-fall/613468/

https://www.govtech.com/education/k-12/Teachers-Worry-About-Equity-as-Schools-Weigh-Hybrid-Ed.html