After facing a major setback, the Philadelphia Public School District has scrapped its plan for students to receive in-person instruction again in September, choosing to stay away until at least November.
Across the river in New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy has faced similar opposition, but the state’s plan to reopen schools in about a month, with students having the option to do fully remote learning, continues go ahead, at least for now. .
Keith E. Benson, president of the Camden Education Association, said he hopes Murphy will take this opportunity to follow Philadelphia’s example and reconsider his plan.
“We certainly hope that our governor is paying attention and taking cues from other places that are seeing how serious the coronavirus is for our students, teachers and staff,” he said. The union would prefer to see learning completely remote until the virus is more under control. “Our collective fingers are crossed.”
Criticism of the plan to reopen in late August and September has come from everywhere, including doctors, parents and teacher unions. In the latest development, three Assembly Democrats announced Wednesday that they will propose legislation that would continue to learn online during the new school year, with the exception of special education and related in-person services.
According to Governor’s Plan The Way Back: Restart and Recovery Plan for Education, schools have to develop plans and protocols to allow for additional sanitation, cohort, social distancing at school and on buses, COVID-19 staff evaluation and students, and other requirements. All 577 districts in the state are currently rolling out those plans, and some are expected to have a hybrid of face-to-face and remote learning.
Parents also have the option of totally remote learning, and it is unclear how many would send their children to school. Even before Murphy made that announcement, a third of Paterson said they would keep their children home if schools were reopened.
Across the state, people seem to be divided on whether to reopen schools with protective measures. A Fairleigh Dickinson University survey found that 46% of adult residents say schools should reopen and 42% say remote learning should continue until there is a COVID-19 treatment or vaccine.
The New Jersey Education Association, which represents approximately 200,000 teachers statewide, has said it will not be safe for schools to reopen until the state can address the problems of PPE, the use of universal masks in schools, and the lack of ventilation due to outdated HVAC systems, among other things. NJEA President Marie Blistan told NorthJersey.com that it is not safe for them to reopen in September due to those problems and the lack of time to come up with plans and solutions.
Schools’ plans for how to reopen safely have varied widely, from just half a day of in-person instruction to five-day classes a week and frequent testing for students.
Murphy said that the health and quality of education have guided the state’s plan, as well as equity. “Not everyone has the luxury of hiring a tutor or having a separate room in the house to put Johnny or Sally doing their remote learning,” she said.
Dr. Lawrence Kleinman, chief of the Division of Population Health, Quality and Implementation Science in the Department of Pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine, said that New Jersey public health officials have to make very careful decisions. difficult. But just like Philadelphia school leaders, they can reverse plans if that’s what’s best for public health, especially given a slight increase in new cases and the rate of transmission.
“There is no shame in changing your mind. In fact, it is what a thoughtful person does. Circumstances change. Public officials must do that as information changes locally and nationally, ”said Kleinman.
In an ideal world, he said, schools would not open in September, but the reality is that some students also cannot learn safely at home.
“I think it is too early to open up in general, but we have to think of a way to treat, support and nurture those children who may not have a better alternative to do it in person,” he said, including those whose parents work and need supervision.
In Camden, where many residents live below the poverty line, 60 percent of parents still said they are uncomfortable sending their children to school in the fall, Superintendent Katrina McCombs said in announcing the plan. reopening of the district Tuesday at a meeting covered by the Philadelphia Inquirer. She also said that a third of teachers said they are considering not going back to work.
“His fears are real and well founded,” Benson said Wednesday.
“That we are having board meetings about Zoom and that we can’t go to a restaurant to order food, but we can run the school safely, it just defies logic,” he said.
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