opinion
Over the last two weeks, parents have grappled with the choice of sending their kids back to school in-person or keeping them home to learn remotely. Assigning this decision to individual families puts parents in an impossible position, creates uncertainty for school administrators and increases risk for our teachers.
As a member of the Re-Open Leon Schools Task Force, I know how hard school district staff has worked to plan for both options. By giving parents a choice, they hoped to meet the needs of as many families as possible. And as a parent of students who attended three different Title I schools, I am keenly aware of how needs and means vary from one family to another.
But basing our district’s plan on individual choice is a misguided way to meet these needs. Of course, information should be solicited from parents, who are in the best position to identify their personal needs and ability to meet these. But the responsibility to meet the needs of all students and families, while ensuring the safety of staff, teachers and administrators, should not rest on parents’ choice.
More from the Task Force
- Cafeterias, playgrounds and PE: Leon County Schools coronavirus task force weighs options
- Leon County Schools task force weighs how to trace and contain coronavirus in the classroom
- Leon County Schools coronavirus task force eclipsed by vote for students to wear masks
- 'Mask breaks' in the mix as Leon Schools officials take up coronavirus task force ideas
Despite our federal and state governments’ refusal to acknowledge it, the COVID-19 pandemic calls for a large-scale communal response. Just like mask ordinances and stay-at-home orders, when it comes to school re-opening, we will not “individual-choice” ourselves out of this.
For one, parents are not in a position — nor do they have the necessary information — to make a choice that is in the best interest not only of their child, but of their child’s classmates and teachers.
Parents are being asked to choose under circumstances that are constantly changing; many parents have already expressed the wish to revisit their choice, made just a few days ago, and we are still five weeks away from the beginning of the school year.
In addition, parents had to make a choice with incomplete information, since their very choice will determine such things as course offerings, modes of teaching and group sizes.
When parents express concern about the safety of in-person schooling this fall, the only solution they are offered is distance learning. Are we asking parents to believe that a school that does not feel safe for their kids is fine for other people’s kids?
Meanwhile, in the absence of official guidance, many parents have reasoned that if they are able to keep their kids home, they should do so as an act of solidarity, in order to reduce the number of kids per classroom. But without clear thresholds for classroom capacity and a commitment not to exceed those numbers, how are these gestures effectively consequential? What if the outcome is simply to cut a teaching unit?
What would a systematic, equitable plan for the whole community look like? It would require, among other things, that district leaders, informed by health officials, establish a maximum capacity or a minimum space required per student for times (like now) when the community is seeing an increase in infections.
More: Special section: Opinions from teachers on returning to school during the COVID-19 pandemic
More: Many Leon County Schools teachers terrified to return to classrooms in August
More: Leon County superintendent: Florida Gov. DeSantis 'misleading' public about teacher pay raises
Then, in addition to Leon County Schools' current plan, which meets the FLDOE requirement that schools be open full-time for all students, a second-tier plan could ensure that all schools abide by those thresholds by offering the limited spots to those students who need them most.
Failing that, given the ever worsening situation, I expect our local health officials will be forced to order that our schools be closed.
Marie-Claire Leman is a parent in Leon County.
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