Covid19 School closures

[WPOZZZ]

To combat the spread of Covid19, some school districts and states have closed schools. Most school districts have a minimum number of instructional days for each school year. Some school districts like mine have the teachers' union fighting an extended school year, and having the teachers report to school during the closure to provide online learning for the students.

We are nearing the end of the school year, and in my state, schools are closed until April 30. Students will miss at least 25 instructional days. What should happen at the end of the school year? Social promotion/graduation of the students? Repeat the school year?

Many of our private schools have moved to an online curriculum, and there have been no problems with the teachers. Of course, they are non-union.

[Steve Viegas]

This becomes a fairly challenging problem for public schools I think. In CA at least, they have an obligation to equality. Part of that obligation includes access to education. There is such a diverse population in many of the districts that making sure every student has access to education right now is a challenge.

I have two school age children. One is in a private school, the other in public school. The one in private school has not missed a beat. They were able to roll out distance learning and simply continue their curriculum as if nothing had happened.

My other school age child is in the public system in San Jose. This district has 30K students. They are trying to figure out how to get hardware and connectivity to each student. Their duty to ensure that all students have access to their education precludes them from teaching anyone until they are sure that everyone has the ability. A call has gone out to the local tech companies (of which there are a few) to help.

[pete3799]

The Gov. here canceled school for the year yesterday.
https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Vermont-students-will-not-return-to-school-this-school-year-569139611.html

[osidak]

My son goes to Charter school. They tested remote learning (basically video conference classes) on a Friday... Announced the school would be closed for a minimum of 2 weeks on a Sunday. Monday and Tuesday school was closed to students to allow them to come get anything needed (instruments and books or meds left on campus) Wednesday they started the online classes.


He is about to finish his second week of doing that now. Seems to be working really well.

[pwd72s]

Online schooling...our Governor said no to that. Owned by the teacher's union, she complies...

[Arizona_928]

You don't go to school you lose funding at state and federal level.
All the districts in AZ have gone online. I have set up my crap through Google classroom. Get paid salary for extremely minimal work. It's dumb. Packets for kids that don't have online access, or for parents that refuse to let the child online. Yeah there's a few.


The real question is special ed. Gotta provide those service hours to get that 15 grand per kid. Gonna do it online? yeah.


The alternate is that teachers are out of work. Which is insane. Professors. Yeah I'm confused on that too. uni going back to in person lecture... Research lol

[Noah930]

Child #1 goes to a private HS. They do online school. Just like the normal school day, but log on to the school website instead of sitting in a classroom. This is a private school, so everyone has laptops and home internet access

Child #2 attends a public Jr High. They are trying to hold online classes. But that only applies to some of the classes, some of the days. It's a bit chaotic, and nowhere near the semblance of regular school.

Child #3 is in a public (charter school) elementary school. They have sent home packets of worksheets, but effectively this is going to be a lost schoolyear. Lack of computers and/or internet access at homes has made it impossible to hold online classes. But honestly, there's nothing in grade school (or even junior high) that any parent shouldn't be able to teach their kids, so I'm not concerned.

Anecdotally I have a friend who's an LA Unified teacher and very social media active. Today she said she's been requested to hold 2 classes online and do some sort of other online school programming for about 2 hours a (week)day. Normally, she's super progressive politically (never misses a chance to make a political post or statement). But apparently she's not interested and has declined to do so, challenging LAUSD to fire her. Funny how it's always been about the kids in the past...well, except for now; f 'em, they're on their own, now.

[Deschodt]

My kids have been off for 2 weeks now and at least till early May (latest date).
So far so good, they get assignments via google classrooms, emails, meet their teachers and classmates on Zoom (you can see the entire class - some got loaner chrome books if necessary), they are both working just as hard (if not harder) than before. Pretty impressive actually, compared to how hard it seems to be to build respirators or make paper masks...

[tdw28210]

Speaking of school projects.....

Charlotte Latin students raise more than $52K to print 3D face shields for medical personnel

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/charlotte-latin-students-raising-money-to-print-3d-face-shields-for-local-medical-personnel-to-treat-covid-19-patients/ar-BB11ypJ5