Parents weigh kids’ safety against educational needs
Starting Monday, CPS students will be returning for in-person learning
Ellen Lewis is thinking about the man who lives down the street from her in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. He’s been home for months after contracting COVID-19, she said, and even now, he’s still using a walker.
There are many people with long-term symptoms of this disease, she said.
There are children who have died.
But in weighing whether to send her son, an eighth grader at Skinner North Classical School, back for in-person learning when Chicago Public Schools reopens to most elementary students on Feb. 1, she also has to consider her son’s ongoing struggles with remote learning.
“It’s a horrible situation to be in,” said Lewis, a nurse and small business owner.
The first in-person classes since CPS schools abruptly shut last March are due to happen on Monday for preschool and some special education students. But with the pandemic still surging — and many teachers refusing to report to in-person work because of fears of COVID-19 — parents remain divided, and in some cases conflicted, about sending their children back for some masked, socially distanced classes.
Less than 40% of prekindergarten through eighth grade families in CPS have chosen to send their children back to
school buildings in the coming weeks.
But city and CPS officials have stressed that it’s time that parents had that choice, with Mayor Lori Lightfoot saying Friday that to deny families the option “is irresponsible and wrong.”
In recent interviews, parents who opposed returning said they were putting safety first.
“I do not believe that in-person learning is safe in any form,” said Catherine Mach, who has two children, ages 6 and 9, at Sutherland Elementary in Beverly.
“I’ve seen and done lunch duty up close and personal and I don’t believe that they can effectively keep children separated,” even with only a portion of students in attendance at once, Mach said.
Parents who are keeping their kids home voiced support for teachers, many of whom have objected to returning so soon. Only 50% of teachers who were expected to return to class actually did so Monday, according to CPS.
“I completely support the teachers in this,” said Jason Smith, the father of a sixth grader at South Loop Elementary who believes the teachers’ health concerns are valid. “You have to try to put yourself in their shoes. They are going to be around these kids all day.”
On the other side of the issue are school officials and Dr. Marielle Fricchione, a medical director at the Chicago Department of Public Health, who supported the partial return to in-person classes at a news conference Tuesday.
Pointing to a recent study in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice that she co-authored, she said, “This data adds to the growing suggestion that the option of in-person learning is a safe thing to do.”
Parents who plan to send their children back to school Feb. 1 said that they feel comfortable doing so and that remote learning simply isn’t working for large numbers of children. CPS CEO Janice Jackson has repeatedly stressed the burden that remote learning has placed on Black and Latino parents, who are already disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
Danielle Tobin, the mother of a fifth grader at Edison Regional Gifted Center, said her daughter is an excellent student, but remote learning has been stressful.
“I know she’s not the only one in her class struggling,” Tobin said. “I know there are parents who have literally taken pictures of their kids curled up in a ball, crying, hiding in their house because their work is so far behind.”
She said parents have sent those photos to teachers with messages saying, “I don’t knowwhat to do.”
Tobin said she’s glad her daughter can do in-person learning next month, and she expressed frustration with teachers who aren’t cooperating.
“It’s way past time for kids to go back to school,” she said.
Nick Conant of Roscoe Village said remote kindergarten isn’t working for his 5-year-old daughter, Cecelia. Because Conant and his wife both work at home, they’re paying $1,400 a month for Cecelia to attend a YMCA learning pod.
That’s a lot of money, he said, and Cecelia, who once loved preschool, is miserable doing remote learning.
“Iwant to be able to go to school,” her father said she tells him.
He hopes she gets her chance to attend CPS in February, but he has also signed up for tours of local Catholic schools that offer in-person learning.
Lewis, the Austin mom who worries about both COVID-19 and remote learning, said her son is intelligent and works at grade level, but has trouble staying focused at times and has towork harder than the other kids to keep up.
She’s at his side for hour sa day, keeping him on track with his remote schoolwork. Teachers are doing the best they can, and she’s basically dedicated herself to his education full-time, she said, but still she’s seeing his school performance suffer.
So, with a heavy heart, she’s weighing her options.
“I’m not excited, but I feel like it’s something that I have to do,” she said.
“Other people have choices. They can say, ‘It’s a little bit harder, but we can keep Bobby at home,’ and some people have tutors and things like that. But I feel like he’s going to be in high school next year. To have him prepared for high school, I’m just going to have to really consider him going back.”
When Emily Fong was given the choice to send her 5-year-old back to in-person learning at CPS’ Suder Montessori Magnet Elementary School in West Town on Monday, she thought about the potential ripple effects of her child’s presence in the classroom. The worst-case scenario not only led her to turn down the offer but also wonder whether she’ll ever send him back during the remainder of this academic year.
“I don’t want my children carrying the weight of having gotten their teachers sick,” Fong, a Bronzeville resident, said. “I don’t know the negative impact for the rest of that child’s life. That would be a huge burden for them to bear.”
Fong’s son, who is a kindergartner but qualified for Monday’s in-person return because his grade level is grouped with pre-K students, does miss the handson interaction of his Montessori education. At times, he’s cried in front of his computer. But she believes there is hope for remote learning — if CPS just invested more time into honing the emotional learning aspect for younger children, she said.
“CPS is being extremely cold-hearted and not really thinking in the future,” Fong said. “Teachers are going to quit. … Why aren’t we caring for those people who love our children so much and are trying to provide everything they can for our kids? Why aren’t we supporting them in their fear of going back?”
Another Suder parent, Meghan Zefran, said the district’s reopening rollout has utterly disrupted the fabric of the communities that anchor schools. There are teachers who she said are terrified of going back, and parents who are torn over whether they should support their teachers or do what they think is best for their family.
“This has been such a divisive decision,” Zefran, a North Kenwood resident and former CPS employee, said about the district’s plan. “Making parents have to make those decisions and making teachers feel unsafe is just corrosive to education.”
Zefran said as of Thursday she remained unsure of what she will do with her kindergartner, who also qualifies for Monday’s return to in-person school. She opted in initially because the isolation of remote learning has not been a success for her gregarious son, but she said she might keep him at home when the time comes.
Like Fong, Zefran said she has weighed myriad factors in her decision that extend far beyond the impact on her own family.
“If I had to say, the best interest of my own child is to be back in school in person,” Zefran said. “I’m just not feeling comfortable or safe about that and the welfare of others, teachers and staff at schools. I think it’s unfair for me just to put my son back.”