Most Hartford families to keep children home
Survey results contrast with suburban districts in remote learning plans
Hartford public schools are set to reopen Sept. 8, but a majority of families plan to keep their children home for online learning. A sharp difference from nearby suburban districts, it is a decision many parents and guardians in urban areas are making given the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and Hispanic communities.
“Over and over again, communities of color have been much more hesitant to send their children back to school,” said Anne Dichele, dean of Quinnipiac University’s School of Education. She said the results of a survey of Hartford parents — where 58% said they planned to keep their children home — was in line with data collected through national surveys.
LaShawn Robinson, a mother of five from Hartford, is among those
parents who feel it is far too risky to send their children back to school. In the past, Robinson said she had been called away from work to pick up her children because they had not received a flu shot. If the possibility of spreading the flu alone was serious enough to warrant such action, she wondered how Connecticut could be ready to send children back to school with a much more deadly disease “alive and well” in the community.
“I have children who are diabetic, so it’s not happening,” Robinson said at a recent rally in Hartford where parents and teachers shared their concerns about reopening schools for in-person classes. Robinson said she also worried about the spread of COVID-19 through schools to educators’ families and the rest of the community.
“That’s a problem that we’re not ready for,” she said. “We already have so many people out here dying.”
According to state data, Hartford had seen 2,977 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday and 167 confirmed and probable deaths, among the highest totals in the state. Black and Hispanic residents are also more likely than white residents to test positive for the disease and to have died from it.
While educators and school administrators in Connecticut’s urban districts are working to provide students with safe and equitable education, systemically speaking, Dichele said families have a “distrust of institutions who have not historically prioritized their children.”
“We’ve devalued kids of color for a long time, especially in this state,” she said.
Multi-generation households a concern
Of the 80% of Hartford families who answered the school district’s survey about returning to school, 58% opted for online learning, while 42% chose in-person instruction. This result differs drastically from statewide averages, which showed about 76% of Connecticut families planned to send their children back to school.
But they are similar to what parents reported in New Haven, also a large, urban district. In that city, 57% of families with children in grades K-8 preferred onlineonly education and 43% preferred a hybrid model. For grades 9-12, 54% preferred hybrid and 46% preferred remote only. Due to concerns about readiness, the New Haven Board of Education also plans for schools to operate remotely for the first 10 weeks of the school year, before moving to a hybrid model.
“Our concern is of course with safety and we did not see in the plans that we had in front of us that safety was a paramount issue,” New Haven Board of Education member Darnell Goldson said during a recent meeting with state education officials. “At the time there wasn’t even [protective equipment] for the teachers or the students.”
He noted the majority of parents surveyed wanted to go remote in the younger grades “because we still don’t understand exactly what’s in the plan and how it’s going to protect the safety of our families.” Other board members shared concerns about a lack of widespread testing, intergenerational households and high rates of comorbidities among city residents. As of Wednesday, New Haven had seen 2,943 probable and confirmed cases of COVID19 and 114 probable and confirmed deaths, similar numbers to Hartford.
And despite assurances from the state that it would cover coronavirus-related expenses, the New Haven school district will receive only one-third of what it requested, or about $5.4 million in funding. Hartford will receive almost $12 million, nearly three times what the district requested. The amounts received by each district were pro-rated based on enrollment and the amount requested.
Some reimbursements were only available for districts where at least 40% of the students come from low-income families.
“We don’t have fiscal resources,” said New Haven Board of Education member Edward Joyner. “We have a major problem with our budget, we’ve never been funded properly, and all this has done is add to our challenges and our problems.”
Keeping students connected
While parents deciding to keep their children home may be the safer option, it presents its own set of challenges, including making sure students stay connected and have the technology they need to participate in online learning. A state Department of Education survey released this summer found tens of thousands of children lacked access to devices and
Wi-Fi connections, and districts reported difficulties reaching some students who disappeared as soon as schools closed and classes moved online.
In preparation for the fall, Gov. Ned Lamont recently announced a $43.5 million initiative to boost access to internet and technology for students and families in need for the coming school year.
The money will go toward purchasing laptops, improving home connectivity and increasing the number of public Wi-Fi hot spots throughout the state. He called the digital divide “the Brown v. Board of Education of our generation,” referencing the landmark case in which the Supreme Court ruled against racial segregation in public schools.
Dichele, the Quinnipiac University dean, said she thought efforts to increase internet and device access were “great and long overdue,” but she questioned whether they would be enough to equalize remote education with homes that, in addition to high-speed internet, already have multiple computers, and quiet spaces to work, along with adults available to help with tutoring and support.
“I think what’s happened is this pandemic has really crystallized ... many of the inequities that we have known existed for a long time,” she said. “It really brought them into the light in a way that we haven’t.”
Lamont reiterated that the state would only encourage children to return to the classroom as long as it is safe to do so.
“Our job is to give the teachers and the parents and their kids the confidence that we’re only going back as long as we can do it safely. ... I’m not rushing people back,” he said at a Monday press briefing. “We’ve always led with public health ... but I’m doing everything I can do make sure these kids get the opportunity to have a real education, and that involves socialization and in-person learning, as long as you can do it safely. ... K through 8, we really think we can open safely, and the moment we think we can’t, we turn the page.”