As CPS eyes reopening, parents seek answers
Concerns cited about face masks, distancing, pods
What happens if a student takes off theirmaskin a pod? What if someone in their pod has a medical mask exemption? What are the health and safety protocols for students who need help eating or using the restroom?
On the deadline for students in preschool and special education cluster programs to decide whether they will return to in-person learning next quarter, parents and educators sought details and advocated for their children at the Chicago Board of Education meetingWednesday.
Many also tweeted their concerns at Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a campaign this week organized by Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, which compiled a 16-page document of questions from parents, caregivers and educators.
“What will the protocols be for siblings, i.e., if one sibling’s pod is exposed and they need to quarantine, will siblings in the same home also need to quarantine?” one parent asked.
Others asked what’s being done to ensure students are assigned work that’s doable yet challenging, if schools will use outdoor spaces to minimize risk and how schools bringing students back will consider pods that some families have created themselves to meet child care needs.
Though CPS leaders say they value the voices of the
school communities, Raise Your Hand’s Jennie Biggs said the hashtag #CPSTalkToUs was trending in Chicago this week because so many people still want answers and authentic engagement.
“You cannot center equity if you keep parents of color out of the decisionmaking,” Biggs, whohastwo children in CPS, said in a statement to the board. “It is especially egregious thatwe are hearing nothing from the district as both the city and state are surging in COVID positivity rates.”
Along with other members of the Grassroots Education Movement, Raise Your Hand signed onto a letter to CPS and the mayor last week. Movement leaders are constantly hearing about parents’ questions, experiences and suggestions for improving remote learning, but people have no
clear place to go with their feedback, Biggs said.
“This is a big fail on the part of the district,” Biggs said. “This is also eroding trust inCPS even further.”
Board president Miguel del Valle acknowledged both the many questions and the ways CPS has tried to answer them.
“People are desperate for details. We have details,” del Valle said. “Do we have every detail that is necessary at this point? No, we don’t because … this is evolving. That’s why a date, an exact date, has not been set for returning some of our students into the schools. Because that date, when it is set, is going to be set based on the science.”
Del Valle said he keeps hearing about people who feel there isn’t really a plan or parental engagement, and teachers aren’t getting an opportunity to chime in, but those are all areas he sees CPS addressing.
“There is a plan. We are dealing with the ventilation issue. There is transparency. And so it seems likewe have this gulf between what we have some people saying and what we … are doing, what steps are being taken,” delValle said.
He added that communication is “extremely, extremely important” and that CPS needs to keep looking for new ways to communicate with school communities.
Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade on Wednesday presented an outline of the plan for prekindergarten and cluster programsthatprovidemoderate to intensive special education support. She went over health and safety measures and data that shows widespread enrollment loss, most profoundly among Black preschool children.
The district expects teachers and paraprofessionals who work with preschool and cluster students to start reporting in-person at schools a week before students return. For students who continue remote learning, the district plans to use a “simultaneous teaching model,” in which educators teach the students at school while providing live online instruction for the others. CPS will have additional guidance to help educators plan for that model of teaching, according to McDade’s presentation.
A sample “day in the life” graphic showshowthe typical school day could go: Students complete symptom screening at home and don a cloth face covering. If they ride a bus to school, they’ll be offered hand sanitizer and sit alone or with a sibling. At school, drop-off times could be staggered, and students are supposed to wash or sanitize their hands when they arrive, then go straight to classrooms. Meals will be eaten in classrooms or on a staggered schedule in the cafeteria if there’s enough space. Each pod will have an assigned bathroom.
Social-emotional specialists, aswell as special education and English language teachers and other service providers, will rotateamong pods. If they need to see students who aren’t in one of their assigned pods, they will do so remotely or at a distance, according to CPS. The plan does not say the maximum number of pods to which a specialistmay be assigned.
If a student has symptoms of COVID-19, they will be moved into a designated “care room” until they’re picked up. One question posed through Raise Your Hand was whether a nurse or a different type of employee will staff the care rooms.
Eligible families who choose to continue learning at home will need to wait until third quarter to opt in to in-person learning.
As for community engagement, McDade said CPS put on 10 parent town hallsandcounted480meetings among 401 schools. District staff members made nearly 1,000 calls to early childhood families, and nearly 61% of respondents had not logged into remote learning, with 64% saying they’d send their children to school if they had the choice, McDade said.
The district has started publishing information on COVID-19 cases in its schools each week, adopted contact tracing procedures and community notification protocols developed by the Chicago Department of Public Health and hired its own contact tracers. Beyond the cloth face masks for each person, district officials said they will provide equipment as needed such as face shields, gowns, gloves and N95 masks.
An assessment of ventilation systemsin school buildingswas completedSept. 23, and analysis and remediation efforts “are currently underway,” with an additional assessment by an outside expert expected to be completed by early November, according to CPS.
Questions posed to the district this week include requests to see the ventilation reports, which officials havesaidthey’llmakepublic.
“People are desperate for details. We have details. Do we have every detail that is necessary at this point? No, we don’t because … this is evolving.”
— Miguel del Valle, president of Chicago Board of Education