Lamont working to keep kids in school
Connecticut parents are worried.
Nearly two full years after the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of this state, the omicron variant is raging, positivity rates hit record levels, hospitals are filling up with patients again, there are not enough test kits to go around and debates are raging over mask-wearing mandates and remote schooling.
It’s no wonder there is a lot of worry going around.
Amid this, Gov. Ned Lamont has said he is “going to do everything I can to keep kids in the classroom safely.”
“Nothing compares to a great teacher in a classroom,” the governor said.
He’s right.
And top educators in Connecticut — who work to keep children safe — agree with him.
The state Department of Education recently reminded school districts that closing schools due to COVID-19 outbreaks “is generally not permitted” under state law, though “very limited exceptions” will be allowed.
Charlene M. Russell-tucker, state commissioner of education, told the districts in a memo that remote learning would be allowed when students must be in isolation due to a confirmed COVID-19 infection or after close contact with a confirmed case. Students would be allowed to remain at home only “in rare and individualized circumstances” when there are family members with an unusual vulnerability to COVID19. Remote learning may also be used for special education students “in rare cases.”
The point? Educators are trying to keep kids safely in school, with emphasis on the benefit of routines and in-person schooling, especially for younger children. “Every time that’s interrupted, that interrupts the educational experience for the child,” said Patrice Mccarthy, deputy director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education told a Courant reporter.
Further, state officials have pointed out that damage to learning and mental health can accompany long-term distance learning.
As positive tests continue to be reported among K-12 students — last Thursday it was 1,021 positive tests among students for the week, even though schools were not in session — there are those who clearly do not agree with educators or Lamont.
Tiffany Torok of Meriden, for example, recently started a petition seeking to give parents an option of keeping kids at home for remote classes during the record surge in COVID-19 cases.
The petition (bit.ly/3stuhap) on Change.org urges Lamont to allow a statewide choice on distance learning. Attracting more than 4,200 signatures in 48 hours, the petition says, “If it’s unsafe for towns to have in-person meetings, it’s unsafe for our babies to be in classrooms.”
But Lamont is sticking to his goal. Amid widespread absences of teachers, bus drivers and students from school this week, the governor said the state is distributing 670,000 at-home rapid tests to schools and child care providers across Connecticut. Fifty thousand tests were earmarked for early child care providers; 620,000 were allocated to public and private K-12 schools.
There also are other steps schools can and are taking — rigorous testing, tracing, mask enforcement and distribution, on-site vaccination clinics in some cases, and other safety standards.
More also could be done. A coalition of labor unions, for instance, recently asked the state to provide N95 masks, free testing at schools and other safety measures.
“Up to 60% of my members don’t have access to [N95] masks, and more than 70% have reported not having access to testing,” said Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association.
She is right that a work space without those protections is not a place for teachers.
Like Lamont, officials and educators are clearly aware of the concerns as they work not only to keep kids safe, but also to keep them in school.
“We will ramp up our mitigation efforts due to the high transmissibility of omicron. We will once again focus on providing spacing when possible, reinforce the importance of mask wearing, and reiterate our guidance to all that if your child shows any symptoms of illness, please keep them home,’’ West Hartford Superintendent of Schools Tom Moore said in a letter to parents.