City schools start year online with care options

Survey helping with learning support plans

When the Pittsburgh Public Schools board decided in July to start the 2020- 21 academic year totally virtual, it came with the caveat that the district must come up with a plan to help parents who have essential jobs or were otherwise unable to support their child’s remote learning.

But preparations for child care and learning support were already underway because the district had realized even earlier that full in- person instruction was unlikely to occur, at least at the beginning of the year.

“We were actually planning for a hybrid model — half the time in person and half the time working remotely,” said Melanie Claxton, the district’s out- of- school- time coordinator.

To better understand the needs of parents in the city, the district released a survey to help determine how many students would need child care. Out of about 1,000 families who had filled out the survey by Friday, about 460 of them indicated they would need some form of child care during remote instruction, according to Ms. Claxton.

She said she believes the district’s partners have enough capacity for all families who said their children would need child care support so far, but she encouraged all families to fill out the survey so the district can get a better assessment of the overall need. The survey will remain open into the beginning of the school year.

“It’s really important for us that our families are completing this survey so that we can make sure that we have an accurate count of what the need is,” Ms. Claxton said. “Because if we need to think about increasing that capacity, those are conversations that should be happening now.”

To help with some of the child care needs, the district is working with about 14 organizations to create regional learning hubs that will provide in- person learning opportunities for students.

“The design is that students would be able to have someone in

person supporting them while they’re actually facilitating their school day,” Ms. Claxton said.

“So even when they’re doing their direct instruction through [ learning platforms] Schoology and Microsoft Teams, there’s someone in that space who might be able to help facilitate any tech issues or login issues or support them during that time they may be doing that work off- screen,” she said.

The organizations available to serve as hubs — including Bible Center Church, Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania, Brothers and Sisters Emerging, Homewood Children’s Village, Youth Places and the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh — all have COVID- 19 safety protocols in place and will follow guidelines from health officials, Ms. Claxton said.

Christine Cray, director of student services reforms, said a number of those organizations have provided beforeand after- school care with the district during normal school years, so they were already familiar with student needs. Some of them also participated in the planning process for the district’s reopening, so they had some familiarity with the challenges of in- person instruction amid the pandemic.

“Having them as part of that group when we started in July really helped us to start putting things in place,” Ms. Cray said.

The district is also trying to help connect families to information about child care options that may not be school affiliated.

One resource that the district directs parents to visit is Allegheny County’s “Trying Together” child care finder, a tool in which families can enter information and identify potential child care opportunities in their communities.

Trying Together also has other information that may be of use to parents, Ms. Claxton said.

“They also have a parent forum component, which is designed as a way for parents to engage with one another, [ and] for parents to tap into one- off services or supports for their child or children,” she said.