Survey finds Florida teachers stressed and worried about students.

Educators worried students are disengaged and are falling behind

Florida teachers are stressed and worried their students — who they say are confused, overwhelmed and disengaged — are falling behind because campuses are shuttered and lessons have gone online, according to a new survey from the state’s teachers union.

Teachers also fear that drastic budget cuts are coming to public education and that their family’s economic health could take a hit, the survey found.

How do parents feel?

Both the union and the Florida Department of Education are surveying them now for answers.

The survey by the Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers union, asks parents what has worked well, and what has been a struggle, since schools switched to “distance learning.” It also asks what they want to see on campus when schools reopen (Lots of hand sanitizer? Smaller classes? More full-time school nurses?)

The education department survey aims to gauge when, and under what circumstances, parents would be comfortable sending children back to school.

“Ultimately, the goal is to reopen our school campuses. There’s no question that for the vast majority of students a great education occurs when a great teacher is directly in front of those students and those students are also learning from dialogue with each other,” said Taryn Fenske, spokeswoman for the department, in an email.

Gov. Ron DeSantis shut down Florida’s schools in mid-March to slow the spread of the coronavirus and then decided they will not reopen this school year. Schools have shifted mostly to online lessons, though some students are using paper packets sent to their homes.

The state, and local schools, are now working on plans for reopening. The survey results will play into the state’s decisions, Fenske said.

“We needed to take the temperature of our parents and teachers to see these next steps through their eyes,” she said. “All of these questions help let us know how we can make parents and teachers feel confident about the next steps.”

The department’s survey asks parents — and educators, too — when they would be comfortable sending children back to campuses: As soon as next month, if they were taking part in summer programs? For a typical mid-August start or perhaps not until after Labor Day?

The survey also asks whether their sense of campus safety would depend on national guidelines on social distancing being lifted or the spread of the coronavirus being slowed in their community.

Finally, the department wants to know if families have laptops or

other devices as well as internet access for their students to learn online.

The union surveyed teachers and other school employees last month, asking how they were doing and how they thought their students were doing. Nearly 12,800, most of them classroom teachers, responded. The state’s public schools have more than 204,000 teachers and other instructional staff.

The survey wasn’t scientific — it was open and online — but intended to help union leaders “get a read on” how teachers were faring, the union said.

Nearly 57 percent of teachers described themselves as stressed by the quick switch away from in-class instruction; 44 percent also said they remained hopeful. The other top responses, however, were frustrated and overwhelmed.

In their written comments, some teachers said they felt their workday had expanded since they’d started teaching at home, leaving them exhausted. “I am up from morning to night answering emails and student questions,” one wrote.

When asked how their students were doing, most teachers picked confused, overwhelmed, disengaged or stressed. When asked their biggest concern, nearly 74 percent selected “I worry about my students falling behind.”

Forty seven percent fretted about their students’ mental health. And 59 percent said students, or their parents, struggled with technology, making it hard for them to access online lessons.

“On many levels, the survey confirms what we already knew,” said Fedrick Ingram, the union president, in an emailed statement. “Dealing with the fallout from a pandemic and making a nearovernight shift to distance learning was stressful for students and teachers alike. “

There is “no substitute” for in-person classes and both “teachers and kids miss that connection,” Ingram added.

The bright spots on the survey, the union said, were that few teachers reported losing their jobs and most said they felt they’d been able to remain in contact with their students. In their written comments, some teachers said they thought they were having better, and more frequent, conversations with parents than they had previously and viewed that as a benefit to their students.

But teachers also said they worried that “distance learning” was a significant struggle for students with disabilities and those still learning English and that those youngsters likely would fall even further behind as a result.

The education department also said it was concerned that struggling students — often those living in poverty or facing other disadvantages — would suffer the biggest “learning loss” because of campus closures.

“We realize that much of our work this summer and throughout the 2020-2021 school year will be devoted to helping students overcoming the additional learning loss they may have experienced,” Fenske wrote.

On the union survey, many teachers said they feared future education cuts as the coronavirus pandemic has decimated the state’s economy. Nearly 48 percent said they worried about the state education budget being slashed, prompting local schools to cut teaching staff.

More than 43 percent worried about their family finances, with some reporting they’d lost second jobs and their spouses had lost income.

The union, Ingram said, will use results from both its surveys to make recommendations to state leaders on schools reopening.