Back to remote leaves families in despair
Parents again forced to juggle their schedules
DETROIT – Parent Latonya Peterson sums up her frustration over Detroit schools returning – at least temporarily – to virtual learning in three short words: “I hate it.”
Facing a surge in COVID-19 cases, the Detroit district this week joined a growing number of others in moving classes online after the winter break. The shift involving 50,000 students once again leaves parents juggling home and work schedules around the educational needs of their children.
A single parent who works more than 60 hours each week at two jobs, Peterson sometimes had to miss work to help her teenage son during more than a year of online learning.
“I will have to take time off, but I’m looking at how long this is going to last. You only get so many off days and so many paid time off days,” Peterson said Wednesday, a day after the district announced that students would resume classes at home with laptops through at least Jan. 14.
The vast majority of U.S. districts appear to be returning to in-person learning, but other large school systems including those in Newark, New Jersey, Milwaukee and Cleveland have gone back to remote learning as infections soar and sideline staff members. Dozens of smaller districts have followed, including many around Detroit, Chicago and Washington.
The disruptions also raise alarms about risks to students. Long stretches of remote learning over the last two years have taken a toll, leaving many kids with academic and mental health setbacks.
Testing supplies at schools have been scarce and many districts face low vaccine uptake in their communities. In Detroit, just 44% of residents 5 and older have received a vaccine dose, compared with a statewide rate of 63%.
In a letter to parents, Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said that in light of low vaccination rates among students and families, a return to the classroom would lead to “extreme levels of positive cases.”
“The only way we’re going to get to the other side of this pandemic is if we move to higher rates of vaccination,” Vitti said.
The closures are often driven by waves of teachers calling in sick. More than a third of Philadelphia’s 216 public schools have switched to remote learning through at least Friday, drawing an outcry from families that were given little time to prepare.
On Friday, Chicago students remained out of school for a third straight day after school leaders failed to reach an agreement with the teachers union over virus safety protocols. The union wants to revert to remote instruction because of the infection surge.
In Detroit, both Peterson and her son, Joshua Jackson, 16, are vaccinated. Joshua would rather stay in-person and said it was more difficult for him to focus in a virtual classroom.
“I feel like I learned less,” the high school junior said. “I’m worried that we won’t go back to class. They (the district) did it before and said it only would be a short while. It turned out to be the whole school year.”
President Joe Biden, who campaigned on a promise to reopen classrooms, is pressing schools to remain open.
With vaccines and regular virus testing, his administration has said there’s no reason to keep schools closed.