The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
So far, most state districts plan in-person classes
As school districts prepare for the fall, more than half plan to reopen fully in-person for students who want to come and most of the rest will start with a hybrid model.
According to preliminary reopen plans submitted to the state in early August, only New Haven Public Schools, Highville Charter School in New Haven, and The Woodstock Academy are set to start fully remote on the first day of school.
The plan for Bloomfield Public Schools was to start remote but the district has since switched to a hybrid model, state Department of Education officials said on Monday, and Bloomfield is likely not the only district whose plans may shift this month.
Many districts are still in the process of making a final determination of their reopen models as they are in the midst of surveying students, parents and educators and giving school boards a chance to weigh in on the decisions. As such, they could be subject to change, according to the state.
Schools have been closed for in-person
learning since mid-March when the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the state. Infection rates are now said to be low enough to allow in-person learning with extensive social distancing protocols.
Regardless which model districts choose, parents have been given the option to keep their children home fully for remote learning for the time being.
As of Aug. 11, some 113 of 199 school districts and state charter schools told the state they planned to reopen fully in-person from the first day or within four weeks of school reopening. Many school districts are waiting until after Labor Day to start school for students.
At least 82 districts — 41.2 percent — said they planned to reopen with a hybrid model, meaning students will rotate between in-person and athome learning throughout the week. In some districts, there will be both a hybrid model at the high school level, and in-person at the elementary and middle school levels. If even part of a district’s plan is hybrid, the state lists them as such.
Of 527,829 public school students in the state, 96 percent are expected to return to full in-person or hybrid models of instruction this fall, according to the state.
On Monday, the Connecticut Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union, issued their own revised school reopening plan calling for a delay in reopening school until mid-September so that remote learning efforts can be improved and expanded.
Earlier this month, the state Board of Education agreed to allow districts to shorten the school year by three days for students at the start of the school year to give teachers more time to prepare.
The teacher’s union also wants districts to move to all-remote learning if infection rates rise to a moderate level or if schools cannot achieve 6 feet of social distancing between students.
In many cases, districts are spacing desks 3 feet apart.
The union also wants schools to upgrade air handling systems to improve air quality, a comprehensive, school-centered contact tracing program to help mitigate any exposures to the virus, and COVID-19 testing for all students and adults for in-person learning.
“The primary consideration to any school reopening plan must be the safety, health, and wellbeing of students, teachers, and their families,” said CEA President Jeff Leake. “The state must revise school reopening plans to protect our school communities, especially in light of new reports confirming that children can readily transmit COVID-19 and may be drivers of the pandemic.”
Leake maintains remote learning is still the safest option.
The state, however, has continued to advocate for in-person classes come fall.
“After schools closed last spring, 176,000 Connecticut students did not log on for a single day of distanced learning. Although we’ve since taken significant steps to equip students to learn from home, we also know that nothing compares to safe, highquality, in-person education with the nation’s best teachers and other education professionals,” said Rob Blanchard, a spokesperson for Gov. Ned Lamont. “Ensuring we do not have a lost year of education, the Lamont administration collaborated with public health and medical experts, educators and local school administration leaders to protect the health and safety of everyone who makes contact with our school system.”
Connecticut is among only a handful of states with low COVID-19 transmission rates, but the risk is still rated as “moderate” in the majority of Connecticut’s counties.
“Connecticut continues to lead the nation in our efforts to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and keep cases drastically low,” Blanchard said. “While the virus hasn’t gone away, we have put in place plans and guidelines that keep students and staff safe, while also doing our best to provide our young people with access to an education that prepares them for the future.”