Maya McFadden Photo
Jaclyn Tolkin prepares to join last week’s teacher protest caravan in New Haven.
Activist groups representing New Haven educators, students, and parents issued a joint appeal Wddnesday to start the school year off with remote-only learning, and to fund it to make it work, because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The joint groups’ statement listed four principles that they’d like to see guide decision-making.
The full text of the statement follows.
Statement on a Remote Return to School, Equitable Distance Learning, & Relief for Families
To the New Haven Board of Education, New Haven Public Schools Administration, Superintendent Dr. Iline Tracey, Mayor Justin Elicker, the Connecticut State Department of Education, the Connecticut Board of Education, Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona, and Governor Ned Lamont:
After a resounding outcry from Connecticut educators, school employees, families, and communities, the Governor and State Department of Education haverevised their mandatethat all schools return to full-time, in-person instruction. With the ongoing crisis escalating and coronavirus rates rising across the country, we declare that in-person schooling — including hybrid in-person models, which someepidemiologists warn are “among the worst” options— must be delayed. In cities like New Haven, Bridgeport, and Hartford, we have already seen disproportionate coronavirus infection and death rates, and our schools do not have the funding, staffing, or space to carry out in-person schooling safely.We urge leaders in our cities and state to protect youth, families, and school communities by beginning the school year remotely, ensuring that distance learning is equitable and fully-funded, and providing families the relief and support that they need to survive this pandemic.In this appeal to our leaders, we are guided by these four principles:
1. Returning to in-person schooling at this time is not safe for students, families, or school staff.
Although plans have been publicized that attempt to address safety requirements, too many questions remain unanswered about the implementation, maintenance, and effectiveness of the recommendations.The safety protocols recommended by health and government officials— including reduced class sizes, social distancing, cohorts, single-direction hallways and staircases, and protocols for daily monitoring of staff and student symptoms — are simply not feasible in many of our underfunded school districts.More importantly, current directives for school districts state that even when protocols and distancing are not possible, classes should still meet in-person. This clearly endangers our students and teachers. The CT Department of Health has publicly noted that our schools, many of whose windows do not open, lack proper ventilation and havepoor air quality. We insist our school communities not be “experiments” during a deadly pandemic, as described byDr. Anthony Fauciand other health experts.
Even with the utmost precaution, youth-based organizations that have reopened in person have not been successful in keeping their communities safe.National and international studies note that young people above ten years old contract and transmitthe virus at similar rates as adults, and younger children containhigher viral loadsin their noses than adults. As evidenced by the spread of the virus atsummer campsin the US, and heeding the warning of onethe first schools in the country to open, the decision to open schools in-person is premature and reckless. Because we care deeply about our students and our school communities, we contend that even a small percentage of avoidable deaths is an unconscionable loss. None of our lives is disposable, not the significant portion ofschool staff that are over 50,nor particularly vulnerable populations of students such as those with respiratory conditions or intellectual disabilities, nor immunocompromised family members at home.
In line with the demands of the nationalRefuse to Return movement, we call for in-person schooling to be delayed until our state has gone 14 days without any new cases of COVID-19. Even in Connecticut, where our rates are lower than many other states,over the past 14 days we have seen 1,096 new positive cases. In addition to acknowledging expert predictions that cases will likely surge in the fall, we must recognize that the closing of indoor gathering spaces is a key reason for our state’s containment of the virus — and that if we return to in-person schooling, infection and death will rise across the state. Once we have reached the milestone of 14 days without new cases, ongoing reassessment of schools and communities, in line with the most up-to-date scientific evidence, will be necessary to facilitate a gradual, phased return to in-person schooling. This must be accompanied by clear safety protocols and training, full-time nurses in every school, updated ventilation systems, access to regular testing for students and staff, contingency plans for positive cases, and access to vaccination once a safe and effective vaccine is widely available.
2. We must plan for and fully fund more equitable, meaningful, and trauma-informed distance learning.
Although distance learning is by no means ideal, it is a necessary alternative to infection and death. We must shift our efforts towards strengthening remote learning now so as not to replicate the haphazard emergency transition to online learning in the spring. With clarity that school reopening in the fall will be remote, educators and communities can focus on creative and collaborative preparations for teaching remotely.More meaningful and equitable distance learning is possible, but it requires time, support, and resources to develop and implement.
To make distance learning moreequitable, high-speed Internet access and computers for all students are critical, but we must go beyond this bare minimum. In particular, considerations need to be made to support students with disabilities and English Language Learners (ELLs). Special education and ELL teachers’ caseloads must be reduced so that they can more effectively personalize IEPs and learning plans, offer accommodations and modifications, collaborate with general educators, and be responsive to students’ unique needs in this unprecedented time.
Given the ways this pandemic is compounding pre-existing traumas while also causing more suffering, distance learning must betrauma-informed. Students need consistent access to counselors and social workers, and while this need existed before the pandemic, it is now exponentially greater, and will require more staff who specialize in students’ mental health. Teachers will also need to work closely with a small group of students (for example, in advisories) to consistently assess students’ needs and offer supports, while helping students manage school work and maintain mental and physical well-being. Smaller teacher-to-student ratios would reduce the possibility of students slipping through the cracks.
In order for distance learning to be moremeaningfuland creative, teachers need time, professional development, opportunities for collaboration, and access to high-quality resources. Furthermore, to develop curriculum and pedagogy that meets students’ needs and does not rely solely on screens, teachers need access to books, art supplies, science kits, and other tangible resources that can be delivered to students’ homes. All of this is vital for students’ learning and well-being, and it requires additional funding and swift action by local and state officials.
3. Distance learning must be accompanied by economic relief and support for families.
While many countries have managed to curb the outbreak of coronavirus and have provided substantial relief for their residents, in the United States Covid-19 rates are higher than they were in March when we first closed schools, hundreds of thousands of families are homeless and more facing eviction, and millions of Americans are unemployed, without health insurance, and unable to provide food for their families. On top of these crises, we know that distance learning is not an easy circumstance for families, and we are committed to fighting for the rights and needs of families in the absence of in-person schooling. To that end, the state must providesubsidiesto families for childcare and/orfinancial support that affords guardians the option to stay home with their children. Additionally, theeviction moratorium, along with otherrent and mortgage reliefmeasures, must be extended.Food distributionmust continue and families’ food security assured. Caregivers need employment protection and additional unemployment supports. This economic relief is vital as it will support families in surviving the pandemic and engaging in distance learning, the safest schooling option.
4. Schools cannot be the solution to all of society’s problems, not during a pandemic and not ever.
The current pressure on schools to reopen reveals how severe the reliance on schools has become, and the extent to which our government has abdicated its responsibility. In a society that continues to chip away at the social safety net, schools are expected to provide much more than an education.
Schools are not capable of being the solution to all the issues we are facing in this pandemic and beyond it, and we must stop placing this impossible burden on schools.To that end, we call for full and equal funding of our public schools, as well as investment in safe and affordable housing, health care and mental health services, living wage jobs, and other services to address poverty and racism in our communities.This must begin now by putting the safety and well-being of our communities above economic growth. We urge you to begin the school year remotely, invest in equitable distance learning, and offer families relief.
Statement Signatories
New Haven Educators’ Collective
Citywide Youth Coalition
Connecticut Students for a Dream
Local 3429 ASFCME: Paraprofessionals
City Wide Parent Team
New Haven Public School Advocates
CT BAT’s
United to Save Our Schools — Connecticut Chapter
SCSU Educational Justice Collective