Facebook Archive: What Makes an Essential Student (for in-person schooling)

 Written July 27, 2020

One other thought on the decision to send kids back to school or not: We can easily take out "my kids need socialization" from both sides of the equation--students at home and in school can have equal amounts of socialization opportunities, both in-person and online.

What we need to look at is keeping schools open for "essential students" only in the short-term, just like we used a model of essential businesses stay open but everyone else closed in the short-term and essential workers continued to work in person while non-essential workers who could still do their job did so from home.

Some (but not all) considerations of what makes an essential student:

1. A student with socioeconomic needs that relies on resources of a school for survival (food, medical care, etc.)

2. A student who is in a situation where remote learning is financially impossible (no access to computer/internet or no one at home for supervision due to parent work requirements outside the home)

3. Students with physical/mental disabilities who cannot participate effectively in distance learning

4. A student with mental health issues that require the support of the in-school psychological resources/counseling

5. Students deemed at risk by social services for the potential of abuse or neglect if left at home

6. Students who did not participate in virtual schooling in the spring even though they were enrolled in it through their public school

7. Students with an IEP/504 plan for whom in-person school is a necessity

8. Students who are academically behind by one year or more who will need more small-group interaction and remediation that is best provided in a personal setting

My advice is that everyone who is a non-essential student should opt for a short-term at-home educational experience to allow those students who must go back to school the ability to go back to school safely. Fewer students = greater ability to social distance in classrooms, lunch rooms, and other locations. I'd also recommend to donate your health and safety supplies that you normally would for a classroom to your child's local school (hand sanitizer, extra masks, cleaning wipes, soap, paper towels, etc.). They will need more resources than ever, and the funding just isn't there.

There should be zero judgment on who chooses what, because it is a personal choice and we have little to no data about the impacts of at-home schooling for non-homeschoolers (there's abundant data on homeschoolers themselves--they do just fine ;) ) and even less data available about transmission rates in reopened school buildings, although we have growing data about transmission rates in indoor facilities with HVAC systems.

For my family, whenever we go out in-person to anything, we take the next 7-14 days to self-isolate. Since that is not an option for families with students attending in-person school, I'd ask that for the safety of all, aside from school itself (and work, if in-person work is part of the reason why school is an essential), please self-quarantine whenever possible aside from school. (We all should be doing this anyhow, but since school adds one high-number vector, then reductions for interaction need to be made elsewhere.)

Hope that helps some parents, and gives a good plan for decision making for those who are trying to figure out what's the best choice for themselves and their community.