Opinion: Schools Should Reopen On Hybrid Schedule

The following op-ed was written by 14 parents of children at eight different city public schools. 

(Opinion) In New Haven, people who have the best interests of children at heart, as well as the wellbeing of teachers and other educators, have come to different conclusions about the safety of reopening the city’s public schools.

The mayor and the superintendent proposed a plan for in-person learning, on a hybrid schedule. The Board of Education rejected this plan by a 4 to 3 vote earlier this month, proposing remote learning only for at least 10 weeks (in other words, until mid-November at the earliest).

We are mindful of the risk that reopening schools could pose to the community in terms of potential spread of Covid-19, especially teachers, other school staff, and the older relatives of students who live in multi-generational households. We are also deeply concerned about the learning loss that stemmed from the closing of schools in the spring.

We propose a middle ground that we hope could speed the return of students to in-person learning while minimizing the risk from the virus.

We would not support school reopening were it not for Connecticut’s consistently low infection rate, which thankfully over the summer has been at or under 1 percent. For comparison, the rate in states like Georgia and Indiana, where school reopening is inadvisable and has already led to some shut-downs, is 12 percent and 9.3 percent.

Connecticut public-health officials have advised our state and local officials that it is safe to reopen some schools because our state has worked hard and made smart choices about incremental and slow reopening. Our state’s Department of Education is taking a careful, apolitical approach to school reopening and has issued a 73-page document setting forth both requirements and guidance for reopening. We are in a rare position — one of a handful of states that can give school, and children, the priority they deserve.

As of today, 168 of Connecticut’s 169 towns — every single one except New Haven — are taking advantage of that rare position to offer in-school learning to their students. They are right to do so. There is no question that in-person school is crucial for children. In June, the New York Times reported on research suggesting that because of the school closures last spring, most students have fallen behind, with some losing several months of academic gains.

The deficits are not equally distributed. ​“Racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps will most likely widen because of disparities in access to computers, home internet connections and direct instruction from teachers,” the Times stated.

In New Haven, there are more than 2,000 students, according to the Board of Education, who lack the devices and internet access that make remote learning possible.

At the end of June, citing schools as ​“fundamental” for social and emotional development, as well as academics, the American Academy of Pediatrics expressed concern about the ​“differential impact” school closures ​“have had on different races, ethnic and vulnerable populations.” The AAP stated that ​“all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.” 

At the same time, the AAP and education groups, including teachers’ unions, have called on schools to follow the evidence-based recommendations of public health agencies rather than reopening too quickly or without proper precaution and protections. We support the important calls for schools to be equipped with masks and other protective gear, and to use only well-ventilated classrooms — or outdoor settings like tents — since research has increasingly shown that air circulation helps prevent transmission. We also urge the district to address community concerns about adequately disinfecting the schools..

Over the summer, research has also made it increasingly clear that young children are at less risk of getting very sick. (“In the United States, school-age children have been hospitalized at a rate of 0.1 per 100,000, compared with 7.4 per 100,000 for adults ages 50 to 64,” write Jennifer Nuzzo, who is an epidemiologist, and Joshua Sharfstein, who is a pediatrician.) Young children in particular are much less likely to transmit the virus than others.

The real risk of reopening school is to adults. We believe that New Haven’s plan can keep them safe. ​“Understanding that adults, not children, are the most likely transmission vectors will help teachers and other staff members stay safe by remaining masked when spending time together,” another pediatrician, Naomi Bardach, points out. (Last month, it was reported that a study from South Korea showed children between the ages of 10 and 19 transmitting the virus as or more frequently than adults. But in fact, the study shows no such thing, because it looked at coronavirus in households without tracking who gave it to who within the group.)

In light of all of this evidence, we propose that New Haven begin by opening in-person elementary school for families that choose it.

Younger children stand to lose the most from an additional extended period of remote learning and we can get them what they need to thrive while also posing the minimal risk to them, their teachers, their families, and the community. And a clearer picture of how to send young children back to school safely has emerged from European countries with low rates of infection like Connecticut’s.

Students should not return to full classrooms. As the superintendent and mayor’s plan recognizes, the students should be in small groups (or pods) of 10 to 15 students. That will reduce the chances of an outbreak and also prevent the need to shut down the whole school because of an infection within a single closed group or pod. Because New Haven’s youngest students largely attend schools serving grades K (or pre‑K) to eighth grade, if only the youngest students return, these buildings can easily accommodate smaller class sizes for the kids whose families choose to send them. Families who choose remote learning should of course have that option, as the superintendent and mayor’s plan also provides.

We support the hybrid schedule in the superintendent’s plan, with the hope of increasing the number of days per week later, if public-health and city officials say it’s safe to do so. If elementary school students can successfully go back to school without causing an outbreak in the city, then school officials can implement their plan for middle school and high school students to return to school two days a week. We hope that the district will prioritize in-person learning for students who suffered most when remote learning, by necessity, went into effect in the spring.

We understand the lack of trust that the failure of national leadership in combating Covid-19 has caused. The way to build trust in our community is to offer some school for some students. Other districts in Connecticut plan to send their kids back to school in a few weeks. Private schools in New Haven will do the same thing. Public school students in our city deserve equal consideration.

We don’t want to make anyone sick. But we also don’t want kids to pay the price of policy decisions not grounded in the evidence. It’s possible to carefully, partially reopen schools. Let’s work together to make it happen safely.

Emily Bazelon
Keren Clarizio
Laurie Desiato
David Engerman
Keiana Fox
Anika Singh Lemar
Juana Martinez
Michael Martinez
Juliet Nichols
Talia Aikens Nunez
Beth Pellegrino
Anna Ruth Pickett
Heather Salg
David Eric Zakur

This op-ed’s authors include parents of school children at Celentano School, Conte-West Hills School, East Rock School, Edgewood School, Engineering & Science University Magnet School, Nathan Hale School, Worthington Hooker School, Wilbur Cross High School.

More than half of parents (55 percent) who responded to a district survey at the end of June favored a return to some in-person school and over the last two weeks more than 350 people have signed a petition asking for the New Haven schools to reopen.

Another group of parents, teachers, and students has also been organizing in support of all-remote learning. City school administrators and legal help are slated to make their case to a state panel Tuesday in support of all-remote learning.

See below for previous op-eds about the school re-opening debate.

• Teacher, Parent, Student Groups Call For (Funded) Remote Learning
• Goldson: Why I Voted For Remote Learning
• The Case For Outdoor Learning
• Opinion: Don’t Open The Schools
• Opinion: Guv Blindsided New Haven’s ​“Road Map” To Schools Reopening