Page 46 - CLT072720

46 ¦ JULY 27, 2020 CLOSING ARGUMENTS

EDITORIAL BOARD

How and When to Reopen Schools:
A Modern-day Morton’s Fork
Connecticut’s Department of Education will be
guided by state COVID-19 data when making
the decision on when and how K-12 students
should learn this fall. Commissioner Cardona said
the state is considering three scenarios for the up-
coming school year: a full opening, a hybrid of
online and in-person participation, and distance
learning only. “Public health data matters and while
Connecticut’s health data is among the best in the
country — thanks in part to all of you — a change in
the data for Connecticut will mean different things Shutterstock

for the re-opening of schools in the fall.” be a way to comfort parents worried about send-
Gov. Ned Lamont closed in-person instruction in ing their children back amid a pandemic, it may
schools on March 16 to keep students and school not be best for their children.
faculty safe from the spread of COVID-19, and Conversely, reopening can be detrimental for
distance learning became the primary delivery of educators and other school personnel. Although 6
education from then until the end of the school year. months into the pandemic, accumulating evidence
During a recent webinar to discuss the options, the and collective experience argue that children,
Governor said that the consideration of public health particularly younger school-aged children, are
would be his “North Star” on whether to send kids statistically insignificant drivers of coronavirus
back into classrooms. Including emotional health transmission, the same cannot be said of the adults
under that public health umbrella, Lamont expressed who serve them. The risk to teachers from exposure
concern about the “hundreds” of calls from youth in the classroom is further complicated by the ad-
in distress into 2-1-1 during the pandemic. “[With ditional risk they experience in break rooms, staff
regard to] social and emotional learning, there’s meetings and parent teacher conferences.
nothing in my mind that replaces the classroom, as Some of the risk can certainly be mitigated but
long as we can do that safely,” Lamont said. the costs associated with reopening safely will
It is without a doubt that opening schools would be astronomical: surgical masks for all teachers
benefit families beyond providing education as and staff and all students; hand washing stations
schools do so much more these days: they sup- or hand sanitizer for all people who enter school
ply child care, school services, meals and other buildings and increasing regular surface cleaning;
family supports. Moreover, without in-person limiting large gatherings of students, such as dur-
instruction, many children will fall behind aca- ing assemblies, in the cafeteria and overcrowding
demically and educational inequities will likely be at school entrances and during shift changes, pos-
exacerbated. Many of the communities that have sibly by staggering arrival times and class times;
been the hardest hit by the virus also are home to reorganizing classrooms to enable physical dis-
schools with the fewest resources and the greatest tancing, such as by limiting class sizes or moving
challenges. Therefore, while distance learning may instruction to larger spaces or even pods to limit

CONNECTICUT
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