Should Schools Be Open During the Pandemic?

Much attention is being given to whether schools (public, private, post-secondary) should be open for in-person classes or not. Advocates for opening schools have said that being at school provides better learning experiences, opportunities for social and emotional development, exercise and nutrition programs, and in the case of elementary and secondary schools, allows for families more easily to continue to do their jobs whether remotely or outside the home. Further, it obviates the need for parents and students to adapt to home instruction. Some evidence now shows that children with disabilities are doing more poorly with online-only instruction.

Those who favor closing schools speak about safety concerns for students, teachers, administrative staff, and other school employees—including bus drivers, cleaning, and maintenance personnel. There are also concerns that children and adults could contract the virus at school, and whether asymptomatic or not, spread the virus to family members and friends. They also have mentioned that social experiences, exercise opportunities, and musical instruction can usually be found outside of school.

Another cited advantage of home-based instruction is the elimination of the need for the time and expense of transportation. Still another is the time scheduling, allowing more flexibility for instruction at different times during the day and evening. This last one is related to the nationwide question of what time of day to start classes presumably so that students can get more sleep.

In most cases, families with more financial and social resources will be able to exercise the most flexibility. They have numerous advantages not available to families with fewer resources. Parents who do not have jobs outside the home or can do their work from home may monitor and assist students with their education, whether online or not. Some families have arranged for private tutors for individual or small groups of students.

An overriding issue is the extent to which decisions are driven by state and federal governments versus local school boards and their constituents. Moreover, the decisions have been politicized in many instances. Many school districts have created a hybrid system with some limited time at school and an increasing portion of online instruction.

It seems to me that there have been some benefits to these changes among the many limitations and challenges. One benefit is the provision of more options for parents and children. Coming out of the pandemic, I expect that many more online options for regular, remedial, and individually tailored instruction will be available. Teachers will have learned valuable new skills, and parents will have more knowledge about their children’s curricula.

For the short term, I would like to see school districts provide as much flexibility for students and parents as feasible. Then for the longer term, they can continue parts of the system that have worked well. Further, while state and federal guidance is usually welcome, decisions about instructional modes are best left to local authorities and their constituencies. State-wide or federal mandates of one kind or another are not needed in this case.

I am very interested in hearing from parents regarding this matter, so contact me to let me know what your opinions are.