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Education Dive
Some rural schools reopen with safety measures in place
Shawna De La Rosa
May 12, 2020
Dive Brief:
A 55-student K-12 school in a rural Montana reopened last week with
several safety measures in place, District Administration reported.
Administrators at the school decided to open after 76% of parents
surveyed said they wanted classes to resume.
Class release times are staggered to minimize the number of students in
the hall, and the building is cleaned regularly. Students don’t have to
wear masks, but social distancing markers have been installed on the
playground.
Meanwhile, teachers at a combined middle-high school in Libby, Montana,
and at a high school in Payette, Idaho, are meeting one-on-one with
students for in-person tutoring sessions. Teachers have to wear masks
and gloves, though masks are recommended but not required for students.
Dive Insight:
Some districts in Colorado also began allowing small-group instruction
for tough-to-teach online topics like welding. Special education
services are being phased back in, as well. Fremont RE-2 School
District is holding in-person small-group tutoring sessions at its high
school, which is voluntary for both teachers and students.
In the coming months, schools around the country will grapple with
when, if and how to reopen schools. But some child advocacy groups say
keeping kids at home poses more of a risk than the virus. The World
Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF and World Food Program (WFP) issued joint
guidelines on how to safely reopen schools. The groups warn that school
closures, which are impacting 1.3 billion students around the world,
will negatively impact the most vulnerable children, so opening should
be a priority.
The organizations recommend increased hygiene practices, improving
protocols for separating sick students and continuing social
distancing. Schools should reach out to the most marginalized groups
and create communications in all relevant languages.
Most states are still undecided about when and if to reopen. Indiana
Gov. Eric Holcomb recently said a decision would be made by mid-May,
and that schools in the fall will likely feature a mix of online and
in-person classes. Meanwhile, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzer said
administrators and teachers should prepare for both school building
re-openings and continued remote learning scenarios.
In California, a 270-district survey shows many students are still
disconnected from the Internet two months into the school closures.
One-third of respondents said “less than half” or “a small minority to
none” of students had broadband home internet access. Another 19% said
cellphone service in their community was poor or nonexistent.
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