In our last edition of Common Ground, we introduced issues impacting special educators and parents as schools and policymakers crafted early responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. While New Jersey’s broad response to the health crisis has, on the whole, been clear and decisive, next steps in education have been, understandably, improvisational. Today as New Jersey schools prepare to open their doors for the 2020-21 school year, our leaders remain cautious and fluid.
New Jersey Department of Education’s (NJDOE) long-awaited school reopening plan, “The Road Back: Restart and Recovery Plan for Education,” was released on June 26. State officials made clear they were not providing a one-size-fits-all plan for reopening. Each of New Jersey’s 577 school districts was required to weigh its options and develop its own proposal that meets or exceeds the plan’s minimum standards in opening.
Initially the plan required all districts and schools to provide some form of in-person instruction. As districts surveyed families in furthering the development of their plans, it became clear that significant percentages of parents were not comfortable sending their children back for in-person instruction.
Initial concerns about the need to roll back online instruction shifted to concerns over school safety. Three weeks later NJDOE clarified its guidance, adding an additional minimum standard requiring school districts to accommodate requests for full-time remote learning from families/guardians.
Teachers, too, have concerns. Their unique on-the-ground perspective is informing the reopening debate. Many educators have become increasingly anxious about opening in-person instruction. See our post: NJEA’s Education Recovery Plan, June 24, 2020.
With the surge of infections in the Sun Belt and Midwest, and unexpected resurgences of infections in states like California coloring the landscape, policymakers and schools increasingly recognize they face a moving target, and how we proceed into the school year will remain fluid for some time to come. Many of the largest school districts in the nation have already announced they will not return to school at the start of the school year.
In this edition of Common Ground, we’ll cover school reopening issues as we approach the start of the 2020-21 school year, with the important caveat that much can and may likely change as we move ahead.
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