School administrators across America are trying to reimagine classrooms and the prospect of reopening schools in the era of social distancing.
With the majority of schools nationwide shut down, educators are scrambling to plan for the future after a chaotic few weeks that, for many districts, included closing all schools, deciding whether to waive assessment tests and whether and how to do distance learning.
California Gov Gavin Newsom laid out a few possible scenarios this week for reopening the state's public schools to 6 million students, saying the timeline was still unclear but when students do eventually return things will look radically different.
"We need to get our kids back to school," Newsom said. "And we need to do it in a safe way."
The biggest challenge for schools is how to continue physical distancing among children and adults to ensure that "kids aren't going to school, getting infected and then infecting grandma and grandpa," Newsom said.
Newsom said he won't loosen California's mandatory, stay-at-home order until hospitalizations, particularly those in intensive care units, "flatten and start to decline."
That could mean requiring schools to stagger schedules, with some students arriving in the morning and the rest in the afternoon.
State officials, educators and unions will discuss ideas and possibilities for safe schooling in the coming weeks and months.
Education funding cutbacks have already led to teacher shortages in California and made campus nurses rare, raising questions about how officials might cope with extended days and ensure kids are healthy, said Tony Wold, associate superintendent of the West Contra Costa Unified School District.
He said some schools will likely extend virtual learning into the fall or possibly figure out a rotation mixing online learning and classroom education.
Source: UNB
