How much information are your districts/schools providing you for decision making?

[acmom]

I am really struggling with the upcoming school decisions given the limited information we are getting from our district. I'm in NY so our #s are actually decent at the moment. We will likely have a hybrid option (M/T or Th/F groups) and an all online option, but we are getting very few other details at this point. A few of my unanswered questions include:

HYBRID:
- How will at home days be conducted? Live vs. work sent home, what platforms will be used, etc.
- No specific plans yet for if a positive case occurs other than "contact health dept".
- They have discussed staggered start/end times but have not given any idea of what those times will be
- When/under what circumstances might they consider switching back to full school?
(Plus...sounds like K-8 will be in one seat/room all day including specials, "recess" and lunch...how is that even possible to expect of that age kids?!)

DISTANCE:
- Who will be teaching these classes?
- What platform/program will be used?
- How will this align with in-school curriculum (they have possibly discussed using a non-district teachers/programs)
- When will we have the option to switch back to in person? At this point they say no decision has been made, but leaning toward having to commit for a full year!

Those of you who have already had to choose in person learning vs. distance learning, did you have answers to these kinds of questions before you had to commit??

[SnuggleBuggles]

We didn’t have to decide. Everything is online for at least the first month and they aren’t asking people to make any choices. But, yes, the vast majority of those questions have been answered either in zoom meetings open to families or recap presentations online.


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[carolinamama]

We had to decide between hybrid and remote. At the time, hybrid would be one week in school and two weeks out. Remote was being treated as a separate entity but still left to individual schools to handle the logistics and teaching. We did not receive any info on the platform or what either option would really look like at the time. With school boards making the decisions and teachers not working over the summer, I don't think they had detailed answers to give. Since then, our district has decided to start everyone remotely and phase in the hybrid students, starting with kids with special needs. We'll see if that really happens but we chose remote for DS1 anyway so it doesn't affect us.

[maydaymommy]

To answer OP's question, YES. I had a lot of similar questions, and got answers. The superintendent, assistant superintendent, middle school principal, and elementary school principal did the best they could to be available and informative.

[carolinacool]

Very limited. Our district is also offering a hybrid option (starting at home for nine weeks) and a Virtual Academy (remote-only option). There are various FAQs posted on the website and the superintendent and chief academic officers have answered questions, but not really answered questions, if that makes sense. The deadline for enrolling in the Virtual Academy has been pushed to September because parents complained they were being asked to commit to something with no information.

People don't even know what school supplies they need and the big box stores are about to turn that section to Halloween. We start school in seven business days.

[nfceagles]

Very little. We’ve been sent links to choose for our kids. Deadline is 8/14 to choose. Start date has been pushed back 3 days. 9/2 to 9/8. But we don’t know what in-person hybrid or remote looks like at all. We’re in CT so numbers are good enough to consider in person. I can imagine how frustrating it must be as a working parent. As a stay at home parent I can be patient with the district. I know they’re in an impossible situation too.


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[MSWR0319]

Not much at all. We're going back full time and the teachers don't even have any information other than what was sent to the parents. We start in two weeks. My friend is currently at school trying to figure out how to space her desks so that they can be as spread apart as possible. The school isn't even doing it or telling the teachers to do it. They are taking basically no safety measures but saying "they'll do the best they can." Bull. We have an online option through the school but they aren't telling parents anything about it. They have a meeting next week to demonstrate it, at which point it will be too late to look for many other options if you haven't already researched. I did my due diligence and the outside program they are using is horrid. No teacher interaction, not easy to get a hold of anybody to ask questions, etc. I am in the process of enrolling mine in Connections Academy so they can get hopefully a decent education this year. I'm less than impressed with how our school is handling it. I didn't expect perfection, but I did expect good communication.

[bisous]

Our school did a survey with very little information at the beginning of the survey. They did not require a binding choice. The local district did the same thing but required that anyone who chose the remote option it would be binding. This was in June and without a lot of information. It was very hard for many parents! I will say that the closure of all schools in our district has been a great relief to many of the parents. Some are really hoping for in-person and they were sad but most of us just didn't know the right option and it was very confusing. Although we were leaning towards the remote option anyway, having everyone be at home means that at least we had several weeks to plan. It isn't easy for anyone but it is really hard for families with 2 working parents (technically us but we have a lot of flexibility right now!)

[echoesofspring]

Our school has been getting better with giving more specifics, and for the last month have done a weekly youtube live hour long presentation. The first presentation was vague enough for me to be considering looking elsewhere (we have 3 plans! distance learning will be much better! homeschooling can be awesome in the right circumstances!) , but the presentations have gotten increasing better since the state mandate that we'd have to start with DL. Yesterday for example they had presentations from a principal on what a typical day will look like for an elementary school child, when we could expect the child to be interacting with a teacher vs. recordings, vs. small group work etc., as well as special presentations from the dual immersion elem school and the head of special ed. The superintendent has been fairly transparent w/respect to trying to apply for the CA state waiver to open elem, last week we were going for it, yesterday he said he couldn't see that we'd be eligible anytime soon given the continuing upward trend of cases in the county. It's still not all the information I'd like to have but my confidence in them has def increased through these convos. They did say that they were asking for a year commitment for anyone who went with their homeschooling program. They had originally asked for a similar commitment to the fully remote program but have backed away from that since no one's starting in person.

[Kestrel]

It's very confusing right now. I don't think our district is being specific enough with the difference between "distance learning" - taught by district teachers - and "homeschooling", which is not given any teacher or support at all. I'm concerned that people are not clear on what they are choosing, and all the regulations that come with homeschooling. (My district is not offering a curriculum for homeschool, just a check the box and you're on your own this year.)

We were given almost no info on what the hybrid or DL would actually look like. It took until halfway through the decision window before they would even tell us which hybrid the school was doing - they kept going back and forth between Mon/Thurs & Tues/Fri or Mon/Tues & Thurs/Fri. Other than saying that they will provide Chromebooks, they have given us no info on how DL will be done.

To choose distance learning, we also had to check a box saying we would "support" our child in DL. Um... yes, but I'm not a teacher, and I am NOT teaching. I will support - Give whatever time he needs, supplies, space, lighting, quiet - but I am not sitting by his side trying to teach all day. I don't know this materiel, I don't do math the way they teach it now, DS is already a better speller than I am (my big weakness). While I am OK to help where I can, I can't do what a trained teacher does, and I'm afraid that's what our school is expecting.

After we signed up for DL, the district announced that we were going all DL for first quarter (basically until Halloween). So - at least they have more incentive to make DL a quality program, where
I got the feeling that it was an afterthought before.