Back to school this September was always going to be different for us. I anticipated it; one girl at home and one in DC, I imagined somehow FaceTiming to get a picture of them together on Day One. We’d be in our new home, the front door was often the place for pictures in our old home, but where would become our new default background? Maybe the purple backdrop of our shed, maybe the blue of the front porch or we’d stick with traditional white of our new front door… I still don’t know, but somehow there’s no urgency to decide right now because the First Day of School is so full of anxiety and confusion, that there are bigger questions to tackle first.

Back to School Fall 2020, is going to be something we have never experienced before, and something I surely hope we will never see again. For starters the concerns surrounding Back to School and Covid safety have filled my social media feeds for weeks. Of late there has been less angst between the two sides, but there are still those who insist on posting expert accounts that return is safe and necessary and those that insist on posting expert accounts that return is not safe and we must continue to cocoon ourselves at home away from each other. How can the experts have such opposing views yet still be supported so completely, I’m sad that it seems to have become such a Political situation.

I believe our School District struggles with transparency, and although they have tried to follow the NYS protocols regarding parent involvement and engagement in the Back to School debate I’m not sure they have been wholly successful. I admit that until today my engagement had been pretty inadequate. The move has consumed every spare ounce of brain capacity I had. I knew the decision deadline was looming before me, so today I made reading about and informing myself a priority. I visited the FAQ page, I’m sad to say I found it lacking. I attended a Virtual Community Forum and again didn’t feel it was speaking to me or helping inform me or guide me as to what was the best decision for my family. I learnt two new words, that I didn’t really feel added to the debate, unless confusing the audience was part of the aim: synchronous and asynchronous. And what I did hear loud and clear was that if I didn’t feel the provision was a good fit for my family then I had the option to Home School. Seriously?!?! I am always gobsmacked that in New York State a school is not forced to make the provision meet student need. In stark contrast to the UK, when I was working on transition into school and between schools nurturing provision had to remain fluid and adapt year on year. In NYS if you don’t feel your child will receive the nurture they require when starting school it is common place to have them defer their school start by a year; this is unheard of in the UK. It meant that Ruby, a young Kindergartner had children in her class who were upwards of 13 months older than her - how can the teacher give their best with that kind of spread? Although it has to be said, she had the most amazing Kindergarten teacher. Anyway, I digress…

So today has been all about weighing up the information and deciding what was going to work best for our family. I have two options, 3 if you throw Homeschooling into the mix! I have to make a commitment for the first quarter and then presumably can make changes quarter by quarter if needed. There is virtual school, where all day every day the provision would be at home. There would be online classes to attend and work set, presumably much like the Spring Term, but with better consistency and stronger administration oversight. Or there is in-person/hybrid learning, where children attend school for 2 days a week and work from home for the other 3 days. It would seem that each lesson taught would be to a mix of virtual school students, in-person students and working from home hybrid students. As a teacher I can not even begin to imagine the juggling act that is going to be expected of these professionals as they have such a disparate group of children to teach each lesson to. Yet again it seems teachers are being cast as superheroes and are being expected to perform above and beyond what they trained for.

The biggest tragedy to me is that I can think of no better solution; sure I can think of better delivery, better ways to engage with the stakeholders, and better ways to describe what the provision might look like; but right now there is no perfect solution. For some families the mental health of their children not spending more time at home far out weighs the mental health of them returning to a radically changed classroom. For some the health and physical well being of their children being at home far out weighs that mental health component. And you know what, both are right. Never before has the education of our children been handed to us to determine quite like this. Never before have we been allowed to be part of the process in quite this way. And I’ll be honest it terrifies me when I am making the decisions about my child and her safety and well being, in a way that making decisions as an Assistant Superintendent never did. So as always, to all the teachers going into a new school year you have my upmost respect. In the most part, our children will learn because you will provide an environment to make that happen, in whatever way, shape or form you can. And as a parent I am eternally grateful to you for that.

Please share with me what your school district is offering. How has their communication been? What questions do you have that remain unanswered? What provision are you planning to enroll your child(ten) in for the Fall? For us, Ruby had a big say… she wants to go back, she understands it is not going back to what she left in March; so for us we have selected ‘hybrid’. I’m not sure if it’s right or wrong, but for now it’s our decision.

Today more than ever, be kind, be gentle,

Denise xoxo