Decision to Keep Chicago Public Schools Open is Debatable
Preparing for Distance Learning is Not!
Chicago’s mayor made a tough call yesterday in deciding to keep schools open. As of Friday morning, five states and growing-Ohio, New Mexico, Oregon, Maryland, and Kentucky-plus the District of Columbia, are closing schools statewide. Education Week’s interactive map shows 163 districts closed or scheduled to close nationwide, only four of them are very large districts: Seattle, D.C., San Francisco and Shelby County in Tennessee. Many individual private and charter schools are also closed. As of this morning, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is not reconsidering its decision to stay open.
When it comes to a giant urban district like Chicago, deciding to close schools for inclement weather-or for any reason-is an extremely hard decision. It interrupts learning, often for vulnerable students who are already struggling and need every minute in the classroom. More importantly, it creates risks for students who need to be in a safe space at school, and sometimes depend on school for their nutrition. It also imposes a serious hardship for parents who work and often do not have backup daycare. That is especially true in a health crisis, when the point of cancelling school is social distance, not lumping children together with their cousins at grandma’s or the neighbor kids, while parents work.
It’s easy to understand why Chicago’s mayor-for now-is in line with most big city school districts. However, with a highly contagious pandemic that is growing exponentially, it would not be unreasonable for Chicago Public Schools to consider taking a pause while Coronavirus testing ramps up. The city just banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people and is discouraging gatherings of more than 250, in an effort to minimize the spread. Many schools in Chicago serve well over a thousand students!
I would have gone a different way, and taken a pause. CPS reportedly acknowledges that some schools do not have the needed cleaning supplies, and are short of hand sanitizer and tissues. And the Chicago Teachers Union is spot on in demanding schools close on election day, this Tuesday, when thousands of adults will likely visit as many as 540 separate polling places located in our public schools. These factors, combined with the general climate of uneasiness around Coronavirus, will likely depress attendance anyway, with more than a few parents keeping their children home.
Moving up spring break and pausing classes for at least a week would allow children, who aren’t known for keeping their hands to themselves or their fingers out of their mouths, to be more isolated, which would help with containment. It would allow the district to gather more data as testing ramps up and we get deeper into the incubation period for those infected but not yet showing symptoms. School buildings could get a deep cleaning while the children are away. But most importantly, it would allow the district to focus on activating a distance learning plan that would prevent students from being completely shut off from learning if the pandemic explodes and classes are canceled for weeks.
As a superintendent always reluctant to close schools. But I think this is a unique case. I also think it would be entirely reasonable for the district to share with parents the metrics it would use to pull the trigger on a longer closure (more children becoming ill? total number of cases reported? neighborhood clusters?) so that parents can track that the way they do inches of snow for snow days-and prepare. This would also signal to parents that there is a cohesive data-based plan ready at moment’s need.
We are in uncharted territory and nothing is more important than our children’s health and safety. Next in line is their education. Making the tough call to stay open can be debated. What cannot wait is the need for CPS to aggressively prepare for distance learning. I’ll have a post on the ins and outs of that tomorrow.