"DeSantis for the win" --- let's keep schools open. Just ignore the community spread. Keep in mind the U.S. standard is that schools should not be open when the COVID testing positivity rate in the local community is above 5%. All of Florida is above 5%.
Pointing to closing 'blunder,' DeSantis says schools should bring struggling students back in-person
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/n...is-florida-schools-stay-open-2021/6466124002/
Florida public schools will remain open in 2021 and families will continue to have the option to keep students at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Monday.
But the news came with one caveat, that parents with students who are struggling academically in remote learning situations will be notified by their school districts and the students will be required to return to in-person instruction — unless the family again actively elects to keep the student at home.
The caveat is part of a new emergency order issued by Richard Corcoran, Florida's commissioner of education.
In the order, which is dated Nov. 30, Corcoran writes that schools must provide written notification to parents about the students' academic struggles, and parents must provide a written receipt of their intent to keep their students at home.
At a press conference held at a Kissimmee elementary school, DeSantis called closing public schools during the coronavirus pandemic the "biggest public health blunder" in modern U.S. history and
called his detractors "flat-earthers." He said the effects of closing schools will be felt for years.
"Virtual learning is just not the same as being in person," DeSantis said of public education.
The announcement comes as Florida has seen a surge in cases in past weeks and is poised to cross the million-case mark on Tuesday.
An in-person connection, many educators and parents say, is often the linchpin for academic success. It's why, despite the pandemic, a growing number of districts are requiring students struggling online to attend class in person, if that's an option.
But an explosion of new COVID-19 infections challenges that effort. Already, the nation's new COVID-19 spike is poised to send hundreds of thousands of students who were in school at least part time back to 100% remote learning.
New York City – where some 300,000 public school students are receiving some in-person instruction – is quickly approaching the community spread threshold that would trigger another shutdown. Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday told parents to prepare for school buildings to close as early as Monday.
Earlier this month, county officials in Indianapolis ordered all public and private schools to close and return to online learning by Nov. 30 for safety reasons, a move that affects around 200,000 students.
And a number of urban districts that have operated fully online since the start of the year, such as San Diego, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, Anchorage, Alaska, and several big, suburban districts outside of Washington, D.C., are further delaying plans for in-class learning because of rising infections.
Florida is taking a different approach with DeSantis reiterating that in-person school is critical for students and parents.
Florida's public schools initially closed because of the pandemic in March. Leon County public classrooms reopened Aug. 31 with an option for families to enroll students in a school's Digital Academy to learn from home.
Corcoran echoed DeSantis' remarks and said that scientists who said that opening schools would be a "death march" for children have been proven wrong as schools across the globe have reopened.
Healthcare officials, including in Leon County, long have advised that though children seem to not become as ill from COVID-19 as adults, they still are able to spread the virus.
