Since the onset of the pandemic, districts have struggled to balance the risks of in-person education with the needs and rights of students. NYC offers a model of how a large district can keep schools open using multilayered mitigation strategies, even as community infection rates rise and fall.
The city’s reopening plan includes stringent classroom-based quarantine rules and requires students and teachers to stay at home for 10 days after a positive test or until cleared by a health care provider. It also includes mandatory testing of 10-20% of staff and students (depending on grade level) using a nasal swab for molecular testing, which can detect coronavirus DNA. Schools must report these results to the department.
Students and families must complete a learning preference survey and can choose to return for either in-person or remote instruction, depending on their preferences and the availability of options in their communities. Prior to the November closure, students were given the option of choosing a hybrid learning schedule; since reopening, they have had to return to a minimum of one day of in-person schooling per week.
Emily Niehaus, a mom in Moab, Utah, wanted her son to continue his studies in a high school that suited his needs as a “2e” student (intellectually gifted and intellectually disabled). She couldn’t find any option locally, so she stepped up to create her own online high school. Starting her own school was not in Niehaus’s career plan, but she is passionate about serving the unique needs of gifted learners.
About the Author
