(IRN) Many school districts have scrapped plans for in-class instruction at the start of the fall semester amid an increase in COVID-19 cases, but school officials have told students and parents to expect a different approach than last spring. Many parents remain skeptical.
Many school districts that initially planned to offer a hybrid approach this fall with a combination of in-class and remote learning have decided to go all online. School officials across the state have been telling students and parents that remote learning will have a different look than it did in the spring.
Dr. Sharon Demoulin-Kherat, superintendent of the Peoria School District, said remote learning this fall will be more stringent than in the spring.
“There will be new material introduced to them and grading,” Kherat said. “It will be just like normal school, but being done in a distance manner, in a remote manner and in a virtual manner.”
Joshua Pollard Sr., a delivery driver and a single parent of two young boys, said he was put in a tough spot when the Peoria School District announced it was going entirely with remote learning a week before classes were set to begin.
“What do I do? Do I work or do I stay home with my children? Do I teach them? Do I let them fall behind? Those are all of my concerns,” Pollard said
Pollard said he found out about the late change from local news reports.
“My tax dollars go to the public schools,” Pollard said. “Open the schools. Let our children have some sort of normalcy.”
Community Unit School District 300, based in Algonquin, serves about 21,000 students in the suburbs. Superintendent Fred Heid said during a virtual meeting with elementary school parents that the remote learning experience would be different this fall after hearing from parents, students and teachers last spring.
"There were a lot of lessons learned, you provided great feedback last year, our teachers provided great feedback last year and that's the information that we're using to make sure that we support a far more robust remote learning experience for our students," Heid said.
The State Board of Education reported more 500 school districts will offer some form on in-class learning this fall semester, but most students will start the year with remote instruction.