Consider This from NPR - Omicron Has Schools And Parents Scrambling. How Are They Coping?

Episode Date: January 10, 2022

A surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the Omicron variant has meant many school districts across the country have considered or committed to returning to remote learning for the time being.WBEZ reporter Sarah Karp spoke with parents in Chicago where a standoff between the teachers union and mayor has resulted in no teaching happening in person or virtually for the last few days. And we hear from three mothers who share how they've been coping with the stress and unpredictability of a very confusing return to school. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

If you're a parent with school-aged kids, this COVID wave can turn your life upside down in the space of a day or even a few hours. This is what Charles Stella of Bloomfield, New Jersey, lived through last week. His oldest daughter is in third grade. Sunday afternoon, we got a email from the school saying that they're closing the school on Monday so that the staff can gather and come up with a plan. Ugh, this better not mean more virtual learning, he tweeted with a stressed out emoji. He's in a small house and he works from home, so they're all on top of each other when school is remote. Anyway, that night before the school made a decision about remote learning, Stella was talking to his wife. She was feeling kind of sluggish all weekend, like just like tired. She had been napping. So she's like on Sunday night, I think it was like eight or nine

o'clock at night. She's like, maybe I should test myself just in case. Her COVID rapid test said positive. A breakthrough case. So his wife went into isolation. He slept on the couch. And all last week, Charles Stella was working from home and solo parenting both his third grader and his younger daughter. You know, since she's only four years old, she's not learning anything. She's kind of bouncing from room to room, bothering my daughter while she's trying to learn, begging for snacks every 10 minutes. The school eventually did decide to offer a virtual learning option, so his older daughter won't miss any schoolwork. But Stella was staring down a pretty daunting to-do list. I've got to put them to bed at night, I've got to cook dinner.

We might have to order a takeout the rest of the week because I don't know if I can make dinner every night on top of everything. Consider this. As Omicron continues to surge and schools continue to struggle, parents have to make up the difference. Hear what educators and parents are up against and how they are just trying to get through it. From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang. It's Monday, January 10th. Support for NPR and the following message come from Yogi Tea.

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and get 10% off your first month. It's Consider This from NPR. Annie Gale Bloyer spent Monday morning at a small demonstration outside the school that her children attend in Chicago. She told WBEZ reporter Sarah Karp that she wants them to open up for in-person learning because the prospect of returning to remote just makes her shudder. It was so bad. And the idea of going back to that at this point, like this has been, there's been so much anxiety and tension just in our house this week, just the idea that there might be this return to that. Chicago public schools are at a standstill with

the teachers union. The union says it's too dangerous to return to the classroom, but Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the classroom is the safest place for kids to be. And she told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday that she's got a lot of parents in her corner. We've got an enormous amount of parent activism. They are writing letters, emails, they are protesting. For the time being, the 300,000 students in Chicago public schools have gone four days without in-person or remote instruction. Tell them to get me off because why not let them go for virtual e-learning? Shakita Dickens says she's glad her children aren't expected to be in class right now,

but she doesn't understand why Mayor Lightfoot is canceling class entirely. Kids can't even get on e-learning to get assignments from the teacher. So it's like, okay, the babies are the ones that are missing out right now. The stress and pressure of filling in those schooling gaps is now a growing reality for parents and educators across the country. Take Felicia Ligardi in Detroit. She runs the Crystal Swan Learning Center out of her home, and normally she's got preschool-aged kids in her care. But last week, she also taught several of the kids' school-aged siblings and her own son when schools went virtual. I had a parent, she was like, oh my God, I just want to turn back around.

LaGuardia agreed to take those older kids because she knows their parents have bills to pay. And despite the fears of catching COVID, they simply cannot work from home. If they didn't have us caring for their children while they were at work, the children would have been home alone. Parents are not the only ones struggling to keep up as schools go remote or roll out new testing requirements. Often the people calling the shots are just as disoriented. Basically, it's chaos. Dan Dominich is the head of the school's superintendents association.

He says schools want to stay in person and most districts have, but some just don't have the staff to do so. There's been so much pressure on teachers and principals that they're leaving in droves. So that's a major problem when a school district wants to be in person, but all of a sudden teachers are calling in because they're sick or because they're afraid to go to work. You know, the economic condition is also contributing to this when teachers who are lower paid to begin with are now stressed out. And now they see that there are opportunities where they can make significantly higher salaries working from home. And again, that stress in the classroom also means stress for parents at home. Last week, we invited three moms to talk about how they're just trying to cope.

My name is Caroline Tong-Richmond. I live in Frederick, Maryland, and my kids are seven and four. Hi, I'm Leah D. Hudnall here in the city of Cleveland, and my son is four. I'm Jill Juilliard. I'm in Nashville, Tennessee, and my daughter's 15. Well, I'd like to hear a bit about how each of your schools has responded to Omicron so far and what you're doing, just trying to navigate the situation. Caroline, I understand that your daughter's school is now in person. There was absolutely no virtual option, right? Yep. It's in person. And we've decided to pull her out mainly because her little brother hasn't had a chance to get vaccinated yet. And since his daycare is closed, we're all just going to be home having fun

together. And Jill, I understand that your daughter was in virtual schooling last year, but classes are still in person, at least for the moment. Right. In Tennessee, there's a law now that we cannot go virtual. So she's in person this year. And how are you feeling about that? Terrible. Very nervous. You know, she's vaccinated. She's about to be able to get her booster. And she masks, but most teachers don't. It's every man for himself kind of right now. Leah, how about you? Because I understand that Cleveland schools, they went remote to start this month. Can you just walk us through how your holiday break unfolded?

Yes. So Cleveland schools started the school year this fall in person. We did very well through this first semester until the very last day before winter break, where I found out my four year old had been exposed in his classroom. Of course, since he's four, he's too young to be vaccinated. And I'm also six months pregnant. And we also have an 80 year old, my grandfather, who doesn't live with us, but is here every day. So he's also in our pod, if you will. And so unfortunately, we found out on Friday and by Saturday night, my son picked up a very high fever. By, I would say, Monday, he tested positive with an at-home kit. How did your son recover?

He had the mildest case in the household, even though he gave it to all of us, and we're vaccinated. After that fever broke, he was bouncing for the next 10 days and grooving. While all of you were sick. While all of us were sick, and he was counting down till Christmas. That was how we spent our holiday. Yeah. Well, I know that a lot of parents, they really want their kids to be in school in person. Some because obviously parents, you know, have to go to work and they can't really afford the childcare to stay at home to watch over their kids who are learning virtually. Some because

they have seen their kids learning suffer learning virtually. Some because they have seen their kids learning suffer during virtual schooling since the beginning of the pandemic. I am curious, in the times that your children have gone through remote learning, how did that go? For a preschooler who had never experienced a classroom setting before. So he entered school as a preschooler in the pandemic. So he didn't quite know that anything was wrong. I think the part that threw him off were not knowing the instructors or his teachers, his classroom aides. But this has been a much better experience because they did have that time together in person. So now that they're back on the iPads, they know one

another and they have that camaraderie. Yeah, yeah. Jill, how about you? How did remote learning go? Well, in a way, I felt luckier. You know, she was 14 last year. She was pretty independent with her with her classwork, like she had to be. But she saw all her friends going to school and it was her freshman year. I mean, that's a big monumental year. That was the most difficult decision I've ever had to make as a parent. And she got real depressed and had a lot of anxiety and to where her doctor said she had lost 15 pounds. We got her some online counseling and that helped her out a bit. But this year for her to go back, she was thrilled and immediately started thriving. And she's better now. But I do worry with the new variant what that's going to mean. Well, before we talk about Omicron more

specifically, I want to turn to Caroline. How did virtual schooling go for your daughter? I thought she had done okay, all things considered. But when I was talking to Connor, your producer, she heard me telling him that, oh, I think she did fine. And if we need to do virtual again, we'll weather it together. And she actually wrote a note and said, please let me go back to school, please. So she was really feeling the missed connections and she does do better learning in school. Yeah. Given how contagious Omicron is, what has it done to your calculations? I'm curious, this new variant. I was telling a friend, it feels like we're one sneeze away from getting Omicron and it's kind of put me in a bind. Should I just send them back because we might get it

anyway? My main concern is my son is four and not old enough to get vaccinated. And even though I've read studies that say the chances are if he does get COVID, it will be a very mild case. And, you know, kids tend to bounce back. I can't help but think of worst case scenarios. And it's also concerning, too, that our local hospital is full. So I think at this point we're operating on this idea of if we're going to get it, maybe let's wait it out until medical services are more available. Yeah. And Leah, is it kind of a different situation for you because sort of the worst in terms of getting COVID happened, you all got COVID.

Well, it was my biggest fear. I live in Cleveland. We have, unfortunately, poor health outcomes when it comes to black maternal health. I have been reading for months about pregnant women ending up in the ER, et cetera. I think that we would send my son back in. My fear is that we'll replay this thing all over again. Someone will be exposed and trying to find a test, trying to get an appointment. But I'm going to try to take it really week by week like the rest of us.

Because if I go too deep into the future, I'll get anxious. And that's not good for anyone. We've been talking to three mothers struggling through the third academic year of this pandemic. Caroline Tong Richmond of Frederick, Maryland. Leah Hudnall of Cleveland, Ohio, and Jill Drouillard of Nashville, Tennessee. Thank you so much to all three of you. Hang in there. I don't know what else to say beyond that.

Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. And we should note that Cleveland Public Schools are holding in-person learning again this week, and Leah Hudnall is sending her son. She told us he, quote, ran to the door this morning for school. You're listening to Consider This from NPR. I'm Elsa Chang.