- Students and teachers are headed back into the classroom for a second semester while the COVID-19 pandemic lingers on.

While vaccinations and booster shots are widely available, there are still concerns about safe classrooms and meeting education standards.

Tonight, we talk with parents, educators and the governor about how the coronavirus has forever changed our education system.

I'm Walter Smith Randolph for The Accountability Project, and this is CUTLINE.

(bright music) It was March, 2020 when Governor Ned Lamont issued an executive order shutting down all K-12 schools for in-person learning.

While schools welcome students back at least a few days a week last year, districts weren't required to reopen their school building full time until this school year.

As schools reopened many high school students decided not to show up to class much, more teachers retired midyear, and education neglect reports increased as did concerns about student behaviors.

As you'll see in our first story, some parents are holding off on sending their kids to school as the pandemic has thrown everything we know about education into disarray.

For the Johnson family, this is a blessing.

AJ Johnson arriving to Hartford home after picking up his two sons from daycare.

AJ and his wife, Melinda, couldn't imagine this a year ago.

- When the pandemic hit, it was like, okay, the daycare is closed for like a week, all right, all right, we'll figure it out.

(Melinda & Johnson laughing) And while we have this newborn in the house, and it's like, okay, we'll figure it out.

And so we're doing the rhyming games together and we're watching whatever we can find on YouTube.

And week two happened, it was like, okay, this is not enough, we need to figure out something else.

- [Walter] Finally finding some normalcy now that daycare has reopened, but Johnsons did not want to disrupt Ashton and Addison's new routine.

So at the beginning of the school year, they decided to hold off on sending Ashton to the public school down the street, which was still operating with pandemic restrictions.

- He would go to a brand new school that I could never step foot into, a space that I would not be able to process with him.

And that didn't feel right.

It didn't feel safe.

- [Walter] Melinda and AJ weren't the only parents making this decision.

Connecticut saw a record 3% decline in enrollment in public and private school last year.

That's a drop of nearly 18,000 students.

More than half of that drop was in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.

Grades Connecticut parents have the option to hold off enrolling their children in.

Preliminary data for this year shows enrollment is down again.

So where have all the students gone?

The State Department of Education can't say for sure, since parents are not required to report when they decide to homeschool their children.

- No one will understand what it is to be 11 years old but you're the big brother and you have to look out for your siblings because your mom is an essential worker and could not find somebody to stay home with, right?

- [Walter] Test scores offer a glimpse at just how far some students fell behind last year.

State testing data shows kids who were not attending school in-person full time fell the furthest behind.

Eighth grade teacher, Gwen Crosby, says when schools were online, it was difficult to get students to participate.

- We were losing track of our children.

They weren't signing on, they work wasn't coming.

And these are children that we knew.

And it became something like, is this really what I do for a living?

It was disturbing.

- [Walter] The English teacher says she's still seeing the pandemic impact education even though students are back in the classrooms.

Crosby says it's difficult for her to focus on a lesson plan when she has to deal with students who are carrying the emotional baggage of the pandemic.

- And sometimes the behaviors that we see are a reaction to I have all this feeling and I don't know what to do with it.

And sometimes as simple redirect, please take your seat, can we come explosive or aggressive in some of our children.

- [Walter] In a spring 2020 school health survey, a number of districts reported an increase in students facing mental health challenges.

Concerns range from not having enough mental health staff to not being able to connect students to outside services.

- A lot of teachers are thinking, I didn't sign up for this, that had I wanted to work in a behavioral setting, I would have gotten a special ed degree.

I would have gotten some other degree.

- [Walter] These additional responsibilities may be impacting retirement trends.

Teacher retirements typically happen in the summer months, but new data shows there's an uptick in midyear retirements.

In 2019, there were 74 retirements from October through December.

A year later, that number more than doubled.

Christopher Todd helps districts when they can find longterm substitute teachers to fill in.

- It is hard to say to get a college graduate that's willing to serve as a daily sub for $95 a day or $120 a day when we're seeing employment shortages in so many sectors, and there's so much more competition than there might have been pre-pandemic.

We're now seeing it really rise to the top as it is a statewide staffing crisis and a challenge across all districts.

- [Walter] Todd says the State Education Department is approving far more emergency certifications to waive the typical requirements of who can teach or be a substitute.

The staffing shortage is forcing some schools to close and face constant teacher turnover.

- In my seven person team three route right now today.

(chuckles) And my children, our children are having to adapt to that and having turnover.

We had two teachers quit since September.

- [Walter] Between concerns about staffing, mental health absenteeism, and a drop in enrollment, it could be years before we know just how much learning was lost during the pandemic.

That leaves parents like AJ and Melinda questioning if we're headed down the right path.

- As we continue to travel through this experience, there has to be some checks and balances where we evaluate not just what we did, but how effective was it?

Did it actually do something or provide a benefit to our children?

- The governor often talks about the last year of education.

Looking back, the governor says it is hard to keep students engaged when schools are closed.

Connecticut has received $1.7 billion in federal funding to help.

But since most of that is going directly to local school districts, he believes many of the decisions should be left to them.

In a one-on-one interview with investigative reporter, Jacqui Rabe Thomas, Lamont talked about lessons learned and what work remains as the pandemic lingers through a third school year.

Here's more.

- Thanks governor for taking the time to sit down with us to talk about education during the pandemic.

I wanted to start on March 15th, 2020.

That's the day that you announced schools would be closing.

Could you just talk about what was going through your mind, how that decision was made and what led up to that?

- Yeah, COVID was raging, schools on offer already beginning to close down around the state.

We didn't know what to expect.

We saw that heat map of COVID coming up from New York, New Jersey, and we really wanted to err on the side of caution.

And it was probably the worst decision I had to make, 'cause these are kids, this is school, this is opportunity.

And I couldn't believe as somebody who wanted to run on education was gonna be the first governor in history to say, you can't go to school for awhile.

- Could you describe education during the pandemic in just a few words?

What did it mean to you?

- I thought it was more important than ever.

I really hoped that the online learning would make a big difference, at least keep the kids connected.

And I think it worked for a lot of the kids, but it certainly left an awful lot of kids behind and made you really appreciate the importance of in-person education.

- I have heard you talk a lot about the lost year of education.

Do you think students are still losing a little bit of education now that we're sort of where we're at now?

- I think kids are incredibly resilient.

I think with a lot of help from the federal government, we've given a massive new resources to the schools.

That's everything from social workers to apprentice teachers, to mentors and friends.

The online education is gonna be part of our future.

I think it's not like so much for the online, back in the classroom.

I think you aren't going to see more of a hybrid.

That's for the everyday kids, and in particularly true for the immunocompromised kids.

And schools have gotta be thinking about that almost in a special ed type of way, how we make sure these kids get their opportunity.

- And what is the state's role, if any, do you see in that, in providing that virtual education for kids who cannot return for those reasons?

- Well, last year the state took a lead role.

We got the books out, the Chromebooks out there.

We got the curriculum out there.

We made the deal with Scholastic.

I think going forward, it'll be led by the local districts.

That's just the way education works.

When you talk about where kids are today when they've returned to school, you're seeing some behavioral issues returning in the building as well.

New Britain, Hamden, several districts have had some issues in their schools.

What role do you see sort of the social, emotional and mental health playing out in schools now?

- I think it's more severe than I had anticipated, a lot of us had anticipated.

I knew that our kids were gonna have some really special needs coming out of quarantine and isolation.

Being back in the classroom, being with your friends back in-person was gonna lower the temperature.

And I think it did for 90% of the kids or for 10% of the kids, they're still working it out, and sometimes in anti-social ways.

- When it comes to the politics of what's happening in schools, you see things like a discussion about masks mandates, billboards: "unmask our kids," people following you outside a Cheshire event, of yelling at you about masking of our kids or opening of schools, or critical race theory about what's being taught in our schools.

What are your thoughts about sort of this increased involvement of parents saying how schools should be operated?

- Look, when it comes to masks in schools, I know there's some of the parents that are angry about that.

Believe me, I hear from them loud and clear.

But I think the other 80-90% of parents are saying, "Thank you for keeping my kids safe."

I think it's a bigger issue for some of the parents than it is the kids.

- When it comes to the money that the state got from the federal government for COVID, what happens when that money runs out?

A lot of districts like Hartford, Bridgeport, where the bulk of the education money went, used it for staffing, used it for some shorter term to lower class sizes, things like that.

What happens in year three when that money's gone?

- Thank God, it wasn't a one-year deal, quick fix and then we're outta here.

And I've told the schools a couple of things.

I said, one, hire the people you need and two, show me what works.

This is an opportunity to experiment a little bit.

- A lot of schools have raised the issue that they're having a hard time hiring certain positions, substitutes, cafeteria workers, some of the lower wage positions in their schools.

Could you just talk a little bit about whether or not that's on your radar and what potential solutions there might be in place for that?

- That's a problem across the American economy as you know, it's not just related to schools, but it's really important in our schools 'cause maybe a restaurant is slow in delivering your food, but a school can't be slow in educating your kids.

The biggest change we've made is relaxing a lot of the teacher college rules.

So that third year kid at the CCSU teachers college is in the classroom as an apprentice teacher earning a little money as opposed to a being at the teachers college.

- It doesn't seem like COVID is going away any time soon now with the new variant that's out there.

There's been a lot of local district leaders who have been calling for some state help with air quality upgrades.

Does the state have any plans to help out with that?

- Again, we've given over $500 million additional to our schools, not to mention, on top of that, to municipalities.

And they're the ones that are gonna prioritize between ventilation systems, new filters on there, apprentice teachers, afterschool programs, social workers.

So look, we can be helpful, but I really want the localities to take the lead on this.

And I think they have the resources to do so.

- Do you foresee schools closing again?

- The last thing I'd ever wanna do is close a school.

We started out on mental health, we know what the long-term distress, how that impacts kids.

We're keeping the schools open.

I think we can do it safely.

I think we have the therapies.

I know we're gonna have the testing.

I know we're moving the vaccination mobile vans to the schools, making it available with parental supervision or parental authorization.

We can keep our schools open safely.

- Connecticut saw a pretty large drop in the number of students who enrolled in school last year.

Enrollment figures are not out yet, but I'm curious if you have any sort of sense of why kids didn't show up to school last year.

If you look at the grades that weren't showing up, people were delaying starting the school year for kindergarten or preschool.

Do you suspect that those families are starting to send their kids back and starting to feel more comfortable?

- I think so.

I mean Charlene says, look, when we opened up the schools a year ago, September, the teachers all came back, maybe 70% of the kids came back, less in some of the urban areas.

We had multi-generational houses and maybe really got a gut punch from COVID.

This year I'm told it's well over 90% have come back.

So people are feeling more confident and comfortable.

And it's like all facets of our economy, it's not simply that you open up and they all go pouring back.

You got to give people confidence that you're going back safely.

- [Man] Why are you, whoa, whoa, whoa.

- [Lady] Are you insane?

- That was a scene at a Glastonbury school board meeting last month when a man punched a school board member after a public hearing about the district's mascot.

While fighting and shouting is rare at school board meetings, it's becoming more common as parents take an increased interest in curriculum decisions and school policies.

We talked with those in the center of it all as they try to keep the peace while making the best decisions for students.

From a tense moment in New Canaan.

- We must filter our own preconceived biases and put aside our political divides.

- [Ladies] Please stop, stop.

- That is so rude.

- [Walter] To an education round table (people shouting) that ended with parents hurling profanities at the governor.

(people shouting) COVID fatigue has boiled over and put normally quiet school leaders in the spotlight.

- What we see not just with our kids but societally today is the result of navigating a lot of pressure for an extended period of time.

- [Walter] Cheshire superintendent, Jeffrey Solan, was at the mic when parents derailed that meeting with the governor back in August.

He says school boards became the conduit for frustrations that were building throughout the pandemic.

- That's where decisions about my kids happen.

And so if I'm not happy with something that my child is going to experience as was the case for the masks, that's where people come out and express that frustration.

- [Walter] After a school year hindered by the pandemic, many parents wanted their kids back in school this fall, and in Cheshire and other communities, a vocal minority pushback against wearing mask in the classroom, a key safety measure recommended by public health officials.

Governor Ned Lamont took that decision out of the hands of school boards issuing an executive order that made masks mandatory in schools.

- Listen, we're empathetic to where you're coming from.

We don't want our kids to come to school in masks.

Unfortunately right now that's the best way to ensure that they can come to school all day every day.

- Masking, wasn't the only point of contention.

In some towns, questions about curriculum took center stage.

That was true here in Guilford where parents sounded the alarm about what their kids were being taught, and got national attention.

- My son is bringing home work from school that just infuriates me.

- A lot of the things being taught at the school are being driven by the teachers.

The role of the parents are being minimized.

- It's bullying by our school board of our children and I don't approve that.

- [Walter] A group of insurgent candidates stirred up the race for school board and they campaigned on a message of keeping so-called critical race theory out of the classroom.

- There's room for that at an age-appropriate level.

But with CRT it's throughout the entire curriculum, it's a style of teaching and it enters in everything from art to math, to science, to social studies.

It becomes a way of seeing.

- [Walter] Danielle Scarpellino was a mom of three who teaches acrobatics in town.

She said she never had curriculum concerns until she saw an email from the superintendent with what she called blatant political statements and changes like handing out scholar Ibram Kendi's book, "How to Be an Antiracist" to teachers.

- There was really no one saying anything and that was shocking to me.

I'm looking around and going, "Wait, is it been this way for 16 years?

"Like, is this been the ideology all along?"

And of course it hasn't been, it's something new that's being introduced.

- [Walter] Around the country parents voiced similar concerns, railing against what they say is the adoption of critical race theory, also known as CRT.

- ...on how they feel about this CRT stuff.

- Yeah.

- And you guys are denying their right to speak.

- [Walter] CRT is an academic framework that focuses on systemic racism and the role institutions play in maintaining inequality.

It's typically taught in law schools and not in elementary or high schools.

School leaders in Guilford flatly denied it's part of the curriculum.

But with political divisions running deep, CRT became a lightning rod and the term became a catchall for any new diversity and inclusion education in school.

- It's been said by some, usually very conservative individuals, that we are teaching this in the schools.

And the answer is no we're teaching responsive curriculum.

We are teaching other things about how different races handle different issues.

And frankly, for me, at least, I believe that it's very important to teach that because our kids are gonna enter into a multi-ethnic, multi-racial world.

- [Walter] Scarpellino says she's just trying to protect her kids.

- Never in my life, since the minute they were born have I felt powerless when it came to deciding what was best for my children, never.

And just talking about it is getting me upset because there should never come a time where you feel that someone has more authority over your child's ethics, morals.

That should never come into play, and it is.

I think it's the center of the issue.

- [Walter] Some candidates who campaigned against CRT won seats on their local school boards, but in deep-blue Connecticut, the message only carried so far.

The five GOP candidates from Guilford, including Scarpellino were defeated in that heavily democratic town.

Some school leaders say the temperature in testy board meetings is also starting to cool down.

- I see our kids that have had a lot of opportunities taken away from them because of the virus, whether it be a play, or athletics, or the prom, let alone day to day interactions with their peers in class.

That's frustrating.

And I think we're all trying to do the best we can to not only cope with it as adults, but support our students through that experience.

- Left behind and betrayed.

Those are just some of the words immunocompromised families we spoke with use to describe how they feel about the new school year.

While students headed back to the classrooms, for some families like the two we've spoke with in Fairfield, it's simply not an option right now.

They're fighting for a statewide virtual academy, so families like theirs don't have to choose between their health and their education.

- [Female over phone] ...should be not going to school...

I mean, what do you mean by periodically (indistinct)... - [Walter] This is what life has been like for the Yeoh family of Fairfield.

Lezah Yeoh attending school board meetings on her phone while tending to her immunocompromised son who is in and out of hospitals.

- [Male over phone] If the parents and doctor feel that the kid is able to return and no longer at risk for potential exposure, then they can return to school.

- [Walter] Back in August Connecticut Public spoke to the Yeoh and Mayville families who were fighting for a remote learning option for their children.

It's five months later and Marney White says this school year is still a challenge.

- I like school so far in the year, but I wish it was safe enough for me to go into the school building this year, so I could be with my friends, but sadly that isn't an option.

- Hopefully it will be.

That's our hope.

- [Walter] Marney son, Lane, is a student in the Fairfield School District.

Despite the 10 year old being vaccinated, he can't risk going inside a school building because his mother is immunocompromised.

- Our entire family, we still remain in full isolation, leaving the house only to go to my required medical appointments.

I think it's a matter of what we know now with breakthrough infections being able to transmit the virus.

Currently, the overwhelming majority of young students are not vaccinated, which means that the school building and any indoor environment would remain a high risk situation.

- Marney says Lane was marked absent for weeks as the school district finalized an online learning option.

- So school this year has looked a lot different.

Right now, actually for today, for example, Lane only had 30 minutes of live instruction and the rest has self-paced doing assignments and working through the curriculum.

We saw the application of a full remote, synchronous, instructive period the entirety of last year.

We know it's possible.

We know it was an excellent program.

The district has not disclosed the data on academic outcomes, but all of the experiences of the parents who were enrolled in the class were that they felt their children flourished.

There was really no reason not to continue the program except for financial.

And I'm still really not understanding why the aid funds were not applied towards education considering each locality as well as the state were given funds specifically for COVID relief.

So what better way to provide that, particularly in the context of the education system, except to provide a safe educational outcome for the people who most need it?

So, yes, I do feel that this is a case of discrimination against the medically vulnerable and their families.

- [Walter] The situation is further perplexing for Marney because she teaches epidemiology remotely for Yale School of Public Health.

- I can't make sense of it.

I've been trying to understand how it is that they would deny a remote alternative during the public health crisis of a lifetime, hopefully, that we don't face another one, but that they would choose to not provide something that is clearly necessary during a time that it is clearly necessary, but instead create one for some future period.

And particularly in the context that it was already done in some districts last year.

They had already figured it out and launched it and did it really skillfully.

So why they decide to regress or go backwards now is something that I can't begin to comprehend.

- While Marney and Lezah try to wrap their heads around Connecticut's remote learning situation, Lane has a plea for the decision makers.

- And when they offered a remote learning option, I'd say, please do that again.

That was an incredible experience for me.

And I had so much fun that year, and it would really make me smile if you brought it back.

- Immunocompromised families like the two you just saw are getting help in their fight.

Connecticut's Child Advocate recently signed onto a letter to Connecticut's education commissioner asking that she ensure students with disabilities and students at immunocompromised families be afforded modifications so they are not excluded from participation.

The letter points out that Connecticut has no statewide remote learning program.

Joining us to discuss why they signed onto the letter, are Connecticut's Child Advocate, Sarah Eagan, and Attorney John Flanders.

Okay, so my first question is for you, Sarah, right now children who can't go to school, can't go into a public school building, what's going on with their education right now?

- So, I think the answer to that is that it's maybe different depending on where they live and what school district they go to, right?

So it's gonna depend on what accommodations the school district is willing to make for them, or that they're able to obtain on their own, or with the help of a lawyer.

I think some school districts have been really good about accommodating children who because of a health reason or a disability need accommodations, which they are entitled to under federal and state law.

And some districts have needed more education and more advocacy around that to understand what their obligations are to children who cannot be educated safely in the public school.

- Okay, and Attorney Flanders, what do you make of that?

Do you think that's fair?

- Of course not.

Not only is it not fair, it's not legal.

Both the Americans with Disabilities Act and IDEA require that children have equal access to education.

And because of their disability and in this case, being their inability to defend their bodies against COVID, they are not getting the same educational opportunities.

And that is obviously inappropriate.

I should add one thing to what Sarah was saying is, even with the schools that are working very well to try and do this, they're having trouble finding the resources and the staff in order to be able to do it effectively, which is turning into an additional problem on this.

- Right, which leads us to this letter that you both signed on to.

You wrote it to the State Department of Education commissioner.

And in it, I see several times the word discrimination, which to me is some strong language.

Do you think some of these students are being discriminated against?

- Well, the answer to that question is yes.

If a child cannot attend school safely because of a disability, right?

Including a medical condition, the child has a right under state and federal anti-discrimination laws to an accommodation that allows them to access essential services with reasonable modifications to existing policies and protocols, right?

So what the letter was really about is to say that districts can't summarily say, this is the only accommodation we'll make.

A district cannot say, we'll only give you this one hour a day of homebound instruction.

The district has to, pursuant to state and federal law, engage in an individualized discussion about what the child's needs are, what's preventing them from coming to school, and how their educational needs can be met in the least restrictive environment appropriate to that child.

So the letter is really about saying children have that right, right?

The families have that right.

And the State Department of Education has to play a role, a leadership role, in ensuring that districts are knowledgeable, informed about federal and state anti-discrimination laws and able to carry out that mandate.

- While several people push Connecticut to establish a statewide virtual academy or require districts to offer virtual learning, some states are ahead of their learning curve.

The first statewide virtual academy in New England was launched in the Bay State back in 2010.

Massachusetts now has two virtual options for its students.

Connecticut Public's Catherine Shen visited TEC Connections Academy near Boston to see how it's done.

- Good morning, everybody.

Welcome back, welcome to ELA.

I'm so glad you're here.

We're gonna get started in just a minute.

- [Catherine] Beth Morley begins her day like any other teacher, checking her emails, meeting with fellow teachers and catching up on some grading before class starts.

The biggest difference, she's doing everything through a computer screen with students from all over Massachusetts.

- It's just been a great experience for me to be able to keep them engaged.

And the students want to be here.

I think that's what really helps.

I mean, not all students wanna be in the classroom, in the brick and mortar, but most of my students that come here want to be here.

That's why they signed up.

- [Catherine] Morley's been a virtual school teacher at TEC Connections Academy Commonwealth Virtual School or TECCA for the last four years.

She spent 10 years teaching at traditional suburban and city schools, but found the experience to be challenging, especially having to teach while addressing rising behavioral issues.

She says it wasn't the children's fault, but it doesn't change the fact that she just can't reach all students, but through a virtual school platform, she can now do what she's always wanted to do.

- I can give them everything they need.

And I get a lot of one-on-one time with my students.

I get to know their families really well.

I mean, when you're in a brick and mortar you meet the parents maybe twice a year for like 15 minute conference.

Whereas now I meet with parents every two weeks.

They come to my live lesson room for check-ins and I meet the siblings and I meet the dogs and the cats and chickens, I've met chickens before.

- TECCA got it's start in 2014.

The tuition free K-12 public school in East Walpole, Massachusetts serves more than 2,700 students with 500 on a wait list.

Because of the pandemic, immunocompromised students and families are now prioritized for available spaces.

With seven years of virtual school experience, the staff is familiar with all the trials and errors that regular schools are still facing when it comes to remote learning.

- When people say to me, "Oh yeah, how has it been with the pandemic?"

I'm like nothing has changed in my world.

Like this is what I do.

It's like, nothing's changed.

This is what we do at TECCA.

But it has been nice to be able to help other people understand.

- [Catherine] Superintendent Patrick Lattuca has led the virtual school district for the last two years.

He says a virtual education is not just putting assignments into a Dropbox.

- We provide our learning experiences synchronous and asynchronous.

So what that means is that part of the day students are in a virtual classroom called live lesson.

And part of the day, the students are doing offline activities and learning experiences with a learning coach.

They go to school like any brick and mortar school student would go to school, but they can do their school over a seven day period of time instead of five.

So it's very flexible.

- All TECCA teachers are Massachusetts state certified and they work closely with the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which funds the program.

TECCA receives a tuition amount per student, which totals to about $24 million a year.

- I mean, we talk about differentiating education to meet the needs of all learners, but we never really differentiated the schooling.

We have one model, the traditional model.

So I think the seed was like formed and established and took root with people saying, "This model does not work for me."

As an example, we have students that are parents, they can't go to the brick and mortar school.

We have students that are currently receiving chemotherapy.

They can't go to the brick and mortar school.

So I think the model evolved out of a need because we do, as I was saying, we do fit a need for students that a brick and mortar school does not.

Is a virtual school for everybody?

Absolutely not.

But is a traditional school for everybody?

Absolutely not.

- So I'm gonna just jump straight into you did a virtual school tour in September with a lot of Connecticut legislators, and you've had conversations since then.

Just want to ask, what has that been like for you and what do you think is gonna happen next?

- Well, it was a really interesting field trip that we did up there.

If we can get something like that in the State of Connecticut, I think that would benefit quite a few children.

And we're talking about in the thousands, we're not talking about hundreds, we're talking thousands.

And they started off small.

And they've been increasing on a regular basis because there is a need.

And I see that happening here in Connecticut.

If we were to develop something like that here in the State of Connecticut, we will see an increase of people that would want to be part of this remote school.

- The benefits can be big, especially for urban school districts where class sizes tend to be large.

In a virtual space, each student receives personal attention.

Sanchez says the fact that TECCA is a full service school that also accepts a lot of special education students is a big plus, because those students tend to be left behind.

- At the end of the day, we have to educate our kids, and it's our responsibility, the state's responsibility to make sure these kids get educated.

- For state Senator Doug McCrory, a surprising component that came from the trip was the satisfaction from both students and families.

He also says the virtual academy has the ability to connect students from across the state that would never have met otherwise.

- We have 169 different towns, and many of our kids would never entertain or never go to school, or would never have experience with someone across communities.

So that will be a benefit for Connecticut.

We in Connecticut modified the way we do education for the last 25 years.

We have created charter schools.

We have created magnet schools, but at the end of the day, they're all buildings with brick and mortar.

We haven't touched the idea of virtual learning yet.

So I think it's something we definitely have to speak to in Connecticut.

I think it's not just gonna be a Connecticut issue, it's gonna be a national issue.

Virtual learning is here to stay.

It's just it depends on when we're gonna start it.

And because we passed the legislation last year to start this commission by 2023, we'll put some recommendations in play for the State of Connecticut.

- [Catherine] The senator is talking about the Remote Learning Commission that was established by the State Department of Education.

The commission has been reviewing other virtual school platforms and will present a report before the education committee.

If the virtual school happens, the funding structure will most likely be similar to TECCA, a mix of federal, state and local school contributions.

- And more importantly, I'm concerned about making sure it's done the right way, that we take our time, we learn from mistakes that happened in Massachusetts.

We look at the recommendations that this task force is putting together because it has all the stakeholders involved.

And I think if we take our time, give our parents options, give our children options, then we can put something that will be successful for all our students in the State of Connecticut.

- You say with a lot of confidence that you think this will happen in Connecticut, and you're not the only one.

What gives you that confidence?

Have the conversations between, not just both sides of the aisle, but the variety of people that you've been speaking with, has that given you confidence?

What has been like?

- Knowing that there is a need out there, knowing that we still have children that are falling through the cracks.

And we wanna make sure that every child in the State of Connecticut has a quality education, because it's our responsibility to make sure that all children are getting this quality education.

And so I feel so, talking to our ranking members, talking to my co-chair, to do that visit, to see the school, to see how it's actually operating, gave me confidence that we can have something like this done in the State of Connecticut.

- As you've seen tonight, the pandemic has affected all areas of our education system, with parents, educators, and students having to adjust to the new normal.

So what do parents need to move forward?

And most importantly, how are the kids doing three years into a public health crisis?

Our Jacqui Rabe Thomas posed those questions to a panel of parents and educators.

- Thank you everyone for being here today.

We're gonna talk a little bit about education during the pandemic, where we've been, where we're going, and what we have to learn.

So I'm gonna start by introducing everyone.

First, we have Kate Dias, we have Evelyn Robles-Rivas, we have Tiffany Moyer-Washington, and we have AJ Johnson.

Welcome everyone.

- Hello.

- Thank you.

- So let's talk about how kids are doing right now.

Let's talk about students.

Right now if you look at how many deaths there've been in Connecticut, we're almost at 9,000 people throughout Connecticut of all ages.

500 deaths, just since the start of the school year.

There was a recent paper that was published in the American Academy of Pediatrics that said hundreds of kids in Connecticut have lost their primary caregiver.

I wanted to find out how that's showing up at school.

Tiffany, I'll start with you, what are you seeing as far as how kids are doing in school?

- Kids are hurting, it's a hard time.

Kids are really struggling this year more than ever I've had.

More kids who are on suicide watch or who have started doing self-harming with cutting or things like that, more than I've ever seen before.

It's a lot harder, you have a lot of kids who are really worried about family members who are immune compromised, and they're concerned about going to school and coming home.

And I feel like the kids have like kind of this weight on them.

And generally I feel like to, when I grew up there was no worry of like some monster that was gonna come kill you, right?

And there's this invisible monster that's taking people away.

And I think that that's a real weight that's weighing on kids that I don't think we recognize.

And even though we're trying to go back to normal, like we're back at school, there's nothing normal.

Like people are wearing masks, they're not supposed to touch their friends.

You have to keep a distance.

And so I think that it's isolating and I think kids are far more devastated by this than I think we realize.

- AJ you're a parent, how has it been during the pandemic for you when you have such young minds in your house, as well as what are you hearing from the community from the work you do in the community of how people are doing?

- Yeah, I appreciate that question.

So as a parent, I'm wearing a hat because I pulled all my hair out, trying to figure out how to continue to work, how to continue my responsibilities in the community and be a teacher - which I am not a certified teacher - for a four-year-old and a two-year-old.

And they need constant engagement.

So for me it was difficult.

As for the community, I'm in a intrinsically black community.

One of the oldest African-American communities in the state in North Hartford.

And a lot of our families struggle.

There's no other question about it.

They struggle because a lot of our families and parents were essential workers.

And so they took care of the nursing homes.

They took care of the grocery stores.

They took care of the daycare centers, everything that was open, a lot of our families had to continue to work, but not only work, but also have a teenager at home, or also have a young person at home that didn't get the level of engagement that they needed.

And so what we saw in Hartford public schools was a lot of our students not logging in and being present.

A lot of our parents wanted our schools to open ASAP, because their students were at home, where they weren't, being watched by an older brother, or an auntie, or a grandma, someone who isn't also a certified (chuckles) teacher trying to instruct them as well.

So, it was and it is very hard up until this point.

- I wanna ask a little bit about getting students back in school and what it's taking to get them back engaged.

If you look at the state's attendance numbers, we're still not back to kids showing up every day.

We're still at about twice as many kids missing school and considered chronically absent.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, Evelyn.

- We were dealing with the language barriers, right?

We had grandparents at home.

We had parents at home that didn't speak the language.

So there was a lot of things that we needed to put in place to address the needs of those students within the distant learning model.

So one of the things that my department did in Meriden was that once we opened schools in September, we were engaging in constant communications with the families.

I mean, the district provided a platform for us to communicate with families in the language that they understand absolutely, that's very important, to make sure that we assure them that schools were safe, that we were providing the appropriate protocol, because it was important for us to have our English learners in school.

I mean, the digital model was important at that time, but having students in school make a big, big difference.

- Tiffany, when you look at some of the disengagement figures, when you look at certain districts, you see that there are high numbers of students in high school specifically.

You work with high school students in Hartford specifically.

Some of the high schools have two thirds of their students chronically absent.

Could you just talk a little bit about what's driving that.

- At least once a week, I get a text from a student who says "I can't come to school tomorrow because," and it's usually having to take care of siblings or having to take care of a grandparent or something.

And it's all a result of the pandemic.

Like parents are working different in shifts.

And then a number of students got jobs during the pandemic.

And they were able to work during the school day and do their learning at the same time.

And it was really helpful for their family.

And so now to like try to go back to school full time when they know they could be earning, it's really hard to compete with that.

Like, we'll go to school now and you'll make money later, but you need money now.

- Kate, I'd like to hear your thoughts about staffing in schools right now.

If you look at some of the districts, some districts have had to close a school because of staffing issues or they have teachers working during their breaks, are different things that we've heard.

If you look at who's teaching when teachers are absent, the substitute teachers, the certifications that the state's having to certify at an emergency level have really almost doubled during the pandemic.

What's the impact of that?

What's driving that?

What do you see as sort of, what's going on with staffing right now in schools?

- I think staffing is pretty abysmal to be honest with you.

I think it's universally accepted, whether you are a board of ed member, a superintendent, or a colleague in a school, it's just a really difficult time.

It's recognizing that the conditions have changed in a school building.

We were sort of laid bare in this pandemic, and all of our deficiencies were kind of laid out there for everyone to see.

So when there's poor ventilation or poor building structures, those were laid bare for everyone to see and judge and evaluate and say that is not safe.

And some districts have dealt with it and many have not.

So I think that's part of what you see as people saying, "I don't feel safe in those buildings" from the pandemic, from sort of what we're being exposed to on a regular basis.

I also think the challenge is some of it is the work, the complexity, I'm a high school math teacher by trade, and by no means is the only thing I taught last year, math.

I spent a lot of time teaching a whole lot of things that had nothing to do with math.

- So let's talk a little bit about the contentious board of education meetings.

We've all seen the headlines, I'm sure.

AJ I'd love to hear your thoughts about the people who are showing up in some districts, about whether kids should be wearing masks, or whether schools should be open or closed, or how racism is taught in schools.

Do you have any thoughts about sort of just the tone of how education is being discussed right now?

- It's very concerning some of the rhetoric and things that we're hearing as it pertains to what's taught in schools, as it pertains to mask mandates.

And just being a human being at this particular time in life, it is very concerning.

I took a moment the other day, I listened to the education channel on TV and heard the State Board of Education.

And I wanted to hear the arguments of why, maybe I'm missing something, so I try to go into something with an open mind and just try to understand it.

And a lot of people were pushing for removing the masks from children and some of them make great arguments.

Some of them were a little far, but I think just as a parent, and if we want schools to be open, there has to be a level of standard of safety that we all have to agree to whether we like it or not.

But as it pertains to race, I get very concerned that we have 169 towns that have their own idea of what should be taught.

And I come from a family of slaves, my family comes from the Deep South, and my grandfather was beaten, my grandmother had to endure certain things, my mom, everybody had to endure certain things, and that's a part of our history.

And the mere fact that we don't want to put that into our history only does more damage to our children.

I grew up in a white suburb called Rocky Hill, and I had a lot of identity problems, 'cause I grew up with a lot of white students.

And they never really taught me about myself.

It was up to my parents and my church and my community to teach me about myself.

- So I'm wanna talk a little bit about the infusion of federal money that's come to districts.

Tiffany, I'd love to hear if you see that showing up for you and helping you when you're teaching your students.

- On the school level, I know that one of the things that was purchased was like a computer program for tutoring.

And so they've opened Saturday academy, is we're gonna have inner sessions, but those are like additional things.

So they're not directly related into like the day to day of the classrooms.

So I'm not seeing anything directly in my room from the federal funds.

- Do you have any sense of whether or not the money is being, there's been a lot of talk about how the money is being spent-- - And there should be.

- And do you believe that it's going to the right places right now?

- I think there hasn't been enough input and all fairness.

I think there's been a lot of decision-making that's happened, absent educator voice.

And since we're the people on the ground with the students, I think it would have been wise to ask a few more teachers, where could we spend money that would be beneficial?

I think the staffing shortage is difficult because one of the most profound ways we could help is to have more social workers, more school psychologists, more occupational therapists, particularly in the elementary grades, more EL teachers.

But the staffing shortage becomes a barrier that even if we say we're gonna take all the money and put it there, we don't have the bodies to support that.

We asked our people, we said, "Where have you had the opportunity to voice, 'hey, could we?'"

And the majority, a significant majority said, "Nobody really asked."

- So I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the spending is being spent and-- - There I go.

For our district was very important to get input from educators and also from the families, from the parents.

So there was an opportunity to survey the families and add their input at how this money was going to be used.

So as a supervisor of our English learners program, I have been blessed to get some of this funding to provide extra services for English learners, which we have ESL tutors, bilingual tutors.

We also have the opportunity to provide extra curricular activities for the students.

Any plans we look at, we have to look it through the equity lens, right?

We want to make sure that we're addressing the needs of all students.

And we have English learners.

We have students that are experiencing homelessness, especially middle and high school students.

We have a lot of situations with students that are becoming homeless.

So we really need to make sure that we do have individualized programs for each student.

We have to be very strategic about how to use the money.

And keep in mind that we have to be very consistent in terms of what's gonna happen because this money is not gonna be here forever.

- So, if you look at the number of cases in schools, of cases of people testing positive for COVID, last week over a 100 teachers tested positive for COVID, over a 1000 students, almost 2000 students tested positive for COVID.

What are your thoughts when you hear numbers like that, of there being an upward number of that?

Are you feeling safe in school right now?

- That's a hard question.

I'm very grateful that I had the opportunity and chose to get vaccinated and I have had the booster.

And for me that was the right choice.

So I feel safer than I did prior to that, but our numbers are going up, and what that means, like I'm running a Google Meet for my two kids who are home on quarantine.

I have the rest of the students in front of me.

And I'm trying to do both at the same time.

And then if my colleague is out, well, then I'm also covering their class.

So I think coverage is something that causes a stressor, not just you have to give up your prep time, but you're also exposing yourself to another group of 20 kids or 30 kids.

And so I think that that is a big stressor for teachers.

And we've always wanted to protect our kids, right?

Like there was another school shooting just recently.

Like, we always wanna protect our kids, and now having this thing that's coming into our classroom and like, "Okay buddy, keep your mask up.

"Okay, keep your distance."

It just one more thing, it's one more stressor.

So I'd like to say I feel safe, but I think I could feel safer.

Our classrooms are still, like we're not back to pandemic numbers.

Like, class we're like 14.

You can keep 14 kids apart.

You cannot keep 28 high school kids apart in my creative writing class, like they're adult sized humans.

And so I think that that's hard too.

So I think as much as I wish I could say everybody feels safe, I don't think that that's the case.

- The last question is for you, should schools remain open, if we see the numbers go back up to where they should be, are we in a place, because of vaccinations that we're in a different place now.

- I never want to see schools close again.

I think that was really, one of the worst experiences of my life as a teacher was to go from we're in-person, we're fully remote, make it all happen.

And it was not anything I'd ever like to see us repeat.

I think we are in a different place with the vaccine.

I think we do see it doing the job of keeping those who are vaccinated from being hospitalized.

And I think we are in a different space.

The conversation is different.

It's about what are we doing to mitigate the spread?

I think that's where the conversation about our mask decisions, our strategies about scheduling.

If the numbers continue to climb, we may have to look at, okay, do we have to figure out ways to reduce class sizes, going back to maybe the hybrid model, so that we bring in fewer students at a time, but everybody comes into the school.

Again, it's not ideal, I'll be perfectly honest with you.

Nobody's anxious to revisit that.

I think we're just in a very different head space about the consequence of that.

We know what it looks like to go out and come back.

- Well, thank you everyone for joining today.

It's been a great discussion.

- Thank you for having us.

- Thank you.

- Thanks.

- As you've seen tonight, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever.

The pandemic has exposed inequities and challenged the way education is delivered while also increasing awareness about what's happening inside the classroom.

While most seem happy to be back to some sort of normal, it's clear that some changes are here to stay and many are still struggling with the toll of the pandemic.

That's our show for tonight.

To see all of The Accountability Project stories, head to ctpublic.org/accountability.

For Connecticut Public, I'm Walter Smith Randolph.

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