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(Amna Ijaz/The Texas Tribune)
As fall progresses, Texas public school superintendents are realizing that virtual instruction simply is not working for thousands of students across the state.
<p>Report cards from the first weeks of the school year show more students than last year failing at least one class. Students are turning in assignments late, if at all; skipping days to weeks of virtual school; and falling behind on reading, educators and parents report. Many parents say they're exhausted from playing the role of at-home teacher, and some students <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/01/texas-schools-reopening-virtual-learning/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">without support at home</a> are struggling to keep track of their daily workload with limited outside help.</p><p>The problems are concentrated among students trying to learn from home, more than 3 million of the state's 5.5 million public school students, according to administrators' accounts. The trends are adding urgency to calls for getting more students back into classrooms as quickly as possible.</p><p>By now, many school districts hoped their students would be making up academic ground lost last spring, when the pandemic caused them to shut down classrooms. Texas is mandating that districts get back to normal this fall and prepare students for upcoming state standardized tests. Schools dialed up the intensity of their classes — and then an alarming number of students began failing.</p><p>As the first grading period came to a close, some administrators began temporarily backpedaling from their initial insistence on academic rigor. They gave teachers the message: Do what you can to make sure kids pass.</p><p>Judson Independent School District, in San Antonio, added a note to its grading handbook allowing principals to "grant any exceptions" and "extend grace" to students, letting them make up late work or drop assignments. "We understand that connectivity issues, lack of devices, technological issues with the Student Portal, Canvas, and electronic books may impede a student from submitting their assignments in a timely manner," the <a href="https://www.judsonisd.org/Page/24249" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">handbook now reads</a>.</p><p>Cathryn Mitchell, principal of Austin ISD's Gorzycki Middle School, sent an email in early October, obtained by The Texas Tribune, alerting all staff to a "campus-wide dilemma." Almost 25% of students were failing at least one class, including 200 failing more than one subject. She attributed the failures to steep technology learning curves, lack of access to devices and Wi-Fi, shifting reopening guidelines and anxiety over the health risks of on-campus learning.</p><p>The email implored teachers to exhaust "all measures to assist the student before failing them," including working with them one on one, emailing or calling parents, and setting up Zoom parent conferences. For teachers unable to do everything to help a failing student before the grading deadline, Mitchell wrote, "we would ask that you gift the student with a 70." Texas' <a href="https://www.uiltexas.org/policy/tea-uil-side-by-side/academic-requirements" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">"no pass, no play" rule</a> prohibits students pulling less than a 70 in one or more classes in a marking period from playing sports or participating in extracurricular activities for three weeks.</p><p>"We know that some students are taking advantage of the situation or have procrastinated to get themselves into this position. There is no question about that," Mitchell wrote. "But we also know that we have asked a great deal of them these first five weeks. ... This will not be the norm every six-weeks."</p><p>Austin ISD officials told the Tribune that school leaders are "committed to high standards of academic rigor" and working to "better serve" students with low averages or incomplete grades based on their individual needs. They did not respond to questions about whether Mitchell's approach was supported by the district or whether 25% is an average failure number across the district this marking period. <a href="https://www.kvue.com/article/news/education/austin-isd-50-increase-students-failing-throughout-district-covid-changes/269-0765cec4-b06e-48c3-9997-2571c5da8930" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">According to KVUE-TV</a>, about 11,700 Austin ISD students are failing at least one class this year, a 70% increase from last year.</p><p>As the extent of students' struggles become clear, parents and superintendents are increasingly determined to get students back to school, the pendulum of their worries swinging away from health risks and toward the risks of students not learning at all. "Districts are starting to feel some real internal pressure as educators," said Joy Baskin, legal services director at the Texas Association of School Boards. "If they feel that there's enough momentum around getting everyone back, I think that's their preference."</p><p>State data on COVID-19 in schools is <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/01/texas-schools-coronavirus-data/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">limited and full of gaps</a>, but it points toward low student infection rates, encouraging some experts. Experts say layering policies such as sanitization, social distancing and masks is needed to reduce the risk of transmission. Despite outcries from some teachers and parents, dozens of school districts have <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/21/texas-schools-remote-in-person-learning/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">nixed their virtual learning options</a> altogether and brought nearly all students back to classrooms.</p><p>According to the <a href="https://www.expressnews.com/news/education/article/As-students-drift-some-rural-school-districts-15664687.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">San Antonio Express-News</a>, at least one of those districts is attempting to require all remote learners with failing grades to return in person — violating <a href="https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/covid/SY-2020-21-Attendance-and-Enrollment.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recently updated state guidance</a>. "Discontinuing remote instruction in a way that only targets struggling students is not permitted," the updated guidance reads.</p><p>Texas school districts don't have much time to get students back on track. This academic year, the Texas Education Agency will <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/27/staar-texas-fifth-eighth-grade/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">resume strict sanctions on schools</a> and districts with consistently low student standardized test scores after pausing those penalties last spring. And there are dollars at stake, with state funding tied to student attendance. Districts have reported <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/01/texas-schools-enrollment-funding/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">losing track of thousands of students</a>, including some of their most vulnerable, who haven't logged into virtual classes or responded to phone calls and door knocks. According to state leaders, schools that are open for in-person instruction have seen higher levels of enrollment than those with only virtual education.</p><p>San Antonio's Northside ISD has not changed its expectations for virtual students, despite seeing higher failure rates, said Superintendent Brian Woods. Since many students learning from home are low income, Black and Hispanic, lowering academic standards for those students could end up deepening existing inequities, he said.</p><p>Instead, the district has put together a call team to reach out to low-performing virtual learners and urge them to come back to campus. Just under 45% of students are learning from classrooms in the second grading period, up from less than 25% earlier in the fall, when the district slowly phased students in. "We're not going to fix it by only taking the good grades or dropping half the grades," Woods said. "We've got to dig in and look more at the root cause. We know what it is: There's kids who need to be in the building, period."</p><p>In Brazosport ISD, where 78% of students are learning in classrooms, a quarter of virtual learners are failing two or more classes, compared with 8% of at-school students. The district is "not dropping our expectations for at-home students," said Superintendent Danny Massey. But with coronavirus cases dropping in Brazoria County and district officials being transparent about COVID-19 cases on campuses, more parents are gradually choosing to send their students back.</p><p>Some Austin ISD parents are considering sending their children back later this fall, once the district returns to <a href="https://www.kvue.com/article/news/education/schools/austin-isd-reopening-students-return-campus-nov-2/269-c342bf83-21ed-46d8-9b74-78a79b8cce44" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">in-person instruction that more closely resembles a regular classroom</a>. When the district reopened, it had students sitting in classrooms but learning virtually. The state halted that approach. Rosemary Wynn, an Austin ISD parent, thinks her eighth and ninth grade sons may get more out of learning in person once it includes more face-to-face instruction.</p><p>She and her husband had a stern talk with their O. Henry Middle School eighth grader earlier this fall after realizing he had not opened about 100 emails from his teachers, except one from his football coach. He was previously a straight-A student, but at one point his grade in one class had fallen to 29, she said.</p><p>"Children don't know how to read email. That is not part of their repertoire," she said, with exasperation. "I haven't had a single teacher reach out to say, 'your kids' grades this, your kids' grades that.' I think the whole way this is set up is a recipe for disaster."</p><p>Kelly Sanders and her son Bizuayehu Crouther, a 14-year-old at Austin High School in Austin ISD, regularly debate whether he should return later this fall. Bizuayehu has dyslexia and dysgraphia, which impacts his ability to write clearly by hand, and he's found virtual learning much easier. "I do not want to go back," he said.</p><p>Sanders is concerned that the second grading period will be even more academically rigorous and that her son will not be able to keep up virtually. "I'm happy that [he is] making really good grades right now, but I'm concerned that it still isn't as rigorous as the classes would be if it were in person. If at some point he has to take a standardized test on the material, I don't know what that looks like," she said.</p><p>But for other parents, the decision is easy. Single parent Renee Schalk chose to keep her 17-year-old son and 2-year-old triplets home from Georgetown schools and doesn't regret it. "My children are children of color," said Schalk, who is Black. "I don't want them subjected to COVID-19. … We're not doing enough in this state, we're not doing anything in this country to make it safe."</p><p>Angelina Allegrini, a 14-year-old ninth grader in San Antonio's North East ISD, said her grades suffered in the beginning of the year as she got accustomed to the variety of programs teachers used for online learning and the exhaustion of staring at a screen for three to four hours a day. After a few weeks, and a little leniency from teachers, she pulled them back up.</p><p>But the social, extroverted teenager still felt she was missing something. "I wanted to try to get to know people in my class. I saw some of them on the screen, but that's not the same," she said.</p><p>On Monday, after several weeks of learning from home, Angelina walked into her high school for the first time this year. Her mother, Cherise Rohr Allegrini, a prominent epidemiologist in San Antonio, said she was "not thrilled" about her daughter's decision but predicted it wouldn't last long, with a surge in COVID-19 cases likely on the horizon. "I think they're probably going to change and close schools in a couple of weeks or so," she said. "We're going to start seeing outbreaks on campuses."</p><p><strong>More on schools:</strong></p>
<h2><a href="https://austonia.com/aisd-back-in-school-no-social-lives" target="_self">Austin ISD continues its phased-in reopening, but kids' social lives remain absent</a></h2>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUwMzI4MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NjgxNjAwMn0.l6x_74Bsz3sXkKeSalYZUX_nPUzKyVFA3iMODY0PZ6U/img.png?width=980" id="108bd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="71d5f1f44c68683e24751546b6002007" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Austin ISD continues its phased-in reopening, but kids’ social lives remain absent(Sheryl and Dean Jett)
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(Photo courtesy of Marisela Maddox)
Marisela Maddox's two children complete their online schooling from home, a reason she decided she needed to bring in extra help.
Marisela Maddox is no stranger to the nanny game, having hired at-home caregivers in the past to help with her two children, ages 5 and 10.
<p>In the early pandemic days, the Austin family managed without one, working and quarantining from home. But around June, when the national conversation about education started to lean toward online public schools, "I was starting to get very nervous," Maddox said.</p><p>So she looked for someone who could work full time and be ready to help with the education of her fourth-grader, who she assumed would be doing school entirely online.</p><p>That's when she learned that the market, the candidates, the health considerations and—most notably—the cost of hiring someone to be around your kids all day is a lot different now in the days of unpredictable and fast-changing school, work and money situations, than it was in the pre-COVID era. </p><p>When she hired a grad student in his late 20s, she said, the two other finalists were immediately hired by friends—a sign of the tight market that she hadn't seen before.</p><p>Maddox is paying 20% more than she used to—$25 an hour, up from the typical $20 rate—just to make sure the nanny was willing to stick with the family through such uncertain times. While her older child ended up returning to school, Maddox has kept the nanny around in the case that schools shutdown again. </p><p>"I think you have to pay more. I really do," said Maddox, a mediator and small business owner. "You have to incentivize people to want to stay because you really don't want to be doing this every three or four months." </p><p>Several employers and families said that pay has risen for several reasons: the influx of and demand for higher-paid educators into the nanny market, the instability of work and school schedules, the higher demands placed on caregivers and fear of COVID-19 all brought on by the pandemic. </p><p>The need for nannies, the availability of them and the ability to pay for them has risen and fallen as virus conditions and shutdowns have fluctuated throughout the summer, said Amber Mayhew, an Austin mom and nanny, and owner of <a href="https://www.nannypoppinz.com/agency/nanny-childcare-austin-texas.html" target="_blank">Nanny Poppinz,</a> a referral service she has operated in Austin for about a decade.</p><p>"In March, which is usually a very busy time of year for us, business stopped for a couple of months," she said. "And then it kind of picked up for a little bit, and then we kind of had the second flow of everyone panicking it seemed like, and so it slowed down again. And now it's starting to pick up again."</p><p>Along with the unstable market, families whose children are doing online school are looking for people who are more qualified in education or technology, and many of the candidates are now former educators or daycare workers who were laid off or worried about teaching in-person classes at public schools. </p><p>There is also less job stability because pandemic-era shutdowns, quarantines and COVID-19 infections put family needs in flux as schedules shift to accommodate school and work changes. And everything can shut down if a family member or the nanny gets sick and the nanny can't come into the home for weeks or months.</p><p>And the stakes are higher when it comes to health considerations. Families and nannies have to put a lot of trust in each other not to engage in behavior that could put one or both of them at risk. </p><p>"We've been very conservative in how much we've been leaving the house, and canceled all our vacations this summer, no road trips or anything, so the idea of having someone in our house was a little scary," said Austin mom Jeni Putalavage-Ross, who, after a difficult search, hired the daughter of a trusted friend to help with her 8-year-old and twin 6-year-olds.</p><p>All of this not only drives up the price, but it can make the overall experience more trying—both for the parents and for the providers. </p><p>"It can be done, but it requires more resources," Maddox said. "I had to do a lot of self checking. We had a lot of conversations around it. But I think it'll be OK. Everybody's sort of figuring it out right now."</p><p><strong>More on families: </strong></p>
<h2><a href="https://austonia.com/divorce-in-travis-county" target="_self">For better or for worse, for now: Austin divorces down in pandemic</a></h2>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQyNDMwOS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NjIwMTQzN30.PM_wdYpTUWg2xD4N7bYjVV7WfE1nl-av1jPeA2pkQm8/img.png?width=980" id="da54e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6160d8c267152cc928322432b62e4477" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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School in a pandemic: the struggle between wanting a return to school and student safety
16 September
(Stock photo)
As some children gear up to head back to school, many parents are wondering what to expect next with their child's learning.
For Ashley McGuire, mother of 6-year-old Mason, in-person schooling can't come quickly enough. The online process, she said, is lonely and has been frustrating for everyone in the family.
<p>"I'm not equipped to be a school teacher," McGuire said. "I never wanted to be a school teacher. My kid is struggling. He needs structure, and he needs better advice than I can give him."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9593711b795ee54bdf9f711d2789e9df" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="94285" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDM4MDEyMy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjI1NTcxMH0.-HlRoAAK98swUJUclsY8BDcRAEqP9RPcWOkp6Jti7MU/img.png?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption..." spellcheck="false">Mason working on his e-learning assignments from home. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">(Photo courtesy of Ashley McGuire)</small></p><p>Mason will attend first grade online through the first nine-week grading period of the year, returning to his Lake Travis elementary school during the second nine weeks, a choice the family made because McGuire has concerns about him getting sick at school.<br/></p><p>"Your kids are not always as good as teachers say they are," McGuire said. "It's very difficult to have them keep (their mask) on, especially properly, you know, over the nose and all that stuff. I mean, they're kids. They pick their noses, for goodness sakes."</p><p>As some schools and districts are opening their doors for the fall semester, health professionals are nervous about COVID-19 cases in classrooms.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6c327a36717bf288c9d165522389b508" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="a87c5" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDM4MDIyNy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzU5NDIzNH0.AGq2ZT8CiDObVbZsyuFihNHDbJ2PERxQoyfId5UWly0/img.png?width=980"/>
</p><p>Dr. Stanley Spinner, vice president and chief medical officer at Texas Children's Pediatrics and Texas Children's Urgent Care, said there is no practical way to test every student returning to school and many doctors expect rates to spike in October as a result.<br/></p><p>"Those that may be asymptomatic are certainly going to have the capacity to infect those around them," Spinner said. "We know that someone is just as likely to infect another person whether they are asymptomatic or symptomatic if they have COVID, so that's one of the reasons we expect rates to go up again as we get kids into class."</p><p>Detecting whether or not someone has the flu or COVID-19 is going to be more difficult as flu season approaches, as the two viruses have similar symptoms.</p><p>Spinner said very few children require hospitalization for COVID-19. In fact, many more children are hospitalized for the flu, but getting a flu shot can greatly decrease the need for medical care. </p><p>"What most people don't understand is... that vaccine works exceedingly well to prevent the vast majority of those infected individuals from getting sick enough to be in the hospital," Spinner said. "The vaccine is critical when it comes to minimizing the severity of the illness of influenza."</p><p>Spinner said getting a flu vaccine is uniquely important this year to help reduce the strain on hospitals and healthcare workers.</p><p>"If we start seeing a lot of flu in the community and we're starting to see more COVID because of school starting, we would really worry that we're going to see a lot more adults and children hospitalized, which would put a much bigger strain on hospitals (and) medical care personnel," Spinner said. "(COVID-19 and the flu) together could cause a lot of problems."</p><p>Spinner said the best way to prevent spreading and becoming infected with COVID-19 or the flu is to wear a mask and maintain social distancing.</p><p>"Wear a mask anytime you're around other people, especially when you're inside," Spinner said. "When you're around groups of people, you should be wearing a mask. Period. That's the number one best preventative."</p><p>In the meantime, McGuire said she and her son are adjusting to new habits to protect others around them, such as wearing masks and frequently sanitizing their hands anytime they go out.</p><p>"We're all navigating this together," McGuire said. "I think everybody's doing the best they can with what they have." </p><p><br/></p><p><strong>More on schools:</strong></p>
<h2><a href="https://austonia.com/eanes-and-del-valle-schools-reopen" target="_self">Two very different area school districts approach the same challenge: Educating in a pandemic</a></h2>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDM4NDU3Mi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNDAzMjA5MH0.EZ_569_wM3MRyzdGP52DuKD2jsxnhJ-5YymJrHgEBz0/img.png?width=980" id="1f66c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ce75037acd24e3b8a922449de14b8039" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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(Stock Photo)
After weeks of sustained decline, the Austin area is seeing a slight increase in the number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases, which local health authorities attributed to spread among older children and young adults.
<p>"We are no longer plateaued, no longer decreasing, but increasing over the past 11 days," Austin-Travis County Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott said during his weekly City Council briefing.</p><p>Travis County reported a seven-day moving average of 69.6 daily new confirmed cases on Sept. 3, the lowest it had been since early June. Since then, however, that average has increased to 105.4. </p><p>Escott attributed this change to increased transmission among children and young adults, pointing to rising positivity rates among high school and college students. </p><p>The positivity rate among 10-to-19-year-olds tested for COVID-19 in Travis County has increased over the last four weeks, Escott said, and is now significantly higher—12% to 14%—than the overall positivity rate, which was 4.8% for tests conducted last week. </p><p>The highest positivity rate recorded by Austin Public Health is among high school students, Escott said, followed by college students.</p><p>On Saturday, 95 University of Texas at Austin students tested positive for COVID-19 when trying to gain entry to the Longhorns' game. The university required the 1,198 students who attended to get tested prior to entering the stadium; the resulting positivity rate was 7.9%. </p><p>Because UT Austin used rapid antigen tests, however, those positive results are not counted toward the county caseload and are instead considered "probable," as per CDC guidelines. </p><p>Despite the uptick in the local daily caseload, the average number of daily COVID hospital admissions has declined over the same period; since Sept. 3, it has dropped from 18 to 14.8. Escott said this is explained by the increase in cases among school-age residents, who have a very low risk of requiring hospitalization. </p><p>"As we see younger people getting infections, our case numbers are going to increase. But the risk of hospitalizations being dramatically less than for older adults, we can see that increase in cases but not expect to see an increase in hospitalizations," he said.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5a7a51eb8ff98851d6080b3514d38205" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="8ea03" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDMwNTkwMC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MzQwMjc3NX0.4vKuSi7i52rZejeD-MwewOvGqP-EJlAMlwPOv7UsrjU/img.png?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">The average number of COVID-19 hospitalizations continues to decline, despite the slight uptick in new confirmed cases.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">(Austin Public Health)</small></p><p><br/></p><p><span></span>Although the risk of hospitalization remains much lower for younger people with COVID, they pose a risk to others, who may be more likely to require hospitalization—or even of dying—from the disease. </p><p>As a result, Escott urged high school and college students, especially, to avoid risky behavior, such as socializing in groups. </p><p>"We have to make sure that that disease does not spread beyond that age group," he said. </p>
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(Jordan Vonderhaar)
Students sit distanced from one another in the lunch room at Jacob's Well Elementary School in Wimberley.
By Aliyya Swaby and Emma Platoff
On a normal first day of school, Texas children would wake up early to cram into school buses, eager to huddle and chat with their friends in the hallways before streaming toward their classrooms.
<p>On Tuesday, as many of the state's biggest urban and suburban districts return for their first day of in-person instruction, there is anxiety mingled with that excitement. Many parents will not be allowed to walk their kindergarteners inside for their first day. Teenagers will be shooed away if they congregate around their lockers. Meals will be grab-and-go, often eaten in classrooms instead of raucous cafeterias. Students and teachers will wear masks, trying to stay as far apart from one another as possible even as they come together for the first time in months.</p><p>Many kids will not be entering their schools at all. Some of the state's biggest districts, including Houston and Dallas independent school districts, will not open their classrooms for in-person learning until late September or October, and they may even ask the state for more time if the virus isn't under control.</p><p>In-person instruction will look very different from campus to campus. Some districts will bring students back in phases, starting with those who most need in-person education, like students with disabilities or those learning English. In San Antonio's North East ISD, no more than five students will be in each classroom this week. Other districts are welcoming back all students who opted for in-person instruction at the same time.</p><p>Only about half of Seguin ISD's students are expected to head into classrooms Tuesday morning for the first day of in-person instruction. They will walk past thermal scanners, which can measure the body temperature of about 30 people at a time and detect fevers that may be signs of illness. Middle and high school students will sit in desks spread apart, in many cases less than 6 feet with dividers, and younger students will be separated by dividers at large round tables.</p><p>Most teachers will be simultaneously instructing 12 to 16 students in their classrooms and more at home tuning in from cellphones or laptops. Some teachers will sit in empty classrooms and broadcast lessons to 20 or 30 students. A small number who have health conditions or young children received waivers to teach virtually from their homes.</p><p>"Things are ever changing. The one thing I've appreciated that stayed constant was the interest in students returning has been at 50%," Superintendent Matthew Gutierrez said of his 7,200-student district east of San Antonio. "I believe that we can safely social distance at that number in our buildings."</p><p>Parent interest in in-person instruction varies greatly across the state. In some hard-hit parts of the state, like Mercedes ISD in South Texas, the vast majority of parents are opting for virtual learning. In Texarkana's Bowie County, where coronavirus cases have stayed relatively low, most Maud ISD parents have already sent their kids to school in person.</p><p>Local health authorities continue to clash with school districts over whether it's safe to open, concerned that Labor Day festivities could lead to higher case numbers, as Memorial Day did this spring. Fort Bend County health officials sent Katy ISD a letter in late July urging it not to open classrooms or start extracurricular activities "before late September in the vast majority of cases," until the "effect of the Labor Day holiday can be determined."</p><p>Katy ISD, which has schools in Fort Bend, Harris and Waller counties, plans to reopen classrooms Tuesday.</p><p>When schools were forced by the pandemic to hurriedly switch to virtual learning in the spring, most Texas districts didn't require teachers to conduct live virtual lessons, but more are attempting that type of instruction this year. That means many teachers will have to simultaneously instruct two groups of students: those in front of them, and those watching from their iPads and laptops.</p><p>In Seguin ISD, most of the lessons will also be recorded for students who couldn't find time to log in and watch live, important in a district with 71% low-income students, Gutierrez said. "You have parents that have multiple jobs. They're shift workers. To expect that our students are going to go through their entire day at home alongside the face-to-face learners is really unreasonable when they don't have that support, that structure or that supervision at home. They would be missing out on instruction."</p><p>He acknowledged that those students will be missing out on the benefits of live instruction: having a teacher correct their pronunciation of a challenging word or being able to ask questions about a complex math problem in real time.</p><p>Austin ISD starts virtually Tuesday and plans to open classrooms in early October. Eight-year-old Isla Arb will start third grade at Graham Elementary School online Tuesday and will continue virtually to avoid endangering her grandmother, who has cancer, said her mother, Katie Arb. Both Katie Arb and her husband work full time, so they hired another mother to watch Isla and her 4-year-old sibling on weekdays. They're paying her about $15 per hour, as well as paid sick leave and vacation, replacing some of the pay she had received as a dental hygienist before the pandemic.</p><p>"The bulk of her responsibilities are going to be to keep the 4-year-old away from our 8-year-old," Katie Arb said.</p><p>Isla is excited about getting to wear a unicorn onesie to virtual school every day at the messy desk in her bedroom. But she got quiet when she thought about her classmates and teachers returning to campus in October. "I don't want them to get coronavirus," she said sadly.</p><p>Even students who return to Austin ISD's campuses will effectively be learning virtually. When she goes back to school in early October, Austin ISD high school theater teacher Rachel Seney will sit in a classroom, with a mask on, leading a virtual class through musical numbers or dramatic exercises. Students spread 6 feet apart will sit in front of her on their laptops, each one completing assignments or watching a different teacher deliver instruction.</p><p>Students will spend nearly the entire day, including lunch, in one classroom, a plan intended to reduce the public health risks during a pandemic. If one child or staff member gets infected, it will be easy to trace exactly who they were in contact with — meaning there's no need to shut down entire campuses or districts.</p><p>Seney, who teaches at predominantly white and high-income Anderson High School, said she sees the model as more equitable since all students end up learning virtually in some way. "You're not teaching equitably if you have some students in front of you and some students online. Now that some schools have started going back and are using that model, I'm already seeing it's not happening," she said. "It's not really effective."</p><p>Her sister Blair Seney will be doing just that at Cypress Falls High School in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, miles away in Harris County's suburbs. A special education educator, she helps modify assignments or provide extra time on testing for students with disabilities alongside a primary classroom teacher.</p><p>"We're expected to teach at the same time the kids that are in the classroom who don't have access to technology and the students at home who are on the computer," Blair Seney said. She has been a constant agitator for more safety requirements in schools and more flexibility for teachers terrified to return in person. In August, she stood in the back of a school board meeting with a sign that said, "Your attendance is required at my funeral," while her mother, also a teacher at the school, spoke at the public hearing. That month, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD teachers <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Teachers-union-drops-suit-against-Cy-Fair-ISD-15498512.php" target="_blank">unsuccessfully sued</a> the district, asking not to be required to report to their campuses for training.</p><p>About 42% of students have decided to attend school in person, according to a district survey. Often, Blair Seney pulls students into her office, a tiny storage closet with no ventilation, for one-on-one assistance. "I'm not sure how that's going to work," she said. "It is definitely a thought that's keeping me up at night, trying to figure out how we're going to make all this work."</p><p>Health precautions vary among districts and schools. Under Gov. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/greg-abbott/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Greg Abbott</a>'s order, everyone over the age of 10 must wear a mask. But guidance from the Texas Education Agency leaves districts largely on their own to design protections against a virus that spreads undetected in as many as 40% of those who have it. In many districts, maintaining 6 feet of distance among students will simply not be possible.</p><p>"It's very scattershot," said Monty Exter, a lobbyist for the Association of Texas Professional Educators. "There's a huge variation in the policies that are being put in place within districts to protect the health and safety of educators, from physical structures to logistics to access to [personal protective equipment]. Absolutely there have been districts that say, 'Here's your two gloves and your mask, that's all you're getting.'"</p><p>In Houston-area Humble ISD, where kids have been back in classrooms since late August, "it has been surprisingly normal," said Timbers Elementary School fifth grade teacher Stacey Ward. "Question mark?"</p><p>The 10- and 11-year-olds who tramp in for Ward's science and social studies classes have been surprisingly compliant about wearing their masks, though she sometimes has to remind them, with a single word — "mask!" or "nose" — to ensure the fabric covers their noses, too. Every other student sits behind a plexiglass barrier, spaced out as far apart as possible, but with 18 to 20 students per class, it has not been possible to keep 6 feet among them.</p><p>Instruction stops five minutes early so kids can wipe down their desks. Ward collects their books at the end of the day. There is no sharing of supplies.</p><p>And Ward has made one more adjustment. Typically, when students enter or exit her classroom, they get three options: high-five, hug or handshake.</p><p>This year, she's pivoted: "Now, it's an elbow, a knee or a foot," she said in a phone interview after her fourth day of in-person school. Elbow bumps are the runaway favorite.</p><p>Afterward, the students know to take a squirt of hand sanitizer. "It's normal to them now," she said.</p><p><em>ProPublica's Mollie Simon contributed reporting.</em></p><p><em><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Texas Tribune</a> is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. </em></p><p><strong style="">More on schools:</strong></p>
<h2><a href="https://austonia.com/eanes-and-del-valle-schools-reopen" target="_self">Two very different area school districts approach the same challenge: Educating in a pandemic</a></h2>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzc4ODkzMy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzI4MDMyMX0.wdzfqmuW_8R0b91KTlmH7Spejh282Z3z1q0b6DtwCDs/img.png?width=980" id="b5c57" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="90985426a54995f6c4b266de93b6f3be" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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(Syda Productions/Adobe)
Louis, an Austin business owner and father, knows three couples right now who are getting divorced.
With his own 20-year marriage on the rocks, he would, in other times, be joining their ranks. But he's been furloughed and their kid is about to start college.
<p>The idea of a second rent and more emotional wreckage sounds, to Louis, even less attractive than staying in a bad marriage for a few more months. </p><p>"There are a lot of people that are logistically married right now," Louis said, asking that his last name not be used to protect his family's privacy. "That's probably the camp I would put us in, depending on the day." </p><p>Stories of strained relationships abound during the pandemic, and the numbers of divorces being filed in Travis County, according to court records, have been increasing every month since April, the first full month of the shutdown and shelter-in-place rules.</p><p>But, due to a confluence of factors unique to these times, only half the number of local couples are filing for divorce now than they were at this time last year. Instead, they're choosing to ride out the storm together, for better or for worse. At least for now.</p><p>In Travis County, divorces from March through June dropped from 5,334 in 2019 to 2,802 for the same period this year. <br/>In neighboring Williamson County, divorces are down from 2,022 to 1,322 for the same period.</p><p><br/></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5608fa06d2e60cdf6bcc425784f8a82c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="4a512" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU4MTIwMS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxODMzNjM0MX0.JC_jtVrCjjPJGHCEXjlydj8cPqd9QydUwyIY2boSiTM/img.png?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Data on divorce filings provided by the head of court administration for Travis County.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">(Data courtesy of Kirker Davis)</small></p><p><br/></p><p>Austin family attorney Holly Davis said calls to her firm about family problems exacerbated by the pandemic have been "off the charts," so much so that they had to hire extra attorneys. </p><p>But court delays, financial hardships and logistical problems mean fewer couples are heading into divorce court, she said.</p><p>Courts have been "very good" about responding to families in abusive situations, but non-emergency hearings like deciding who pays the bills are being delayed for weeks or months, she said. </p><p>Simple logistics also plays a role, she said. It's more difficult to move and find a place to live, stay with family members who may be compromised healthwise, and run a household alone. </p><p>Right now, for example, when most kids are being schooled at home, a second pair of hands can be a lifeline. </p><p>"It's Hunger Games out there for nannies right now," Davis said, "and our schools are saying they don't know when they're going to let our kids back in. So if you're trying to run logistics for your household and you're about to split up the house, you're losing half of your help."</p><p>Davis and Ashley both predict an increase in filings when times return to normal, and Louis will likely be among them. </p><p>The pandemic, he said, revealed long-time problems that he can't ignore by traveling for work all the time now that he's stuck at home on furlough.</p><p>"We're at an impasse," he said. "And I won't go back to the status quo." </p><p>Part of the phenomenon, Davis said, is that couples are being more thoughtful about the decision to divorce. It's a shift in perspective, in a culture that views divorce as a relatively quick solution to marital problems. </p><p>"When your personal health is at risk, and you've got social injustice and racism and protests," Davis said, "the fact that your husband leaves towels on the floor, and has never really loved you in the way that you want to be loved, gets put on the back burner."</p><p>And for those who started the pandemic in a healthy marriage, tensions can turn into relationship-builders, said Austin marriage and family therapist Leigh Ashley. <br/></p><p>"This kind of thing can expose a weakness, but then those folks that have the skills and the outlook and the camaraderie built, this can just be one of those seasons that actually gives them new and deeper history together," Ashley said.</p><p>For Austin public-relations executive Jason Stanford, the pandemic gave them new communications skills and a fresh appreciation for their partnership—strengthening an already solid 10-year marriage.</p><p>"Having a person who has promised to look out for you through thick and thin comes in pretty damned handy in a pandemic, come to find out," he said.</p>
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Two very different area school districts approach the same challenge: Educating in a pandemic
24 August
(Pexels)
In the hills of West Austin, bordered by the Colorado River and Barton Creek, Eanes ISD schools ease back into the school year with a stockpile of student laptops and tablets and a bevy of teachers at ease with virtual learning tools.
<p>Across town, on the more economically diverse East side, Del Valle ISD has less experience with online learning, having to start from scratch: First make sure all students have WiFi and get them laptops, then teach the teachers how to run virtual classrooms. </p><p>As the school year gets underway in the Austin area, local schools all face the same challenge: Educating kids during a pandemic. How they address them depends on their resources and the priorities of the families in the district. Aside from some guiding principles, the state has largely allowed each district to work within the needs of their communities. </p><p>A look at two Austin districts that are economically and demographically different from each other provides a glimpse into what some of those differences are, and how schools are approaching a struggle they all share.</p><p><br/></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f674ae364503f3712dc6d61a4d01feec" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="7dd2b" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3NzQ5Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODEyNjI0M30.eqfmSEDWV1kQ2mRB8g4wdEfgWAnl4p6QZUDIx7UKLus/img.png?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">(According to 2018-2019 data)</small></p><p><br/></p><p>On Wednesday, Eanes ISD welcomed its 8,000 students back for online learning. Eanes Superintendent Tom Leonard said after three weeks the district will transition to in-person instruction for students with the most needs, up to 25% capacity.<br/></p><p>"We're going to have to be agile and flexible and have to adapt to different governing agencies, whether it be TEA, the governor, the county or the city," Leonard said. "If conditions and stages get better, we'll bring in more kids. If conditions and stages get worse, we've got a plan to go back the other way."</p><p>In a district survey taken earlier this month, 61% of Eanes parents said they want their children to return to in-person learning as soon as the option is available to them. The other 39% of Eanes parents opted for continued virtual learning, although some parents are <a href="https://www.statesman.com/news/20200708/eanes-parents-explore-options-as-they-prepare-for-students-to-learn-at-home" target="_blank"><u>considering forming learning pods</u></a> of students on their own. However, that practice can be expensive, and usually considered a solution only for more well-off families, with some exceptions. </p><p>In the event that in-person classes are shut down, the students will be able to transition fairly easily because, as Leonard said, his district is "blessed" to have had virtual learning for a long time and students supplied with laptops and tablets for a decade.</p><p>"Our kids all have devices," Leonard said. "Our teachers have always been using different software and different online materials, so it is not as big of a leap for us to function in a remote setting as it has been for some other school districts." </p><p>That would include Del Valle ISD, which spent the summer scrambling to get technology to students, training its teachers and prioritizing school-based resources for students in need, said Ana Rush, Del Valle ISD's executive director of academics and accountability.</p><p>"We want to make sure that the lessons themselves are rigorous and engaging and that we're closing the gaps … that the students may have," Rush said. "We want to make sure they're still progressing academically."</p><p>The district is staying online for the first eight weeks of school, which started last Monday. Some 15% of the district's nearly 11,000 families did not have reliable internet access at home. To remedy that, the district surveyed several companies to provide hotspots for everyone.</p><p>"Right now we're ... at 99.9% connectivity through WiFi and through the hotspots, which we did not have in the spring," Rush said. "And that's something we were able to solve to make sure that we started the school year with all the students being able to connect." </p><p>A sizeable percentage of their students also use lunch programs and counseling services, so district officials spent much of their prep time arranging for students to have access to those resources, Rush said.</p><p>On the in-person vs. online choice, Del Valle parents are split right down the middle. Half want to send their kids back to school at the earliest opportunity, many because they are essential workers, Rush said.</p><p>But the other half fear exposure to a family member if their child goes to school. Eighty-five percent of Del Valle ISD's students are Hispanic, a demographic that has been <a href="https://austonia.com/covid-19-latino-disparity" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow" target="_blank">hit especially hard by COVID-19</a> in Texas and nationwide. </p><p>Naila Martinez, 36, said her kids received their devices from the school, which helped her in her decision to keep her 5th grader and high schooler, both asthmatic, at home for online school. </p><p>"With flu season, their asthma flares up already, especially the fifth grader, and just imagine in the middle of this pandemic with these symptoms of COVID and the regular flu overlapping—it's just going to be mayhem if any one of them goes to school," Martinez said. "I'm always going to have that fear hanging over me, like what if they get COVID?" </p>
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(Karen Brooks Harper/Austonia)
My son in his living-room-classroom-ish setting, on Friday, wrapping up his first week of online kindergarten.
We had questions. So, so many questions.
None of them, incidentally, about how we would manage at-home learning for our soon-to-be kindergartner.
<p>Our decision to do online-only learning for our 5-year-old in his very first semester in public school—fraught though it was with universally disappointing options—was, logistically at least, a no-brainer. Our family of three includes two parents who can work flexible schedules from home.</p><p>My questions were more about <em>the actual thing</em> of virtual kindergarten.</p><p>Having not attended kindergarten in four decades, his dad and I are relative "noobs," as my son says, to the entire process. We had no idea what time school started, how lunch works, or what classwork he'd do. </p><p>And now that he'd be doing this new thing online for the first nine weeks, we had questions on top of our first questions.</p><p>What would virtual learning look like? How does he get evaluated? Can he use a tablet (YES and I highly recommend it)? How much interaction would there be? How structured? How will they count attendance? How early does it start? How many assignments? What about P.E., music, art? Will my son figure out all the apps? How much screen time would he be getting each day?</p><p>(This last one admittedly, was slightly less scary given the amount of screen time he became, ahem, <em>used to</em> during the summer quarantine.) </p><p>I couldn't count on, thankfully, the horror stories I'd heard in the spring when school first went virtual because I knew in my gut that at least a few of the virtual-classroom kinks would be worked out by August.</p><p>Most students in Austin won't start online classes until Sept. 8 and may wind up doing an additional eight weeks after that. But we are in Pflugerville ISD, which means our son started his first day of kindergarten (milestone!) on Aug. 13.</p><p>Now that we've wrapped up our first official full week of online kindergarten, we have our answers. And we are relieved. They're not bad answers. </p><p>And I'm happy to show you my answers, if for no other benefit than to satisfy some level of your curiosity about what your own district might do.</p><p>This is how online kindergarten is playing out for us:</p>
First contact
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3NDI5My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNDQ4Mzk0Nn0.xpulMY-egnrozxG-A62o4VKUUc0kJ40QghTfBLbbQjs/img.jpg?width=980" id="bd1fe" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ca6f43afcb80b1d1cdab233942fd3f93" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>Our teacher called us on Friday, Aug. 6 to introduce herself, and by Monday night's virtual school and class orientations, we had email instructions with a schedule, Zoom codes and SeeSaw, the additional learning app we'd need ("right now," the teacher qualifies, hinting at more later). </p><p>The intro with his teacher and class was about a dozen kindergartners making faces into the camera, introducing themselves and giggling at each other. My son had a blast. By the first day of school on Thursday morning, we were set up with the apps and ready to learn. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.</p>The technology
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3NDI5MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTk0OTY4NX0.162HvIl_nnTvyG7LfdRJt58ZeRTXOeTsGeZwYhwl48A/img.jpg?width=980" id="ec730" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5a50027c8ebca1e8e84ff7ce6e840c4f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>At the last minute, we decided to drop off our son at Grammy's house for a few days, so it fell to her to log him into the Zoom class and SeeSaw for the first two days of school. Grammy is smart and tough, but she still has a flip phone and can't make Facetime work. With us three hours away, Grammy got him logged in for every meeting and all his assignments done. </p><p>Now, after a week (and back home), my son can find Zoom and SeeSaw, turn in his assignments, use the art tools, drag and drop, play the videos, take pictures and record audio and video in SeeSaw, and manipulate Zoom like a pro. So for those worried about overly complicated technology, you got this. One thing that helped: The first week's assignments were designed mainly to help them practice the technology. Realize that the school will be forgiving with tech issues in the first few weeks. Don't panic.</p>The schedule
<p><span></span>An hour on Zoom and very loose deadlines on assignments each day. In a nod to parents who can't be committed every hour, the schedule is mostly fluid. My son watches a 3-minute recorded morning video from his teacher and does a little "morning work" before his day starts with a Zoom class at 8:30 a.m. His class meets again at 11:30 each morning. On Fridays, there's an extra 50 minutes on Zoom for PE/Music/Art at 1 p.m. and another extra 30 minutes at 2 p.m. for science and social studies. </p><p>Collectively, it's less than seven Zoom hours per week. One thing I can say: This technology is not going to go away, so if he gets good at communicating with people and increasing his attention span on this type of platform, he can only benefit. There is already a vast improvement in these skills just in the first week.<span></span></p>The assignments
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3NDI5NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzAwMzEwOX0.96mdEbrsDo-FS_ehUKCpbzVBizWolP3EDahvh8pNGos/img.jpg?width=980" id="45937" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e64372cfc76321c8b02e50440a47fc45" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Make a picture out of the shapes (math)
Screenshot: Karen Brooks Harper
<p>He has about six activities to turn in per day, with longer-term projects due each week. His activities are things like recording a show-and-tell video, or reading comprehension or making shapes on his iPad. </p><p>The assignments are uploaded throughout the day and we can do them at any point (we often do social studies and reading right before bed). He has P.E., music and art projects due on Fridays (uploaded). P.E. assignments come out three times a week, and this week included animal-inspired exercises, warm-ups on Go Noodle and health classes.</p><p>Each day he is also required to read for 10 minutes, write or draw in his journal, get 60 minutes of physical activity (which means we do, too, which is harder than we care to admit) and count to 20. Most of the assignments only take a few minutes, and he does them without our help. Usually.</p>Feedback and interaction
<p>His attendance is counted through his Zoom meetings and assignments in SeeSaw, but they're flexible under extenuating circumstances. On every assignment, the teachers record personal feedback using his name. He loves it. Way better than a generic "way to go!" that she could do for everyone, and we'd never know it. In the meetings, the teacher will engage them: "Who can tell me how they're feeling today?" They raise their hands and get called on, just like they would in class. </p><p>Surprisingly, the kindergartners understand the dynamic and by the end of the first week, this type of interaction seemed normal to our son, too. Shocking, considering he's worse at Facetime than Grammy.</p>In conclusion
<p>Now that we've seen how hard they work to make it interesting, and how well (enough) it seems to be working for our son, we are far less worried about the next nine weeks.</p><p>Will he learn as much as he might have in person? Perhaps not. Are we lucky that we can be there to guide him through this? Absolutely, and probably luckier than most in that regard.</p><p>Will there be any permanent damage to his social skills and schooling? Nah. It's all temporary damage, I think.</p><p>There is enough structure to drive us through the day, yet not so much that it's stifling. It beats the heck out of the directionless days we dealt with over the summer. And something else helps my perspective on this disappointing year: We are getting a very rare inside look at what our son is doing at school every day. It's like we're sitting in the back of his class. And that may never happen again after this semester.</p><p>It's a gift, truly. A consolation prize, perhaps, more than a silver lining. </p><p>But we'll take it.</p><p><em><strong>Start every day with a quick look at what's happening in Austin. Sign up for Austonia.com's free daily morning email.</strong></em></p>
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