Some Maryland schools already teaching in-person
In-person learning working on a small scale, some parents push for more
While many school districts in the D.C. region have decided to forgo in-person learning and start the school year virtually, there are some schools that have already been teaching in-person this summer.
WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) - While many school districts in the D.C. region have decided to forgo in-person learning and start the school year virtually, there are some schools that have already been teaching in-person this summer.
Maryland State Superintendent Dr. Karen Salmon mentioned it Wednesday.
“We did have some counties that did that and they had excellent results,” Salmon said. “And I was so proud of some of our non-public special education schools who also opened.”
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A spokeswoman for Maryland State Dept. of Education said Frederick and Charles counties are doing a hybrid of in-person and virtual summer school and Worcester and Garrett counties are doing completely in-person summer school.
One of the non-public schools Salmon referred to is The Harbour School which is teaching about 50 special needs students at each of their campuses in Annapolis and Baltimore.
“It’s really gone very, very well,” said Dr. Linda Jacobs, executive director of the school. “To be candid, there were concerns from families and staff, but those concerns were very quickly mitigated by the actual experience.”
Jacobs said there are only about five students to a classroom.
”Everybody has to wear a mask or a face shield,” she said. “We take their temperature. There are touchless sanitizers throughout the building. The building is fogged every day.”
Jacobs said so far there have been no COVID-19 cases. She said especially for students with disabilities, in-person education is critical.
“It is an equation,” Jacobs said. “On one side of the seesaw is health risks, on the other side of the seesaw is educational costs to the child of distance-learning. And that seesaw has to be balanced.”
RELATED: DC officials delay school decision based on new COVID-19 data
In D.C., leaders are teetering right now trying to come up with a plan.
A group of parents and teachers are advocating for in-person learning outside.
”Especially for early grades, we believe there are a ton of benefits for learning outdoors,” said Scott Goldstein a D.C. teacher who heads EmpowerEd, a teachers advocacy group.
He said school system leaders have been receptive to the idea. Goldstein said they want to wait until there are declines in covid-19 cases before moving forward, but is hopeful they could start as soon as September if numbers are moving in the right direction
“There are parents, especially those less privileged and without the resources to hire a private tutor or nanny, who really need solutions to make sure, especially those essential workers who have to work, need a solution for their kids to receive care and quality education in-person,” Goldstein said.
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