Thats the landscape on which schools are planning their fall reopenings. You cant always get to the school board meeting. Parents are crossing their fingers that this year will be more straightforward than the last. Pre-kindergarten instructor Angela Panush helps a student with his lunch as others in the classroom eat at their desks on the first day of in-person learning at Dawes Elementary School in Chicago in January. Realistically, schools will have a problem reopening fully and staying open continuously this fall, Robin Lake, the director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, which tracks schools reopening strategies, tweeted last week. Some students with medical conditions who are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine or who arent under quarantine order may meet criteria for home or hospital instruction. David Wendeln, the father of a fully remote kindergartner, said he agreed with many premises of the resolution supporting the benefits of in-person learning, but that he did not agree with its mandate. Mowray's hope is that her son will stay in the classroom this year, and not switch back to remote learning. Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more. He said he would not feel comfortable sending his son to first grade in person without the vaccine. School closures and shifts to remote instruction are quickly becoming less common as COVID case rates drop in many states. As she pushes for community members to receive their vaccines, Johnson says its essential for the district to reopen classrooms. He attended Irving elementary school and he graduated from Morton East High School in 1953. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. From the perches where experts monitor how well schools are prepared to manage the coronavirus, the picture grows darker daily. Although rates are still low compared to the pandemics height, infections are rising across the state, with the Delta variant making up a growing share of cases. Sixth through eighth grade Chicago Public Schools students returned for in-person learning. Of Illinois 849 school districts, 423 are providing blended or hybrid learning, 398 are fully in person and only 28 are fully remote, according to state data updated May 3. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var a in e.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r