Barrington 220 Superintendent Robert Hunt, his second grade daughter Emmie Hunt, 7, center, and their neighbor, Hadley Crowley, 8, put on masks as they walk to school on the first day of school at Grove Avenue Elementary School, Aug. 20, 2021, in Barrington. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
As Illinois schools welcome students back to fully reopened classrooms this month amid another coronavirus surge, educators face a thorny question: How do you teach students who are quarantined by COVID-19?
The dismantling of pandemic-era remote and hybrid instruction programs across the U.S. this fall arrives by state proclamation and on the urging of U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, who earlier this summer said, “Schools have shown that they can — and should — be offering in-person learning opportunities five days a week to every student.”
Remote instruction can be offered to students while they are under quarantine, Illinois State Board of Education Superintendent Carmen Ayala said earlier this summer. But despite pleas from some parents who want a full-time e-learning option to continue, districts including Chicago Public Schools are reserving their virtual programs for students who qualify as medically fragile and have documented health conditions.
Some teachers and parents are applauding the full return to in-person learning. But the abrupt halting of remote instruction — which last year allowed in-person students who tested positive for the virus to pivot swiftly to online classes — is forcing school districts to get creative this fall when it comes to teaching kids who need to quarantine.
Students at Barrington School District 220 will have the option to participate in the district’s Test to Stay Strategy. It will rely on a slate of authorized PCR or rapid antigen screenings from the date of an exposure to COVID-19, with close contacts permitted to remain in the classroom as long as the results are negative, according to the District 220 website.
The strategy can only be used when “both the COVID-19-confirmed case and close contact were engaged in consistent and correct use of well-fitting masks, regardless of vaccination status,” officials warned.
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