HARTFORD, Conn — As school districts around the state continue to discuss their reopening plans,, teachers, parents, and students still have a lot of questions.
This morning, one group out of New Haven will be taking its concerns to the state capitol with a car caravan that starts at 11 a.m. Thursday.
The car caravan will go past the capitol, the legislative office building, and the governor’s residence. They have a list of demands for the governor and the education commissioner about reopening schools.
One of the demands calls for a fully-funded safe return to school. That includes phasing in in-person learning after starting off fall 2020 with distance learning, training for teachers to do distance learning, and adequate funding to ensure PPE for everyone and cleaning costs are covered.
Right now, Connecticut is still planning for a full re-opening of schools in the fall. That plan involves students and staff wearing face masks throughout the day, social distancing in the classroom, hallways, and on the bus, and extra cleaning and sanitizing.
Any parents who may not feel ready to send their children back to school do have the option to keep kids home for online learning.
RELATED: Connecticut State Department of Education releases FAQ for parents about the plan to reopen schools
Some parents have said they do plan on keeping their children home, and some have said it’s going to depend on the child.
Michelle Rawcliffe, Emma Woodard, Carmen Yiamouyiannis, and Abbie O’Brien are all parents of children faced with an uncertain future come September.
O’Brien’s three children attend West Hartford public school, two in elementary and one in high school, all three she said adjusted differently to online learning.
“My oldest son definitely did not take to online learning. He does have ADD and even if I told him to take his medicine, it was just not a good environment for him to try and focus on a teacher online and my youngest son who's eight really needs socialization. He's a very happy kid and I saw him turn very bitter and then my daughter did really well, she's in the middle,” O’Brien said.
Yiamouyiannis is also from West Hartford and said she is ready to send her twin boys back to high school.
“They didn't really enjoy the online component and it wasn't honestly that rigorous,” Yiamouyiannis said.
Emma is a teacher in Manchester and a single mother to an incoming first grader who will attend school in Farmington this school year.
“I'm looking at it from both angles, from a parent, and from a teaching component, and wholeheartedly agree she needs socialization. There's just something so valuable and tangible in the classroom, that I would love for her to experience,” Woodard said.
Rawcliffe is also a teacher and mom from Woodstock.
“We don't become teachers for the money or to sit in front of a computer. We become teachers to empower our students to live the best quality of life that they could possibly live and that's a really hard thing to do over a computer,” Rawcliffe said.
Yiamouyiannis said she isn’t too concerned about her son returning to the classroom and no one in their household has health conditions making them vulnerable to COVID-19. Although O’Brien has a different story.
“I actually have stage four cancer So, the meds that I'm on currently don't plummet my immune system as much as previous drugs did which is great, but I think it's important for them to go back,” O’Brien said.