As some children head back to school after winter break, many may have different teachers or find unexpected changes to their learning environment.
More than 150 Boston public school teachers called out sick over the weekend, while in Chicago, teachers are preparing to strike over what they say are unsafe working conditions caused by a rise in COVID-19 cases.
Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius told WBTS that her district’s schools are set to return from winter break on Tuesday but that each school’s needs would be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
“If I have to go out and teach in the classroom, I’m going to do that,” Cassellius said. “But our goal is to keep classes going and keep students in-person.”
Cassellius said it was not clear how many students would be out sick on Tuesday. The district is also anticipating transportation issues.
In Chicago, the teachers union scheduled a vote for Tuesday to determine if its 25,000 members will refuse to return to the classroom, WBEZ reported. Some Chicago public schools were supposed to open Monday but moved to online learning without district approval.
In the past, the Chicago Teachers Union has resisted efforts to resume in-person learning. Last January, the union thwarted the district’s plan to reopen schools, even though studies have shown risk of viral spread in school settings to be extremely low.
Chicago Public Schools maintains the schools are safe for in-person learning, and the strike would put students at “increased health risk,” the Washington Free Beacon reported. Chicago students’ math and English scores dropped last year during various school adjustments due to the pandemic, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
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School officials across the state of Massachusetts are distributing at-home COVID-19 testing kits and KN-95 masks to schools. Some school districts across the state decided to open late, or later in the week, to allow time for the tests and masks to be delivered.
