Return to school in Chicago takes step forward, while Philadelphia turns to mediator

Chicago's teachers union on Monday was reviewing a compromise plan on COVID-19 safety proposed by the school district that could allow in-person classes to resume, as Philadelphia school district agreed to let a mediator decide when classrooms could safely reopen there. The Chicago Teachers Union's leadership is expected to decide on Monday night whether to send the plan to its 28,000 rank and file members for a vote on Tuesday. If approved, the plan would avert either a threatened lockout by the third largest U.S. school district or a strike by teachers, who have demanded stronger protocols to prevent the spread of the virus in classrooms.

The deal would allow for 67,000 students to gradually return to school buildings over the next month, starting with pre-kindergarten and special education pupils later this week. Across the nation, pressure to reopen or expand in-person learning has been building, with the negative impacts of remote learning on education and family life becoming more apparent as time passes. As a consequence, a debate over how and when to safely re-open schools, many of them closed since the pandemic began last spring, has become heated in many districts.

"We'll get there," American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten wrote on Twitter on Monday, referring a full return to the classroom nationwide. "But we need the resources, the plan and roadmap, and the basic safety precautions we've been asking for since April." In Philadelphia, the district backed down on its order that some 2,000 pre-kindergarten through second-grade teachers to their classrooms return to the classroom on Monday to prepare for students coming back on Feb. 22. Instead of disciplining teachers who failed to show up, the district said it would allow an independent arbitrator to decide when classrooms could safely reopen.

"There is a lot of uncertainty about the process of re-opening," said Pennsylvania State Senator Nikil Saval on a Twitter video as he protested with Philadelphia teachers outside his child's school. "We want an eventual return to schools but only when it is safe ... for teachers and students." President Joe Biden on Sunday addressed the issue on Sunday, describing school closures and their negative impact on families as a national emergency. During a Super Bowl interview on CBS, Biden said it was time for schools to reopen if they can do it safely, with fewer people in classrooms and proper ventilation.

"I think about the price so many of my grandkids and ... kids are going to pay for not having had the chance to finish whatever it was," he said. "They are going for a lot, these kids." Leading health organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have said there is little evidence that schools contribute to the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 460,000 people in the United States since the pandemic began.

In Michigan, more than 350 physicians and psychologists signed a letter to Ann Arbor Schools officials urging the resumption of in-person classes by March 1. They warned of the "harmful impact of delayed school reopening on our community." Dr. Kim Monroe, a pediatrician who helped organize the Michigan effort, told radio station WEMU, "We are seeing so much mental illness in children due to the virtual schooling."

In Atlanta, third through fifth grade students went back to school on Monday after prekindergarten through second grade returned to schools on Jan. 25. In New York City, in-person classes in the nation's largest school system will resume for middle school students on Feb. 25. About half of the public school system's 471 middle schools will offer five-day-a-week classroom learning with the remainder working toward that goal, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said at a press briefing.

"If we're in an environment where the city is overwhelmingly vaccinated, we're able to bring school back as it was. Same physical proportions. Same number of kids in classrooms," De Blasio said, adding he hopes to have all schools back to full-time in-person learning in the fall.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)