缅因州波特兰——美国各地的学区都在为如何在被20世纪60年代彻底改变的环境中复课做出痛苦的决定冠状病毒流行病，校车满负荷运行，虚拟学习，户外教室和受感染儿童隔离协议成为新的规范。
即将到来的学年的计划正在一天一天地形成，并且随着地区、州和州的不同而变化。这些争论非常情绪化，家长和行政人员的情绪都很激动，并且由于每天报道的COVID-19病例的创纪录数量而变得更加令人恼火。
在佛罗里达州，一些学区希望学生在8月初回到教室，尽管病毒正在社区中肆虐。平均而言，佛罗里达州最近每天报告7000多例新病例，是一个月前的7倍多。
新墨西哥基本上没有发生大规模疫情，它计划采用虚拟和面对面学习的混合模式。纽约的家长要求学校在秋季重新开放。在缅因州，计划进行更多的户外学习。全国各地都在制定戴口罩的各种规定。有些人希望所有的学生都穿上它们。其他州，比如印第安纳州的马里恩县，计划将这一要求限制在年龄较大的孩子身上。
这些决定中的每一个都令人担忧，试图平衡健康问题和尽可能恢复正常。经过几个月的全职工作和全职家庭教育的折磨，父母们绝望地寻求帮助。与同龄人隔离的孩子们渴望社交。每个人，包括老师，都担心步入未知领域，对病毒仍有许多不确定性。
各地区担心是否有能力负担额外的供应——包括口罩和更多的公共汽车。学校官员说，病毒病例的重新出现可能会在计划实施之前就破坏其重新开放的计划。
哈佛全球健康研究所主任阿什什·贾博士在“福克斯周日新闻”节目中说:“如果我们看到大规模疫情在各个社区爆发，保持学校开放将非常困难。”“好消息是，我们认为孩子们传播较少。他们当然不太可能生病，但是...想象一下现在的亚利桑那州。如果学校现在就开放，它们将无法保持开放。”
艾梅·罗德里格斯·韦布是佐治亚州科布县的一名特殊教育教师，她正在努力解决自己的健康问题，同时等待着听到她所在地区的计划。她还有一个3岁的孩子。
“我喜欢待在教室里。今年我有了自己的教室，所以我期待着装饰它和其他一切，”她说。“但另一方面是...我不知道我在精神上是否准备好像那样踏入未知的世界。”
随着冠状病毒病例首次开始上升，美国各地的学校今年突然关闭。这导致了远程教育、即时在家教育的大杂烩，对一些家庭来说，根本没有任何学校。各地区现在正把重点放在如何创造更加结构化的环境上。
但是辩论充满了紧张。6月29日，在纽约罗切斯特附近，家长们集会支持全面开放学校，并在行政大楼外举着标语，上面写着:“没有普通学校?没有学校税!”
韦伯斯特市罗切斯特郊区的一位家长克里斯蒂娜·海克利(Christina Higley)说，她最初创建了一个脸书小组，要求得到答案，并对学校的样子有发言权，但那里的讨论引发了一场重开学校的运动。
“有很多家长在说，‘开放我们的学校，让我们自己决定，如果我们觉得把孩子送去合适的话，’”Higley说，他的孩子刚从幼儿园、三年级和五年级毕业。
在案件数量不断增加的地区，判决更加复杂。在佛罗里达州的海牛县，工作计划是让所有小学生在8月10日返回学校。年龄较大的学生将依赖虚拟学习，而他们将逐步回到实体学校。
但在感染人数激增的情况下，这一提议并非一成不变。该县在6月下旬的一天内记录了最高的新病例数。
学区发言人迈克·巴伯(Mike Barber)说，如果一名学生在新学年被检测出病毒呈阳性，那么教室或整栋建筑都需要消毒。确诊感染的学生和教职员工只有在两次检测呈阴性后才能返回。
与此同时，医学专家表达了对儿童发展和心理健康的担忧。美国儿科学会表示，它“强烈主张，下一学年的所有政策考虑都应该从让学生在学校身体力行的目标开始。”
在缅因州的伊丽莎白角，沙伊尔·诺里斯说，她特别关心那些可能在家里面临虐待的孩子，以及那些冒着失去工作来照顾孩子的父母。诺里斯有两个孩子将在秋季上高中，并经营一家打击性侵犯的非营利组织。
“有这么多同等重要的风险，我们完全关注COVID，”她说。“但我明白了。太可怕了。”
缅因州从未出现大规模疫情，现在平均每天报告几十起病例。尽管如此，该州最大的学校区波特兰仍保留了所有的选择:完全重新开放、部分重新开放或完全远程学习。
该区给家长们发了一封信，表示计划尽可能使用户外空间——鉴于缅因州的天气，这是一个一年只有几个月的解决方案。
为了让孩子们在校车上保持安全的距离，学区将需要更多的车辆——这对于学生长途旅行的农村地区来说是一个特别棘手的问题。根据国家教育部女发言人南希·马蒂拉的说法，新墨西哥已经发布了公交车应该以50%的载客量行驶的指导方针。
许多地区计划严重依赖联邦救助资金来支付额外的交通需求。
这一切加起来就是一个令人焦虑的学年开始。
邓肯·柯克伍德·丹尼尔说:“没有人真正制定出一个清晰的计划来保证孩子们的安全，尤其是那些不能整天与人保持距离的小孩，他们会去摸东西，摘下面具。”他9岁和11岁的女儿在纽约布法罗的应用技术特许学校上学。
Debates turn emotional as schools decide how and if to open
PORTLAND, Maine -- School districts across America are in the midst of making wrenching decisions over how to resume classes in settings radically altered by thecoronaviruspandemic, with school buses running below capacity, virtual learning, outdoor classrooms and quarantine protocols for infected children the new norm.
The plans for the upcoming school year are taking shape by the day, and vary district to district, state to state. The debates have been highly emotional, with tempers flaring among parents and administrators, and have been made all the more vexing by record numbers of COVID-19 cases being reported each day.
In Florida, some school districts want students back in the classroom in early August, even though the virus is surging through communities. On average, Florida has reported more than 7,000 new cases each day recently — more than seven times what it was reporting a month ago.
New Mexico, which has been largely spared major outbreaks, plans a hybrid model of virtual and in-person learning. Parents in New York have demanded schools reopen in the fall. And in Maine, more outdoor learning is planned. Districts nationwide are coming up with various rules for wearing masks. Some want all students to wear them. Others, such as Marion County, Indiana, plan to limit the requirement to older children.
Each of these decisions is fraught, trying to balance health concerns with clawing back as much normalcy as possible. Parents, wrung out after months of juggling full-time work and full-time home schooling, are desperate for help. Children, isolated from their peers, are yearning for social interaction. And everyone, including teachers, is concerned about stepping into the unknown, with so much still uncertain about the virus.
Districts are worried about being able to afford added supplies — including masks and more buses. And school officials said the resurgence of virus cases underway could shatter reopening plans before they’re even put in place.
“If we see large outbreaks happening across communities, it’s going to be very hard to keep schools open,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, on “Fox News Sunday.” “The good news is we think kids transmit less. They are certainly less likely to get sick, but ... imagine Arizona right now. If schools were open right now, they would not be able to stay open.”
Aimee Rodriguez Webb, a special education teacher in Cobb County, Georgia, is wrestling with her own health concerns while waiting to hear her district’s plans. She also has a 3 year old.
“I love being in the classroom. And this year I get my own classroom, so I was looking forward to decorating it and all that,” she said. “But then the flip side is ... I don’t know that I’m mentally ready to step into the unknown like that.”
Schools around the U.S. shut down suddenly this year as coronavirus cases first began rising. That led to a hodgepodge of distance learning, on-the-fly homeschooling and, for some families, a lack of any school at all. Districts are now turning their focus to how to create more structured environments.
But the debates have been filled with tension. Near Rochester, New York, parents rallied in favor of fully opening schools, holding signs outside an administration building June 29 saying: “No normal school? No school taxes!”
Christina Higley, a parent in the Rochester suburb of Webster, said she started a Facebook group initially to demand answers and have a say in what school would look like, but the discussions there sparked a movement for reopening schools.
“There’s a lot of parents that are saying, `Open our schools, let us have the decision if we feel comfortable sending the children in to them,’” said Higley, whose children just finished kindergarten, third and fifth grade.
The decisions are even more complicated in districts where the case count is rising. In Manatee County, Florida, the working plan is for all elementary students to return to school full time on Aug. 10. Older students would rely on virtual learning while they are phased back into brick-and-mortar schools.
But that proposal isn’t set in stone amid a surge in infections. The county recorded its highest number of new cases in a single day in late June.
If a student tests positive for the virus in the new school year, classrooms or whole buildings would need to be disinfected, said Mike Barber, a district spokesman. Students and staff with confirmed infections wouldn’t be able to return until they had tested negative twice.
Meanwhile, medical experts have expressed concerns for children’s development and mental health. The American Academy of Pediatrics said it “strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.”
In Cape Elizabeth, Maine, Shael Norris said she’s particularly concerned about children who could face abuse at home and parents who risk losing their jobs to care for their kids. Norris has two children set to attend high school in the fall and runs a nonprofit that combats sexual assault.
“There are so many equally important risks, and we’re focused entirely on COVID,” she said. “But I get it. It’s scary.”
Maine never saw a major outbreak, and it is now reporting, on average, a few dozen cases each day. Still, the state’s largest school district of Portland has left all the options on the table: a full reopening, a partial reopening or fully remote learning.
The district sent a letter to parents that said it plans to use outdoor space when possible — a solution for only a few months a year, given Maine’s weather.
In order to keep kids a safe distance apart on school buses, districts will need more vehicles — an especially thorny issue for rural districts, where students travel vast distances. New Mexico has issued guidelines that buses should be run at 50% capacity, according to Nancy Martira, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.
Many districts plan to lean heavily on federal bailout money to pay for their extra transportation needs.
It’s all adding up to an anxious start to the school year.
“Nobody has really laid out a clear plan for how you’re going to keep kids safe, especially smaller kids who are not going to be able to social distance all day, and they’re going to touch things and take their mask off,” said Duncan Kirkwood, whose 9- and 11-year-old daughters attend the Charter School for Applied Technologies in Buffalo, New York.
