Without Physical Connection to School
How Do Large School Districts Check On Kids During Virtual Learning?
Across the country, the school year is fast approaching or has already arrived. Some students will set foot in a classroom for the first time since mid-March, but for far more of America’s youth, the fall term will begin on a computer screen in their bedroom.
Virtual learning has academic limitations, and obvious devastating consequences for the social progress of children. But it also cuts kids off from a more personal relationship with teachers and other school staff, who are the largest source of reports to child protection hotlines in the country.
The vast majority of those reports, about 90% according to federal data, are not substantiated as abuse or neglect. But for many youth living with their parents or even with foster parents, school can be an oasis from turbulent times at home.
Virtual learning has academic limitations, and obvious devastating consequences for the social progress of children.
Virtual learning has academic limitations, and obvious devastating consequences for the social progress of children.
Keri Richmond, now a co-host of the FosterStrong podcast, entered foster care after a daycare worker reported suspected abuse in her father’s home. She was adopted at age 5, into a family where she would come to be abused by someone in the household.
Richmond chose never to talk to her teachers or school officials about what was happening. “I didn’t want to go back to foster care,” she said. “I was very involved in extracurriculars. I found rest and comfort and encouragement when I was at school.”
What she worries about most in the pandemic are kids like her “who may have similar tumultuous home lifestyles, but were finding some comfort” on campus.
“I saw one news article about teachers going around doing reading time in driveways,” Richmond CONTINUE READING: Without Physical Connection to School - LA Progressive