SAN ANTONIO – The in-person vs. virtual learning debate is still raging on with parents, students and teachers sharing their differing opinions regarding the best option for how to continue student’s education amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Most San Antonio-area school districts have already resumed the academic year online while some, like Boerne ISD returned with in-person learning.
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Officials with the Texas Education Agency have said it’s up to the school boards to decide when students should go back to in-person learning. With board approval, schools have the option of staying remote-only for up to eight weeks without funding implications, after that, a district would need a waiver from the TEA to avoid losing state funding which is tied to student attendance.
One of the responses from the confessionals prompt called out schools for not sending students home unless their fever was 100.7 or higher. While the specific school/district wasn’t mentioned, KSAT found that most school districts in the San Antonio-area, prior to the pandemic, required that students not have a fever or 100 degrees or higher in order to attend school.
Viewers have been sending in their “classroom confessionals” over the last few weeks and you can see some of the newest submissions below. Find past confessionals here.
Find more background information about where things currently stand with the Texas education system and the latest education news in our back to school section here.
RELATED: What we know about reopening schools in San Antonio right now
I am a parent of 2 kids - both different in their learning styles. One does better surrounded by peers to encourage and create a stratagey for getting the work done. The other is extremely independent, self-directed, and is in all honors classes. I won’t send either back w/o a functional vaccine.
PRG
It amazes me how so many people express their bias statements without true facts to back it up. If you feel your statements are true and just, why sign “Anonymous.” Influenza and Streptococcus are year-round in the U.S. Flu is most common in the fall and winter. U.S. SARS CoV2 survival rate is 98%.
Cristina
Schools should stay virtual! It’s not safe for kids or teachers to be exposed to various people day in and day out! Masks are not the saving grace to this pandemic. They do help, but why put our kids at unnecessary risk?!
Anonymous
Virtual is a failure and students need to be in class. If it’s all virtual let’s just outsource and cut property taxes. If they don’t need to be in class, we don’t need the schools and the teachers.
Anonymous
I’d rather my children be #behindbutalive
Anonymous
School’s closing for COVID-19 is both necessary for public health and extremely difficult for working parents. Lack of support for working parents is government failure though, not a school system failure.
Lynn
Since people have stopped going to the testing sites and the numbers have dropped, why don’t they go to the schools to test the staff and students for free and see how many cases there really are?
Anonymous
The safest way to reopen schools is to keep them close until this virus goes away. It’s better for kids to fall behind than for the virus to spread and kill more people. Stop ignorance to stop COVID. Healthy fear > Blind faith
Anonymous
I have been a teacher for many years and was a social worker in the Native American Services. I cannot think of any reason to open classroom teaching. Virtual learning is a great option. Education can be made up but death is permanent.
Beverly
They are going to kill the kids, teachers and family at home!!! If kids are not allowed in school without their current immunizations what in their right minds makes it ok with this coronavirus to send our kids to school??? It’s all about the money!!! That’s more important than lives!! How CRAZY!!!
Anonymous
My children were getting better grades while they were in class as opposed to virtual but they are health and safety is more important. At the same time what about the parents they need to work and can’t stay at home with their kids? What is the government doing for those people!?!?
Anonymous
My children attend Catholic schools and parents are given the option to return to campus after Labor Day or distance learning throughout the school year. I truly appreciate that the Archdiocese is providing this opportunity and letting parents make the best decision for their own families.
Anonymous
I’m a teacher. Every year when I go back to school in the fall I get sick. It’s very common for teachers and students to pick up some stomach bug or the flu once they head back to school after being away for a bit. We are enclosed with students all day who have many different hygiene habits.
Anonymous
I am a parent and a case manager/social worker at a local hospital for the designated COVID floor. I have chosen remote learning for my kindergartener and withdrew my youngest from daycare. The school districts are completely selfish by even making face to face learning an option. COVID is real.
Olivia
Both my children have asthma and a common cold or croup is dangerous for them. Though I always keep my children home at the first sign of illness, there are too many parents who knowingly send their children to school sick. I guarantee COVID-19 will not change that. Mine are staying home!
Anonymous
It makes me a little sad that my youngest son will be taking his freshman year of high school remotely, but I feel that I have no other safe choice. Losing a year of actual classroom time and extracurriculars is a small price to pay to keep him healthy.
Anonymous
I resigned to stay home with my kids. Last fall I brought home the flu and then passed it to my kids. The nurse would not send home students until their fever went over 100.7. I had 7 students with a fever of 100 and they would send them back to the classroom until it reached 100.7 then they would call parents.
Anonymous
How is a district employee whose children go to school in that district supposed to keep their children home when they have to go to work? Either stay home with no pay and eventually use all your leave or come to work and leave your children at home alone.
Anonymous
A child’s life is more than collecting taxes. They are not a number to the parents and should not be a number to the state or the TEA. Provide sufficient data that all district schools are ready to prevent COVID then I will make a decision then. So far, I had to buy my husband additional PPE.
Anonymous
I saw kids on the school bus and none of them were wearing a mask, just the bus driver. Yeah, I don’t see kids being safe. Students sitting to close to each other.
Anonymous
Send my kids back? NO! I see their teachers on Facebook posting pictures of their Saturday nights at the bars without masks on and no social distancing, tubing on the river without masks and no distancing, classmates’ vacationing, at restaurants and family events without masks on and no social distancing.
Anonymous