A report from Disability Rights DC says children with mental disabilities are too often cycled through psychiatric hospitals and other facilities, which disrupts their education.

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Prince George’s County Public Schools CEO Monica Goldson announced Wednesday that students will return to in-person learning starting Jan. 18 with additional COVID precautions in place.

Prior to the winter break, Goldson announced that all schools would be going virtual through Jan. 14 following a surge of COVID cases around the region. In an email to parents, Goldson said while the “temporary shift to virtual learning system-wide was unprecedented” it was a “necessary precaution to slow the spread of COVID-19 within our schools.” She added that with the return to in-person learning on Tuesday, there will be additional mitigation measures in place.

“I understand that families may have concerns about returning due to the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Goldson wrote in the email. “We will continue to collaborate with the local and state health departments to assess data and make the best decisions.”

All students and staff will be provided KN95 masks and at-home test kits, Goldson wrote in the email. Distribution of test kits will be made available for parents and students to pick up at schools through the end of February. Students are being asked to test weekly starting Jan. 23, and school officials are creating a weblink where students and parents can report at-home test results.

Goldson also said that school officials will be doubling the number of students randomly tested for COVID each week with parental consent. Weekly testing is still required for unvaccinated employees. For school sports, no spectators will be allowed at events through the end of the month and athletes who are unvaccinated will continue to be tested weekly. Athletic events will be limited to 25% of building capacity starting Feb. 1.

PGCPS officials are also implementing new quarantine guidance for students and staff. For those who test positive for COVID-19, regardless of vaccination status, they must stay home for five days from the date of onset symptoms or a positive test. When they return to school, they must wear a mask for an additional five days.

Those who are vaccinated and boosted and have a COVID-19 exposure do not need to quarantine, but must test five days after their exposure. Those who are not fully vaccinated and boosted and have an exposure must quarantine for five days.

Since the beginning of the school year, parents with students ages 5-11 have had the option to remain virtual, but Goldson announced that the program will end Jan. 28. The program was a temporary solution authorized by the state’s department of education at the beginning of the school year.

Goldson’s announcement comes just one week after students in Montgomery County returned to school after winter break with several disruptions, including more than 90 bus route cancellations and hundreds of teachers calling out without substitutes to fill in.

Parents and school staff in Prince George’s say they’re concerned about similar issues as students return to in-person classes next week. Sarah Christopherson, parent to a 7th-grader at Hyattsville Middle School and a 4th-grader at Thomas Stone Elementary School, told DCist/WAMU that she’s worried about potential disruptions returning to in-person learning.

“As bad as the bus driver [shortage] problem was before omicron, I imagine it’s going to be that much worse [now],” Christopherson said.

At the beginning of the pandemic before a vaccine was made available to school-age children, Christopherson said she was in favor of virtual learning, but since then, she’s changed her mind. She said her son “missed the in-person interaction in school,” and in this round of virtual learning, which started before the winter break, “was more of a struggle.”

“I can imagine that they will need to do some virtual education on an ad hoc basis…I still think that’s better than resigning ourselves to indefinite virtual learning,” she said.

Some parents, who took to Twitter when PGCPS made the announcement, agreed that a return to school was needed.

Other parents expressed concerns about a return to in-person learning given the surge of COVID-related hospitalizations in the county. As of last week, COVID hospitalizations in the county reached an all-time high since the beginning of the pandemic, according to county health data.

Christopherson added that she feels for school administrators who are being “put in an impossible situation” and said more leadership needs to come from the state and Governor Larry Hogan’s administration.

“If the governor really wants children back in person, he needs to step up and show some leadership,” Christopherson said.

Prior to schools going virtual last month, Christopherson, more than 250 other Hyattsville parents, and elected officials from Hyattsville, College Park, Mount Rainier, and other municipalities began signing a petition to demand that Goldson require students, teachers, and staff to be fully vaccinated before going back to school in-person.

School teachers and staff also expressed concerns about the return to in-person learning. Tia Breckenridge, a counselor at John Hanson Montessori School, told DCist/WAMU that while she’s not concerned for her own safety, she is concerned about her pre-kindergarten through 8th grade students not following COVID safety protocols.

“On one hand, I know our children do best with in-person instruction,” Breckenridge said. “But from a health perspective, I know that not all children have the discipline and behaviors to remain safe.”

Chrystie Lynch, a math and special education teacher at G. James Gholson Middle School, told DCist/WAMU she thought Goldson made the right decision to have all county schools go virtual in December.

“We are short-staffed, we’ve been short-staffed,” Lynch said. She said she’s concerned about this next transition back to in-person learning because prior to going virtual in December, she and other English language arts teachers in her school were already having to cover for absent teachers.

Starting next week, the county’s teachers’ union will begin their bargaining agreement negotiations and Lynch says demands for COVID safety protocols and fair compensation will be on the table.

“I would like to see Dr. Goldson continue to fight to make sure that we have a safe teaching and learning environment,” Lynch said. She added she’d also like to see state officials recognize the need for some virtual learning after the end of January.

This story has been updated with comments from teachers and parents.

Filed Under: coronavirus, in-person learning, pandemic, prince george's county public schools, virtual learning,