After a Year of Distance Learning, Parents Have Mixed Feelings About LAUSD’s Reopening Deal with UTLA

Tiffany Morrison said she won’t send her daughter back to middle school just to Zoom from the classroom.

After an entire year of distance learning, parents being asked to choose whether to send their kids back to campus in April for a hybrid learning program have decidedly mixed feelings on the tentative reopening agreement between Los Angeles Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles. The LAUSD School Board ratified the agreement Thursday, and teachers will vote on it next week. 

Working parents of elementary school students who had been advocating for a safe return were pleased to learn that their kids will be welcomed back five days a week in mid-April from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., albeit for only three hours of actual instruction in person with teachers. (The rest of the day will be spent independently online or in enrichment activities, while teachers switch to teaching the kids opting for remote-only instruction.) 

“I’m excited just to allow my daughter to have some normalcy and to see what school is,” said Renee Bailey, a South L.A. mom whose daughter in kindergarten has never set foot on campus. 

“I am grateful we are wading back and sorting things out in April rather than August,” added Sarah Reimers, mom of a 4th grade son at Walgrove Elementary in Mar Vista. 

Many parents of middle and high school students, however, expressed disappointment that their kids will mainly be attending Zoom classes on campus without in-person access to any adult but their homeroom teacher for short advisory periods providing social-emotional support.

Milliken Middle School parent and educator Maryam Qudrat labeled the plan a “babysitting program,” and many said it wasn’t worth sending kids back without more access to teachers. 

“What’s the point? Why even bother?” asked Tiffany Morrison, a South L.A. mom whose 6th grade daughter attends the Girls Academic Leadership Academy. “They’re not really going back to school. They’re going to be learning online. She’d rather just be home where she can get up and go to the refrigerator and be comfortable. I don’t even understand why they would have agreed to that. It makes no sense.”

Brisa Michaels (right) is upset that her high school daughter will not have more access to teachers.

Brisa Michaels said she plans to let her 10th grade daughter play softball at Venice High, but she won’t risk exposing her to COVID-19 on the bus and in class if she will not be getting in-person instruction from her teachers. “It doesn’t make any sense,” said Michaels, an immigrant from Mexico who knows that COVID-19 has hit Latino families in L.A. especially hard. “This is stupidity to the max. I thought hybrid would mean teachers would come in and rotate. They’re vaccinated.” 

Nevertheless, some parents said the plan is better than nothing for families whose kids are not logging on at all because of Wi-Fi issues, as well as for those who are facing depression from pandemic isolation. Some parents who work outside the home can also feel reassured knowing that their kids are being supervised during the school day. 

Parents of secondary students with disabilities are still waiting to hear what the plan is for kids who are unable to learn on a screen. Bailey, who has a 14-year-old son with an intellectual disability, said she won’t send her son back to school without in-person instruction and support -- something LAUSD is still negotiating with UTLA. Even though the district restarted “voluntary” special education services March 4, she has heard nothing from her son’s school. He hasn’t received the federally mandated in-person services in his IEP for a year now. 

“My son is in one of the highest-need student populations. It seems negotiations would have started there first,” Bailey said. “If they don’t make me feel confident the right supports are in place, he’s not going.”

Lydia Friend, founder of Women of Watts and the grandmother of twin 10-year-olds, said she, too, was disappointed with the limitations of the reopening deal. She plans to proceed with her “Open Schools” rally being held this Saturday at 11 a.m. at Ted Watkins Park, where she’s giving away free backpacks to the first 250 kids who attend. 

“We’re going to keep on protesting and moving forward,” she said. “I think this was done to hush hush, and I aint hush hushing.”

The younger kids are only “getting half a day of instruction,” Friend said, while the older kids, “their eyes are still watching Zoom when they need to interact.”

That determination to continue speaking up reflects the pent-up frustration that many parents feel after a year of school closures and drawn-out union negotiations that made many parents aware of just how little power they have had when it comes to education policy decisions dramatically affecting their lives and that of their kids.

Renee Bailey said her eyes are now open to the pecking order in LAUSD. Parents are at the bottom.

“I think we learned there is a pecking order,” Bailey said. “It starts with the union, then the district, and parents are five slots below that. If anybody knows what’s best for the children it’s the parents. Parents need a seat at the table.”

Friend also has a message for LAUSD: “You’re not going to make decisions for our children alone. It has to stop.”

While Los Angeles is the last of the 10 largest school districts in the nation to reopen during the pandemic, some parents still believe it’s happening too soon. 

"I think that all parents want their children to return to school, but the current effort to reopen schools seems rushed and irresponsible, especially because many schools still don't have a plan and not all the voices of parents have been captured,” said Evelyn Aleman, a parent at Cleveland High School in Reseda. “I'm wondering if it wouldn't make more sense to end the school year at home, get everyone vaccinated and prepare for an in-person fall." 

With some students managing well with distance learning in the safety of their homes, one of LAUSD’s most challenging tasks may be to convince hesitant families to return. At a special board meeting Thursday, Board President Kelly Gonez (BD6) acknowledged that for many families in hard-hit communities that just went through the trauma of a deadly COVID surge, "the fear is still real."  

Schools and the district will be holding virtual town halls for families to go over all of the safety protocols in place and to help answer their questions while they are being asked to make a decision. Selection forms are due by March 19, but families can always opt in later if they are still unsure what to do. 

“Ultimately, the choice is yours,” Gonez said. “You have to make the decision that is best for you and your family. We are doing everything possible so that when we reopen next month that it is the safest possible environment for your children.”