How do Stanislaus students learn when sent home to quarantine? It depends on the district
When one Turlock high school student quarantined at home early this school year, he said he didn’t really learn anything. He figured he’d catch up on schoolwork when he returned after about four days.
Compared to last year, said Pitman High senior Micah Littlepage, “if you get sent home, it’s harder to stay on track.”
Turlock Unified School District has since modified its arrangement for educating students who miss school days for reasons related to COVID-19. As of Monday, students in seventh grade and above can watch classes live via Zoom.
Such a change is not unique to Turlock. For the third school year in a row, educators are adapting learning structures in response to the spread of the coronavirus.
Though California’s modified quarantine framework allows asymptomatic students to remain in class if they meet criteria for vaccination, mask-wearing and testing, thousands of Stanislaus County students have been sent home to quarantine as the delta variant has rippled throughout the community.
A bill Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Thursday clarified that districts are allowed to provide live video instruction to students who miss less than 15 days of school — a point of confusion among school leaders. But districts still have broad discretion over what instructional modes to offer.
Stanislaus school districts differ
School leaders in Stanislaus County have reached varying conclusions over the best way to ensure students don’t fall behind when they miss school because of COVID-19. Their choices are influenced by personal philosophies, technical resources and demands of teachers unions, school officials told The Modesto Bee.
“Each district is just trying to do right by their students and their community,” said Amy Peterman, deputy superintendent for educational services at the Ceres Unified School District.
Ceres Unified posts assignments via Google Classroom and provides printed packets to students who lack reliable access to WiFi, Peterman said.
School officials didn’t want students out sick to worry about logging onto online school, Peterman said. They wanted to make sure teachers concentrated on the students physically in front of them, free from the stress of trying to instruct students in a hybrid fashion.
“There is no good replacement for in-person instruction,” Peterman said.
Hughson Unified School District selected a different approach. The district used its initial pandemic funds to place cameras in all 110 classrooms, said Carrie Duckart, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.
When any of Hughson’s 2,100 students miss school because they tested positive for COVID-19 or must quarantine at home, they may watch class through “Owl” devices in the classrooms, which rotate and move in response to a teacher’s voice.
The Owls don’t resolve the challenges teachers face balancing instruction between students sitting in desks and those watching through the cameras. Still, Duckart has heard teachers say the model is “better than nothing” for students affected by the latest surge.
“It keeps them a little more connected than it would if we just gave them, you know, paperwork to do while they were at home,” Duckart said.
Modesto City considers changes
Officials at Modesto City Schools interpreted state legislation — particularly, the June expiration of California’s distance learning waiver — to mean they were not able to provide live instruction to students in quarantine, district spokeswoman Becky Fortuna said in an email.
Assembly Bill 167, which Newsom signed Thursday, affirms live instruction is an option.
Since school began Aug. 9, nearly a third of students enrolled in Modesto’s largest district have missed school for reasons related to COVID-19, according to numbers provided by Associate Superintendent of Educational Services Brad Goudeau.
As of Sept. 22, more than 8,600 students had been marked absent for one day or more because of the virus. Those students altogether missed more than 46,000 days of school, according to Goudeau.
That’s an average of more than five days per student. “That potentially could take a toll on students’ academic performance,” Superintendent Sara Noguchi said.
Modesto City Schools has provided TK through sixth-grade students with grade-level review packets and links to interactive online resources. Secondary teachers assign work through Schoology, the district’s learning management platform.
Because of the legislative update and the volume of student absences, Noguchi said, the district is working with its teachers union to devise a new program for students who need to quarantine.
“It’s not as quick as saying we’re going to be turning on the cameras,” she said.
Modesto Teachers Association President Doug Burton said in an email that it would be premature to discuss quarantine learning options because conversations with the district are ongoing.
Reaction to Turlock Unified’s decision
In Turlock, teachers had asked the district to give secondary teachers the option of providing Zoom links to students in quarantine, Turlock Teachers Association President Meredith Pimentel said in an email. They viewed the district’s blanket requirement as “an additional ask.”
Teachers had posted assignments, videos and lesson support in Google Classroom for students in quarantine, Pimentel said. “Teachers were already meeting students’ needs and working just as hard if not harder than last year,” she said.
Several parents applauded Turlock Unified’s move to provide live instruction. Melissa Geary has children in transitional kindergarten and second grade. When they quarantined at the beginning of the school year, she said it seemed like the district “didn’t really have a good plan in place for what to do with quarantined students doing any kind of learning from home.”
“I expected them to be ready, and it didn’t feel like they were ready,” Geary said.
She said the district’s recent switch was “a great start,” but she wishes virtual learning extended to quarantined students in all grade levels. Turlock Unified spokeswoman Marie Russell said the district is exploring whether to add virtual instruction for elementary school students.
Geary said her second-grader has autism, so when she misses school, she also misses supports including speech therapy and a social skills group. Her daughter doesn’t sit and work like a neurotypical child, making the district’s work packets for quarantined students difficult.
“Her needs for education are so much higher than sending home a work packet,” Geary said.
This story was originally published September 27, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
