Reply to Letter to reopen?

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Reply to "Letter to reopen?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Dear ______,
I am writing as a parent to two students (___ grade and ___ grade) who attend ________ to urge you to reopen schools in Term 3 with a hybrid model. Term 3 starts on February 1st and will take us through the one year mark of distance learning.

We are very lucky to have the resources to provide our children with adequate supervision and academic help, but it has become clear to us, that even with these resources, our children's mental health is declining. We are observing their love for school plummeting. We are seeing that even with our extra help, their academic progress is stunted. This is not a surprise. We have seen many reports indicating that school closures will have long-lasting negative impact on children. 
        - Most recently, UNICEF's report said, “The longer schools are closed, the more children suffer from extensive learning losses with long term negative impacts." 
         -The CDC has said, our goal should be "to prioritize the reopening of schools as safely and as quickly as possible given the many known and established benefits of in-person learning...The many benefits of in-person schooling should be weighed against the risks posed by COVID-19 spread. Of key significance, in-person learning is in the best interest of students, when compared to virtual learning." 
         -American Academy of Pediatrics  has said, "Elected leaders must come together to appropriately support schools in safely returning students to the classroom and reopening schools.”
         - Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times recently concluded that "children have suffered because many mayors and governors were too willing to close public schools."
         
The experts agree that schools reopened is what is in the best interest of the children. And that should be our focus.

As a leader of DCPS or the city government, I urge you to review the reports cited in this e-mail if you haven't already and do what is in the best interest of the children. This might not align with the best interest of our city's economy or the teachers' wishes. The focus should be on the children, particularly, and starting with the most high-risk, vulnerable children.

Thank you for your attention to this important issue. 
[/quote]

I would add the following:

- New York City, which operates the largest school district in the country, was able to reopen for in-person learning for 8 weeks and only experienced 74 positive cases between students and staff out of 20,000 people back in schools.
- Dr. Fauci has said recently and repeated multiple times that, "to the best of our capability, we should try to keep the children in school and get them back in school for the simple reason that when you look at the infections of kids in school, the infection rate is really quite low. And you have to think of the disturbances to the children themselves as well as to the families with the secondary effects on working parents and what that means to them... the default position should be: you should try to do whatever you can to get the children in school."

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