Require Public Schools Provide Online Option For Vulnerable Children

As states rush to eliminate mask mandates and fully open schools this fall, highly vulnerable children are being swept “under the bus.” Families with students that are too young for or medically prohibited from vaccination are being told they must either attend in-person school in the fall or receive “homebound learning.” Homebound learning is when a school district provides a curriculum and a tutor for a certain amount of time each week because the student has a health issue that has or will prevent them from attending school for more than a certain number of days, often 10. Although offerings vary from state to state, generally a student is provided with 1 or 2 hours of tutoring per day. All too often, however, these “tutors” do not act as educators, but as assignment facilitators, shuttling assignments back and forth between the student and their teachers and lacking the ability to answer student questions. Homebound learning is in no way equivalent to in-person education, but rather designed to facilitate the continuation of learning for children during periods of convalescence. Now, however, schools seeking to save money contend that it satisfies their obligation to provide children in their districts with an education, even if a child is not convalescing at home, but rather something outside of their control has caused the in-person school setting to be a threat to their health.

This is a complete abdication of our schools’ obligation to provide students whose health conditions make in-person school attendance life-threatening with a substantially equivalent education through reasonable accommodation as required under the Americans with Disability Act. School districts have an obligation to provide more than access to a curriculum and homework, but social and emotional experiences and opportunities like those received at in-person school. Homebound learning fails this requirement by further secluding vulnerable children from any connection with their peers. This is particularly egregious given how much data has been obtained over the last year showing that seclusion from peers causes significant mental health problems. Furthermore, many school districts already have the software, hardware, platforms, curricula, and experienced teachers to provide live, synchronous, online classes for these children, which would allow them to interact with their peers and teachers, complete group projects, give presentations, and learn skills like patience, not interrupting, and working with and getting along with difficult individuals. School districts that provided these platforms to children for the 20-21 school year now wish to disavow their availability and demand that vulnerable children and their families accept homebound learning.

We call on President Biden, Vice-President Harris, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, and Attorney General Merrick Garland to issue legal guidance and orders that states and school districts must:
—Provide an online option for public school to all students
—Provide live, synchronous, interactive education to vulnerable children who cannot attend in-person school due to health conditions unrelated to convalesce
—Offer the live, synchronous, interactive option to all siblings of vulnerable children and the children of vulnerable adults to prevent non-vulnerable children from bringing illnesses home to vulnerable family members
—Permit the live, synchronous, interactive option to be offered to all students where there is demand or the possibility of monetary savings with greater numbers
—Provide live supports (online, if necessary for the safety of the child) to children with IEPs that elect an online option

Do not let these children become another casualty of the COVID-19.

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