Rachael Bedard, MD

The author knows how difficult this situation is for families, stating “Many will read this article &ask what they’re supposed to do instead. I don’t have the answer. Parents are in an unimaginably hard position.” I agree! So I’d like to share how I’m thinking about it. (2/x)

The obvious best solution would be for the city to invest in organizing publicly-funded, safe, learning programming. But we are talking about a school year that starts 6 weeks from now... (3/x)

...and thus far the city has only made a vague commitment to provide childcare, not clear remote learning support or tutoring or anything else, to 100K kids. That’s 10% of the NYC system, so that doesn’t seem like something we can count on.(4/x)

The second best solution would be to address these issues as a district or as a school-to pool resources +ideas for the good of all kids in your neighborhood, borough, etc., to organize not at the level of the family but at the level of the community to take care of kids.(5/x)

But - there are a ton of unknowns still to be worked out by overtaxed principals, and there are going to be budget deficits, space restrictions and staffing challenges that may make it impossible to rely on school or district leadership to organize in time for September. (6/x)

So the next best thing any of us can do is fight hard now for #1 and #2, +support others who are already advocating for equity in education. We can know we are starting September without a fair solution in place, and fight to make it better as the year goes on. (7/x)

I’m going to supplement my kid’s likely 2 days of in-person school with structured activities that are going to cost money and time. She’s 5, and an only child, and she needs more socializing than those 14 hours in a mask at a desk are gonna provide. (8/x)

I’m going to do this with the community of friends she has, which is fairly integrated, but also with the understanding that it’s an enormous privilege to be able to do it at all. (9/x)