Schools: Some students may need ‘gap year’

Our daughter has been following her teachers’ Zoom sessions regularly and has been completing her assigned work on time. Many students have been doing the same.

But I am told that, in Bethel School District at least, maybe 40% of her high school classmates have not yet checked in online. Their teachers don’t know where they are.

Should this matter to parents like me? You bet it does.

If the failure of others to follow through on online educational opportunities forces districts to send students back into classrooms prematurely, are we going to be required to send our children into situations that may cause them to bring the virus back into our homes?

Perhaps the state should permit high school kids to take a “gap year,” to suspend school classroom attendance, then re-admit students to school at the same level they exited, without jeopardizing sports eligibility or involvement in other educational programs.

Of course, this could have ramifications for classroom space in the future. But would these concerns outweigh the potential life-saving benefits of having a reduced number of kids in classroom next fall?

This story was originally published May 14, 2020 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Schools: Some students may need ‘gap year’."