As the coronavirus pandemic continues, school districts are coming up with creative ways to have face-to-face learning this fall.
The Edmonds School District was one of the first to announce their plans for the school year.
Students be will in class two days a week and do remote learning the other days to help with social distancing.
But this is raising more questions than answers for many parents.
“It’s been a nightmare. I thought it was going to be fine and it just wasn’t,” said Shane Minden. He is a single father who has put five kids through school with the Edmonds School District.
“I’ve got an incoming sophomore in high school and then I’ve got a third grader going into fourth grade and he’s in a special education program,” he said.
He found that remote learning is not a good option for both of his kids that are still in school, especially for his third grader.
“It’s kind of tough for him because he’s autistic. So, like he’s not super communicative anyway, so getting him any kind of school work was really, really tough,” Minden said.
He was intrigued when he saw Edmonds School District’s plan for the fall.
The district will split classes into two groups, group A will be in class on Monday and Tuesday and group B will be in class on Thursday and Friday. Wednesday will be used to be used to disinfect and sanitize classrooms. On the days students aren’t in the classroom, they’ll do remote learning.
There is an option to do full remote learning for parents that aren’t comfortable sending their kids to school just yet.
“I mean, it’s better than what we had at the end of the school year,” Minden explained.
He is in the same boat as many parents trying to navigate the new waters that remote learning presents, even if it’s only for half the week.
“I can’t work full time and also like, be a full-time teacher and then also be a parent on top of all that,” he told KING 5, but he adds, he does believe the district is doing the best they can.
“I don’t know what the solution is. When I think of what would the ideal situation be like for us, I can’t come up with one,” he said.
