FILE - This Jan. 7, 2015 file photo shows public school buses parked (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)
SALT LAKE CITY — Some parents and students in the Davis School District are not happy with the district’s decision to cut back the number of days students will spend physically in class this year.
Both a petition on change.org and a Facebook group started this week have gathered more than 1,500 signatures and members at the time of writing.
The petition says cutting back will not slow the spread of the virus, but it will hurt students with learning disabilities or who need special education services.
“We can still enforce a mask policy, and we can allow students who don’t feel comfortable going in person to engage in schoolwork online,” it says
The private Facebook group says it is “for parents to gather collectively to have their voices heard, for kids to have the option to go to school 5 days a week.”
One parent wrote to KSL Newsradio to say she is worried about children with disabilities or needing special education services. She says cutting back on school days could be against the law by not providing an adequate education for individual needs.
The district announced their updated plans that would split the number in students physically in the building on Tuesday by half saying the change would allow them to maintain state social distancing guidelines in the classroom.
Our objectives in doing this are to:
• Reduce the number of students in schools and on buses by half – making physical distancing possible to
minimize contact, exposure and spread.
• Allow teachers and staff to effectively monitor and encourage physical distancing, proper hygiene,
sterilization, and use of face coverings.
• Enhance contact tracing by the Davis County Health Department.
• Maintain the traditional feel of school and retain good in-school learning habits.
• Maintain students’ personal relationship with teachers and staff, which is an integral part of learning.
• Provide social connectedness and peer interactions between students, which are essential to a child’s
well-being.
• Minimize overall risk until the threat of COVID-19 subsides