Back to School: Fall 2020
Parents have been making difficult decisions about sending their children back to school in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. All of us who work in education have difficult decisions to make. This includes parents, teachers, administrators, and agencies providing counsel such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
The pandemic’s impact is far greater for students with disabilities. Students with disabilities may have a more difficult time transitioning back to school this Fall. Students with disabilities have been missing out on instruction time as well as school-based services such as occupational, physical, and speech-language therapy and mental health counseling. School districts across the country are still figuring out how to support these students moving forward.
In September, I will be featuring a set of guest bloggers who will be blogging about this topic, including Moms from Missouri, California, and Washington, a school-based SLP in Iowa, and a special education professional in Washington.
Until then, here are some facts about schools:
Apples and teachers go way back. Poor families in 16th-century Denmark and Sweden gave teachers baskets of apples as payment for their children’s educations.
America’s students are more racially and ethnically diverse than ever, while teachers remain overwhelmingly white.
In the US, the average school day is 6.8 hours long. In Finland, it’s 5 hours, and in Taiwan, it’s 8.5 hours.
Sources:
National Center on Education and the Economy. http://ncee.org/2018/02/statistic-of-the-month-how-much-time-do-students-spend-in-school/. Accessed August 2020.
Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/07/6-facts-about-americas-students/. Accessed August 2020.
Children's Museum of Indianapolis. https://www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/why-do-teachers-like-apples. Accessed August 2020.
