As teachers who are members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association and as parents of a special education student, we are concerned about the decision to have all students start remotely in September.
While we want the return to school to be as safe as reasonably possible, we feel strongly that the needs of special education students are not being adequately considered with the change of a virtual start for all.
While we have the means to hire an in-person tutor for our daughter, others do not. We know from this past spring that our daughter cannot learn online for more than 90 minutes per day — and that is with one-on-one instruction. The longer we delay in-person learning, she and other special education students are going to fall even further behind.
We implore the MTA to find a way to bring back special education students and kids in shelters, foster care and food insecure families as soon as possible. With our experience adopting our daughter from foster care we know how vulnerable this population is. Please make every effort to stop the widening of the achievement gap for our most vulnerable students by beginning in-person classes for them on Oct. 1.
Gina Kaufmann
Miguel Ringler
Amherst
Miguel Ringler teaches middle school science in Gardner and Gina Kaufmann teaches theater at UMass. They have two children in the Amherst public schools.