FORT WORTH, Texas — If you’re a parent of school-age children still deciding what to do in the fall, you probably feel like Fort Worth Independent School District parent Rachel Southard.
"That’s super stressful to think about!" said the mother of two.
Your kids may feel like her soon-to-be 2nd grader, Olive.
"I think I want to stay healthy and see my friends and play a lot but I don’t know if I can do that because of corona[virus]," said the 6-year-old.
The family's spent the last few weeks in limbo, waiting for decisions from the district. Monday, Fort Worth ISD shared a 24 page plan, stating that it will start as scheduled on August 17th. District schools will provide online and in-person classes on day one, and parents like Southard have to choose what their children will do by August 3rd.
"I think it’s right that they have both online and in-person," said Southard. "We have less than two weeks to register and I know nothing. I have no idea what I’m going to do."
For those families choosing to have students go to class, they can expect rules and changes regarding cleaning and spacing out desks, and officials said they would enforce socially distant recess and require students to follow state mask guidelines.
It's still hard for Southard to picture in practice.
"There’s a lot of 'what' but not a lot of 'how,' and now they’re kind of saying 'Oh, we’re going to let the schools figure out the how,'" she said. "Well, OK…when?"
The clock is ticking on a decision that has hundreds of layers to it and even some of our kids can feel the stress.
"Well, I do want to go back to school to meet my friends and say hi," said Olive. "But I don’t want to go back to school because I’m maybe going to get coronavirus and because you never know if people have the corona or not!"
All her mother has to go on is her gut.
"Right now my decision is we’re staying home. I just don’t know how we’re going to do it," said Southard.
She'll spend the first six weeks of the school year watching as Fort Worth ISD figures how it will do it.
District superintendent Kent Scribner is hosting virtual Town Halls to get feedback from parents, students and teachers on the plan next week. Those will be online Monday July 27th and Tuesday, July 28th.