The consequences of keeping schools physically closed are enormous: many parents cannot work because they cannot afford to care for their children, and many young children will forgo critical social development. But if schools reopen in person, public health officials worry that that could lead to more virus outbreaks.
Analytics teamed up to survey more than 7,266 American adults between July 17 and August 10 to find out what opinion Americans, and parents in particular, have about reopening schools and colleges in person.
Parents are divided over the reopening of schools. Just under half of K-12 parents (48%) think K-12 schools should reopen in person (only 32% of all American adults agree). The support is surprisingly tepid, considering the burden that stay-at-home children could place on parents.
Those numbers could be suppressed by the fact that many schools have not informed parents about the procedures they will implement to slow the spread of the virus. If they reopen, 53% of K-12 parents support some form of blended learning.
What parents want and what they will actually do could go astray. Case in point: Last Monday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that 74% of public school students opted for face-to-face classes, which include blended learning online and in the classroom. If seven out of 10 students in one of the densest (and hardest hit) cities in America plan to teach face-to-face, it may be safe to assume that many of our surveyed parents who opposed the reopening in person (52%) actually they will end up sending their children in the next few weeks.
By a 2-to-1 ratio, Americans who are most concerned about reopening too soon outnumber those most concerned about reopening too slowly. It is clear that people are still fearful of the virus.
More than half of K-12 parents want reopened schools to add health precautions (54%), require masks (53%), offer blended learning online (53%), and reduce class sizes (53 %).
Only 6% of K-12 parents think schools should restart without any of these precautions or procedures.
