From 'nana school' to a Canadian 'escape hatch': How 5 Seattle families plan to tackle fall classes

Optimism. Trepidation. Skepticism. Curiosity.

After a rough spring of emergency distance learning, families are eager to see how Seattle Public Schools approaches online learning this fall.

Many are making contingency plans. Here are scenarios for a few parents, in their own words.

"If it's just not working then we will definitely be supplementing with "Nana School" - homeschooling with my mother."

Anisa Mason, mother of a first-grader

I’m a nurse. My mother lives with us, and she will be here with [my six-year-old] during the day.

They say they're taking the time to train the teachers to do distance learning, so right now our plan is to see what they present to us. If it looks like it's working, like he’s actually getting a substantial education, then we'll go with their school day. But if not, then definitely my mom will back it up by doing a lot more homeschooling with him, because we don't want him to fall behind or be too bored to sitting staring at a screen.

I hope it's active, like there's times that they're encouraging the kids to get up, move around, maybe do scavenger hunts around your house or something that makes them move -- they're not just sitting staring at a screen, or at a teacher yapping at them. And then, of course, we'll be looking at how organized it is.

I would like it to be where all kids are able to be there day one, because when it was unexpected, and school shut down, there were so many kids who came from backgrounds that maybe didn't have Wi-Fi and electronic devices who didn’t appear until nearly school was over. And that was kind of devastating -- my son realized that his friend wasn’t there.

Also, are they going to make time or extra effort to make sure that those students are caught up and at the same level as everyone else? Is that going to be during class time where the kids who were there [in spring] are bored? Or are they going to have extra time off to the side [for remediation]? I'm excited to see what it's like, but then I have questions. So all we can do is wait and see.

I know I have my backup. If it's just not working then we will definitely be supplementing with “Nana School.”

"I screwed up in school. I want my kids to be better than I ever was. So I'm terrified because their school is in my hands."

Quanshie Maxwell, mother of a seventh-grader, a third-grader, a kindergartener and a preschooler

I screwed up in school. I want my kids to be better than I ever was. So I'm terrified because their school is in my hands.

It’s just me and four kids. This year, my five-year-old is coming into kindergarten. This is his first year, and it has to be on the computer -- on a screen. And I feel horrible about that. And there’s nothing I can do.

Let’s just say we have to do this all year long, and next year they go back to regular school. I’m terrified on how that’s going to be for my five-year-old son -- social skills with his friends, interacting with the teachers.

My daughter, she’s fine, she’s got a desk in her room.

I just need to figure out a space where I’m going to be able to put my boys. Our apartment is so small, so tight.

I don’t think my third-grader is going to be that hard. I think he’ll probably be the easiest. I just gotta tell him "this is your math, this is this, this is that." Because he’s pretty good with it. It’s just keeping him focused for that long on the computer.

My five-year-old boy, I’m going to have to pull some tricks out.

I want so, so badly for my kids to succeed. Whatever I have to do for my kids to be great, I will do.

"Our biggest concern is the socialization part of it ... we’ve joined with a couple other families to retain a babysitter for up to 10 hours a week after school."

Carey Evenson, mother of a first-grader

We are still in a little bit of play-it-by-ear mode as we wait for the district to let us know what each day might look like. We're going to try to handle the learning at home, juggling our work schedules and his school schedule. I know the YMCA and Launch have some full-time [child care] options, so we’ll reconvene after a few weeks and if we’re going crazy, see what other options might be available.

[Our son] is in first grade, and he's pretty good at paying attention to the online interface, which I know some kids have trouble with. He seemed to do alright with it in the spring when they tried it out, so I'm hopeful that he'll be able to at least manage getting himself online, and following along, and paying attention. Fingers crossed.

Our biggest concern is the socialization part of it. And making sure that kids get that social outlet that they’d get at school with recess and that sort of thing. So we’ve joined with a couple other families to retain a babysitter for up to 10 hours a week after school.

We may alternate houses, we may emphasize outside, going to parks -- just letting them play together masked and distanced when possible, fully following all of the Covid safety guidelines, but just making sure that the kids have a chance to see each other and to hang out, because that is the big thing that they are going to be missing.

We also started a Slack group where we’re going to try out scheduling the playtime, but also have a channel where when people if they really need coverage for an hour or two because they have a big meeting or a work thing, we can have a sort of ad-hoc babysitting group.

If one parent doesn’t have a busy week or a busy morning, they can take another kid for a couple hours so we can help each other and share the burden of those last-minute things that come up. The kids can do their online schooling at someone else’s house for a couple hours.

"I'm not seeing acknowledgement that what they're proposing isn't going to work for everyone ... I don't see space for families who can't log in all day, every day."

Lauri Watkins, mother of a seventh-grader

I’m a single parent, working from home as a paralegal. I don't know what the superintendent thinks my life look like. I don't know what the school board thinks my life looks like. But when the initial draft [fall] schedule came out, and it was just gonna load your kid into all these classes every single day, that's literally not a possibility for my household.

I log into work every morning. I had to upgrade my internet access just to be able to log on to our virtual network. Even with an upgrade, logging into work, it's all of the bandwidth I have. If my son tried to even stream a TV show, I can't work. So I'm not sure how they think we're going to be logging into Zoom, or Teams, or whatever it is, because I have to work.

Spring [quarter] didn't happen for my family, and I had to get to a point where that was OK.

One of my problems was I was getting so much communication from so many people that I couldn't parse out. If I had streamlined communications with one person, that’s OK.

I'm not seeing acknowledgement that what they're proposing isn't going to work for everyone. All the processes they're outlining seem to be all-or-nothing. I don't see space for families who can't log in all day, every day.

If they demand daily attendance, they're counting me out before it even begins, because that's not feasible. We could absolutely do a weekly check-in, I could integrate that into my workload a lot better.

I’ve certainly seen things about pandemic [learning] pods. We don’t have that many families in our immediate circle who have the financial resources or the space. We live in a multi-unit building, so I don’t know where a pod would happen. While we're financially stable, I don't have pots of money lying around to try to hire a tutor or something of that nature. I'm also very concerned about the equity issues.

I appreciate that they set up the first week to be mostly about getting everyone settled in, getting tech set up, and hopefully doing relationship-building with teachers and students. That part looks good.

After that, we’ll just have to see. We are going to give it a try. That’s the most positive I can be about it.

"My husband is Canadian. We decided to use what we refer to as our 'escape hatch' from this country."

Robin (asked that her last name not be used), mother of a fifth-grader and a kindergartner

Our 10-year-old has autism, is on the spectrum, and our five-year-old has ADHD and is hard of hearing. I’m a teacher, teaching remotely, and my husband is in tech, remotely tech-ing full-time.

I was prepared to do this. I was prepared to do the online learning thing until [Seattle Public Schools] published the schedule -- the outline that they were going to have [online] school from 7:55 in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon. That was my come-to-Jesus moment.

There is no way I am going to get a child with autism to sit in front of [video meetings] for that long and also do all the jobs that we need in order to keep a roof over our kids’ heads.

Also, my younger son, who’s five, and who’s hard-of-hearing, knowing what a challenge [video meetings] were going to be for him and not really getting a great answer for those children whose specific need is in contrast with remote learning -- no answers from anyone, ever. That was part of it, too, knowing that he might never get that speech development back.

My husband is Canadian. We decided to use what we refer to as our “escape hatch” from this country [and move to Canada]. It was a drastic step, but when I really looked at what are my kids’ lives going to be like if they stay here for the next year, that was not a good quality of life.

My husband had to drive up with our two sons Sunday night so they could quarantine in Canada for two weeks before they’re allowed to attend school. It’s 100% in-person, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., because B.C. has a fraction of the Covid rate that we have here.

Moving is going to cost us about $20,000. It is only because we are selling our house that we are able to do this.

I have a master's degree in teaching. I am literally part of the system. And it's hard for me to figure out what to do. I cannot imagine being in the same situation and being in a place of less privilege. It's horrifying.

My parents are elderly and live here, and I don’t know when we’re going to see them again. That is really traumatic, knowing that we are leaving behind family. In the regular world, that family would be two and a half hours away, but we are not in that world.

And I don’t know when that world is coming back.