Dupage Policy Journal

When Jessie Ingoglia received word on July 10 that her child's elementary school would only be accepting students for 2.5 hours per day due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she felt disheartened.

“My older son is a first-grader who thrives on structure so this has been really challenging for him,” Ingoglia told the DuPage Policy Journal. “He's a child that can play by himself and be completely content so, he really needs social interaction. It’s worrisome for me that we're back to where we were in the springtime because e-learning was a complete disaster.”

Ingoglia, also mother to a kindergarten-aged daughter, is among 293 parents who have signed a Change.org petition, asking the Board of Education of District 41 for a revised plan that services the children and their educational needs similar to surrounding school districts.

“I personally have spoken to other districts in the area and they are going back to a full school day,” said Ingoglia in an interview. “Based on the surrounding communities, there's no reason why the children should not be in school all day.”

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine agree with Ingoglia and other parent advocates who want children to return to school full-time.

A report called Reopening K-12 Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prioritizing Health, Equity, and Communities found that young children, in particular, will be impacted by not having in-person learning and may suffer long-term academic consequences if they fall behind as a result.

“This pandemic has laid bare the deep, enduring inequities that afflict our country and our schools,” said Enriqueta Bond, chair of the committee that authored the report. “Schools should prioritize reopening for grades K-5 and for students with special needs who would be best served by in-person instruction.”

When Ingoglia emailed Superintendent Melissa Kaczkowski, she received a response within hours – but it was not compliant.

“The superintendent defended her actions and is adhering to the six-foot social distancing rule to a T,” Ingoglia said. “In both the CDC guidelines and the Illinois State Board of Education guidelines, it does say to practice social distancing but they reiterate whenever possible or as feasible. In all these documents, it says over and over that these children need to be in school for as long as possible, especially for kids 13 years and under.”

The school board is slated to vote on the reopening plan on July 20 by Zoom.

“Her decision is limiting the amount of time our children get to be face to face with the teacher and she made that decision without ever rolling out a plan to see how the community of parents feel about it,” said Ingoglia. “She based this plan off of thinking that there would be a hundred percent of our students returning when we all know that's just not going to be the case for many reasons.”