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Thank you to all of the families who responded to our school return survey. We will be sharing more in the coming weeks but wanted to recap some initial results from 139 families.

The families that responded were from throughout the state but concentrated in the Jackson metroplex area. They were fairly evenly divided between African American and white families, with three families being of Native American heritage. The ages of children ranged from pre-K to community college.

Almost all families were aware of their school district’s plan for school return and most described their district as having a hybrid (option for both traditional and virtual return) plan. Most families expressed a preference for either a virtual or hybrid re-opening plan.

Safety and children getting sick or bringing the virus home to others were the most common concerns cited. Concerns regarding the quality of virtual learning and how disabilities would be accommodated were cited too.

Fifty-one of the families said their child had an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 Plan. Those families shared their concern about how their children’s disabilities would be accommodated and if sending their children to school physically to get the accommodations they need would jeopardize their health. There were references to the pandemic making the mental health challenges of some students worse.

A majority of families said that they had some concerns about the pandemic making their children fall behind academically, but a significant minority said their children did better with virtual learning, and some families said COVID and school changes didn’t affect their children’s academic progress.  There was strong support for wearing masks, hand washing and social distancing to help control the virus. The most frequently cited unanswered question families mentioned is why school reopening cannot be postponed until after Labor Day.

Some families asked for support with specific situations on their surveys. We always want to support you and advocate with you for what you want for your child, but the surveys were anonymous so we do not have a way of knowing how to contact you. Please feel free to call us at 601-355-0915 or email us at info@faams.org if you would like support with a specific situation.