By Bracey Harris 

Yolanda Logan, the parent engagement coordinator for the Oxford School District, spent two weeks in July making home visits — some announced, some cold-calls — to check in on the students educators had been most worried about when schools shut down in the spring. Some had test scores at the bottom at their class. Some belonged to families who had been struggling to make ends meet before the pandemic struck and devastated the economy.
 
Logan asked the students, and the adults in their lives, how they were holding up and what support they needed. She tried to gauge their comfort level with the district’s plan to reopen buildings this fall and address any concerns. Ready to answer questions about nuts-and-bolts issues, she had a checklist of important dates like registration deadlines and the first day of school at the ready. But as she went door to door, she met an unexpected wave of opposition.
 
Many Black and Latino families told her they were uncomfortable with sending their children back. When she was off the clock and brought up the issue with fellow parishioners of one the city’s most prominent Black churches, she met the same response: They wouldn’t budge, she said. “You (could) hear the intensity in their voices, hear their forcefulness.”
 
Oxford is one of many districts offering parents a choice of either in-person or remote learning for their children as coronavirus cases continue to surge across the country. In Oxford, one of the state’s most diverse districts, parents are making their choices along distinctly racial lines. About 52 percent of the students who will stay at home for at least the first two months of the school year are Black, even though Black children account for only a third of the district’s enrollment.
 
While Latino and Asian parents were more likely to opt-in for distance learning than white families, a greater percentage of Latino families enrolled their children for in-person instruction than Black families. White students, who make up just over half of the district’s student population schools, represent almost two-thirds of the students the district expects to see back on campus this fall.
 
The trend could become national, as communities of color continue to be hit harder by the disease. Due to existing social inequalities that influence health outcomes like food insecurity, affordable housing, education and access to health care, Black Americans are more likely to have pre-existing health challenges, such as diabetes and hypertension, that put them at higher risk for Covid-19 complications. One-third of Black respondents to a Washington Post/Ipsos poll said they personally knew someone who died from the virus, compared to 17 percent of Hispanic adults and 9 percent of white adults. And although the majority of parents in a poll released on Thursday from the publication said returning to schools in their communities this fall would be unsafe, Black and Hispanic parents were more likely to view in-person instruction as unsafe compared to white participants.
 
As schools prepare to open in some states, Black families, in particular, may find the risks are too high. Almost 70 percent of Black households with school-aged children said they support or strongly support keeping all instruction online, according to another recent poll, from the University of Southern California’s Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research. Only 32 percent of white parents indicated the same.
 
Several parents of color participating in a Tennessee focus group convened by The New Teacher Project, a nonprofit that advocates for policies addressing inequities in education, said they were afraid to let their children return to school. A few parents indicated they were willing to leave their jobs to stay at home with their children if need be, said Kenya Bradshaw, vice president of engagement for the nonprofit. Education officials who don’t consider how racial disparities may impact parental choices about remote learning run the risk of making ill-informed decisions and “alienating communities that have been adversely impacted by education in the past,” Bradshaw added.
 
During Yolanda Logan’s home visits, in which Oxford’s superintendent, Brian Harvey, often joined, Black and Latino parents explained their reasons for keeping their children at home. Some wondered whether their children would receive proper medical care from local health providers if they fell sick. One student said he needed remote schooling because the flexible schedule allowed him to continue working and helping to support his family.
 
For one high schooler, the fear of contracting the virus at school and spreading it to vulnerable relatives at home was particularly acute.
 
“I can’t go back, Mr. Harvey,” Logan said he told the superintendent. “My mother has asthma.”
 
As a Black woman, Logan understood these fears, although she is choosing to send her 9-year-old twins back to school. She’s looked at data suggesting that children don’t seem to get as seriously ill from the virus, but when she’s mentioned her confidence in the reopening plan and touted the district’s new mobile health clinic, only a few parents have changed their minds.
 
Yet as parents of color make decisions that feel safest for their families, there could be a steep academic cost. If districts are unwilling, or financially unable, to step up with additional resources to improve online learning their children could lose additional ground. A group of analysts with the private firm, McKinsey & Company, projected that if students do not return to in-class schooling until January 2021, Black students may experience at least 10 months of learning loss, and Latino students nine months. If more families of color feel compelled to stay home, while more white families send their children to school, persistent achievement gaps could balloon further.

• “What safety measures are Mississippi's colleges and universities taking to reopen?” Mississippi Today
• “Corinth Schools reports first COVID-19 case five days after return,” Daily Journal