'Like saying I don't love her': Parents torn as some schools face greater reopening risks

We analyzed COVID-19 cases by ZIP code. The virus has affected poorer school communities more severely than wealthier areas in the same district.

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Siblings Jessica Tzul, 9, and Freddy Tzul, 7, are students at Warfield Elementary School in Indiantown, Florida. Their father, Freddy Vasquez, has decided to enroll the elementary students and his two high-school-age children through the virtual learning option and to send them back to campus only when COVID-19 cases decline. "I don't agree with reopening schools," Vasquez said. "The situation is getting worse, and sending kids back to school will make it worse."
Siblings Jessica Tzul, 9, and Freddy Tzul, 7, are students at Warfield Elementary School in Indiantown, Florida. Their father, Freddy Vasquez, has decided to enroll the elementary students and his two high-school-age children through the virtual learning option and to send them back to campus only when COVID-19 cases decline. "I don't agree with reopening schools," Vasquez said. "The situation is getting worse, and sending kids back to school will make it worse." LEAH VOSS/TCPALM

After COVID-19 killed one of his co-workers, Freddy Vasquez decided to keep his kids home when schools in Martin County, Florida, open Tuesday.  

“I take this very seriously,” said Vasquez of Indiantown. Remote learning may mean his four children receive a lower-quality education, but that’s “not enough of a reason to go back to school” when he feels lives are endangered.

About 25 miles northeast in the same school district, Amy Whitlach of Jensen Beach believes the coronavirus poses no greater risk than the common flu, and attending school is no different from shopping at Target or Walmart. 

“They need structure,” Whitlach said of her three sons, ages 10, 15 and 17. “This is really going to set kids back educationally and emotionally. We need to get somewhat back to normal.” 

Evidence supports both parents’ positions. A USA TODAY analysis of COVID-19 infection rates at the ZIP code level found that neighborhoods hit hardest by the coronavirus and others largely spared often exist side by side. Yet many district officials must craft a single plan for reopening schools that simultaneously serves either extreme.

In Martin County, for example, the infection rate in Vasquez’s Indiantown ZIP code is 14 times higher than in the ZIP code for Whitlach’s home in Jensen Beach.

Though that is one of the more dramatic examples uncovered by the analysis of nearly 10,000 ZIP codes where local health departments routinely report new COVID-19 cases, disparities can be found across the country.

The data shows a far greater risk to the health and safety of students, teachers, bus drivers, parents, elderly relatives and communities connected to schools in areas with high infection rates, while other school communities within the same district may feel relatively safe.

Yet the numbers also show that, overwhelmingly, the areas facing the greatest health crisis are the very same with the most to lose by delaying in-person instruction. These mostly nonwhite ZIP codes are disproportionately poor, so students may lack the devices or internet access they need to succeed with distance education.  

The stakes make for a nearly impossible choice.

No superintendent wants to be responsible for sending students and staff back to school when lives are at risk, said Kristi Wilson, American Association of School Administrators president and superintendent of Arizona’s Buckeye Elementary School District. Wilson’s colleagues have likened the decision to keeping bus routes open during a snowstorm when nearby districts have closed, she said.

“When you’re the first to do something and it goes badly – when you have the pressure of trying to meet everyone’s needs and then you fail – there's no amount of liability insurance out there that can help you when someone dies.”

Indiantown mother Maria Galarza sees a clear-cut choice: She'd rather her 12-year-old daughter fall behind in her studies than risk her life.

“For me,” Galarza said, “sending her to school is like saying I don’t love her.”  

The Warfield Elementary School campus in Indiantown, Florida, closed to students in March as COVID-19 began spreading across the United States. The Martin County School District plans for students to attend in person or virtually for the 2020-2021 school year.
The Warfield Elementary School campus in Indiantown, Florida, closed to students in March as COVID-19 began spreading across the United States. The Martin County School District plans for students to attend in person or virtually for the 2020-2021 school year. LEAH VOSS/TCPALM

Disparities within school districts

USA TODAY analyzed case reports for 9,900 ZIP codes – almost a third of the ZIP codes in the U.S. and home to 6,084 school districts and nearly 40,000 schools. The analysis showed that through July 20 more than 1 in 3 of the schools are in ZIP codes reporting COVID-19 infection rates that exceed state and national averages. Those neighborhoods often sit alongside others that have experienced below-average rates.

Coronavirus and ZIP codes: Coronavirus spares one area but ravages the next. Race and class spell the difference.

Studies indicate that the virus thrives at a higher rate in lower-income neighborhoods, and our analysis underscores those inequities: In ZIP codes with the highest infection rates – 250 or more per 10,000 – about 79% of the residents are nonwhite and the average median household income is $46,600.

Meanwhile, in ZIP codes where infection rates are lowest – 50 cases or fewer per 10,000 – about 75% of the residents are white and average median household income is $68,500.

Martin County Schools is a prime example of intra-district disparities. 

In the mostly white Jensen Beach ZIP code 34957, the median household income is above $54,000 and the infection rate is a district-low 60.7 per 10,000 residents.  

In contrast, Indiantown ZIP code 34956, home to five schools, has the highest percentage of minority residents and the lowest median household income in the district. It also has the district’s highest infection rate at 856 per 10,000. 

While a remote learning option is available, schools will open districtwide Tuesday despite experts’ recommendation that districts only reopen for in-person classes if COVID-19 cases are under control

Officials will need to be flexible and consider each school’s situation, Martin County Schools Superintendent Laurie Gaylord said, though she acknowledged administrators can’t guarantee an infection-free environment.

“People have to realize that we go on that front line every day and do the best job that we can,” Gaylord said. It’s “unrealistic for everyone to think we can do this without having some people get sick.”

Wendy Chiroy, 9, is a student at Warfield Elementary School in Indiantown, Florida. Chiroy's parents, Jose Morales and Irma Mazariegos, were struggling with the decision of whether to send the fourth-grader back to campus as COVID-19 cases rise in Martin County. Wendy votes for going back: "I want to see my friends. I'm not really nervous."
Wendy Chiroy, 9, is a student at Warfield Elementary School in Indiantown, Florida. Chiroy's parents, Jose Morales and Irma Mazariegos, were struggling with the decision of whether to send the fourth-grader back to campus as COVID-19 cases rise in Martin County. Wendy votes for going back: "I want to see my friends. I'm not really nervous." LEAH VOSS/TCPALM

The district is trying to comply in the safest way possible with Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran’s emergency order last month requiring schools to be open five days a week, Gaylord said. 

In the meantime, the Florida Education Association is suing Gov. Ron DeSantis to rescind the order and return decision-making power to school boards and superintendents, teachers union president Fedrick Ingram announced at a news conference July 20. 

“We believe that decisions such as how and when to reopen schools are best made at the local level,” Ingram said, citing Florida’s record numbers of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. 

The union is advocating for schools to start the fall semester with distance learning and for students to return to campuses when cases decline in their communities.  

‘Not a one-size-fits-all approach’

Public health experts agree that local infection rates should factor heavily into districts’ back-to-school plans.  

“The best and safest way to reopen schools is in the context of low community transmission,” Dr. Mike Ryan, the World Health Organization’s executive director for health emergencies, said in a July 13 press briefing. “That must be based on understanding the risks in the specific setting in which schools are.”

Schools in high-infection areas should postpone reopening, Anita Cicero, deputy director of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security, said at a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health briefing on July 16. 

The ZIP code data in the USA TODAY analysis includes all reported cases and does not reflect recent trends. That means areas in states like New York and New Jersey that suffered large outbreaks early in the pandemic show high infection rates that might not reflect current conditions the way that rates in hot-spot states like Florida do. What the ZIP code rates do reveal are the stark differences that can exist within tight boundaries like a school board district.

In southwest Arizona near the Mexico border, the rates in Yuma County’s Gadsden Elementary School District #32 illustrate the point. The district has eight schools in ZIP code 85349, where the COVID-19 infection rate on July 20 was 166 cases per 10,000 residents, which falls below the state rate of 207 per 10,000. 

Just 5 miles away in the same school district, ZIP code 85336 has been hit much harder. At least 320 of 441 residents in the all-Hispanic neighborhood have tested positive for COVID-19. That translates to an infection rate of 7,256 cases per 10,000 residents – 35 times the average of a state that was considered the world epicenter of COVID-19 activity in early July – and leaves district officials with a difficult decision.

“I don’t think that there’s any way to overstate the complexity with which we’re faced in thinking about trying to reopen our schools,” Annette Anderson, assistant professor and deputy director at the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools, said at the briefing. “This is not a one-size-fits-all approach.”

In South Carolina, COVID-19 infection rates vary widely among the demographically diverse ZIP codes that make up the state’s largest school district.

All but four of Greenville County’s 95 schools are in ZIP codes with infection rates higher than 100 per 10,000. Still, the district has wide disparities. 

ZIP code 29611, with the district’s lowest median household income and a mostly Black and Hispanic population, was experiencing an infection rate as of July 20 of 304 cases per 10,000 residents – more than double the statewide rate. Yet in the mostly white 29690 neighborhood about 20 miles north – and with a median household income more than $20,000 higher – the infection rate remains significantly lower at 72.4 per 10,000.  

The district's reopening plans include options for virtual learning as well as in-person attendance for one, two or five days a week. The county’s transmission rate, hospital capacity and individual school outbreaks could influence which option is implemented, and officials will allow for individual schools to temporarily alter attendance plans if necessary, district superintendent W. Burke Royster wrote in an email. 

‘The pressure is tremendous’

Wilson, the school administrators association president, sees the stress and weariness she feels reflected on fellow superintendents’ faces during daily Zoom calls.

Every path forward is shrouded in uncertainty; every viable option has a definite downside.

“The digital divide, the homework gap, ZIP code inequities – there’s an ethical framework by which we have to make decisions about how to allocate time and resources,” Wilson said. 

Kristi Wilson
Kristi Wilson Courtesy photo
Kristi Wilson, American Association of School Administrators president
“If someone gets sick and dies on my watch, I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror knowing I made that decision.”

Conflicting expectations converge from all sides: There are parents advocating for school buildings to reopen, and teachers unions filing lawsuits to prevent it. Some school administrators are adamant about wearing masks; others are aligned against such a policy. 

Executive orders, political figures’ proclamations and ever-evolving studies about how the virus affects different age groups complicate matters further. 

“The pressure is tremendous,” Wilson said. “The superintendent’s chair is a lonely chair, especially through COVID-19.”

Becky Pringle
Becky Pringle Provided
Becky Pringle, vice president of the National Education Association.
“We can make up those learning gaps. We cannot replace someone who has fallen victim to this disease.”

The National Education Association is working toward solutions school officials can implement to alleviate some of those safety concerns while keeping low-income students and students of color from falling behind, said Becky Pringle, the union’s vice president.

Some experimental ideas include opening school buildings to academically at-risk students and those who don’t have computers or internet access at home, or bringing back retired teachers to provide tutoring.   

“We can make up those learning gaps,” said Pringle, a middle school science teacher of 31 years. “We cannot replace someone who has fallen victim to this disease.”

Maria Morales is mother to Grace Hernandez, 4, who is entering pre-kindergarten, and Leslie Morales, 14, who is entering eighth grade at Indiantown Middle School in Florida. Morales has decided to keep her daughters at home to attend school virtually this year because "it's safer at home," she said. “I think it’s OK that schools are reopening, but I think every family should make their own decision.”
Maria Morales is mother to Grace Hernandez, 4, who is entering pre-kindergarten, and Leslie Morales, 14, who is entering eighth grade at Indiantown Middle School in Florida. Morales has decided to keep her daughters at home to attend school virtually this year because "it's safer at home," she said. “I think it’s OK that schools are reopening, but I think every family should make their own decision.” LEAH VOSS/TCPALM

That’s why Indiantown parent Mirna Lopez will keep her daughters, 9 and 13, home when Martin County schools open. “I’d rather have my kids miss out for a year instead of going to school and something happening,” Lopez said in Spanish. 

As infection rates climb in ZIP codes across the country, Wilson is weary of hearing that if Walmart is open, schools should be, too

“It makes for a great political point, but does little to ensure the safety of the children and staff that we’re entitled to protect and serve,” Wilson said. “If someone gets sick and dies on my watch, I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror knowing I made that decision.”

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