State survey shows families want to send students back to school

With the announcement of how the 2020-21 school year will be handled in less than two weeks, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) released survey results of how families feel about sending their kids back to school.

The MDE conducted an informal survey of Minnesota families between June 15 and July 6.

The survey included questions about how they felt about distance learning and their thoughts on the 2020-21 school year.

More than $130,000 surveys were completed and they were offered in English, Hmong, Spanish, and Somali.

According to the press release, 64 percent of those responding said they would feel comfortable sending their students back to school this fall.

Of this group, 94 percent said they would send their student(s) back to school on a full-time basis.

Less than 12 percent of those who responded said they would not feel comfortable sending their student(s) back to school. 24 percent were unsure.

For those who did not feel comfortable sending their student(s) back, 84 percent were concerned about public health, 43 percent said their student(s) or family are medically fragile, and 38 percent said distance learning went well with their student(s).

For individuals still unsure about sending student(s) back, the majority would be comforted if schools would implement daily cleaning of common surfaces and other areas (87%)

Smaller class sizes (76%), daily health checks (73%), and decrease in the number of COVID cases (69%) were the other top responses.

More than 52 percent of those surveyed said they had either....

To see more on this story pick up the print edition of the July 16, 2020 of the LifeEnterprise.