ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – Many of you have asked about what working families are supposed to do if students return to class in the fall on a staggered schedule —meaning they go every other day, or every third day so social distancing guidelines can be followed.
Roanoke County says that’s one of the options they are looking at for the start of the 2020 school year and that leaves parents who work in the school system wondering what happens with their children.
We took your questions to Roanoke County school board chairman Don Butzer who admits this isn’t going to be a popular answer.
[Virginia schools preparing for a variety of scenarios when students return in the fall]
“They’re going to have to find childcare. The purpose of a staggered session is to keep a minimum number of kids in the building. Like any other business that re-opens, people are going to have to find some arrangements for childcare. If there is a hardship with any members of our staff, we’re going to have to work this out with the policies we have. This isn’t going to be just a Roanoke County problem, this is going to be a problem statewide,” said Butzer. “We’re going to expect the teachers be there every day.”
He hopes maybe there will be some accommodation made from the local or state government to help with childcare or the cost if it gets to be a large enough problem until the pandemic goes away.
“As I’ve said before this is an unprecedented situation. We’ve never seen anything like this before in my lifetime,” said Butzer. “Solutions to problems might be very unprecedented too. Creative people will find a way to do it if the funding and need is there.”
You can see what other options Roanoke County is preparing for in this 10 News story.