LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. — The activism of Jennifer Dale began when she watched her third grade daughter struggle with distance learning, kicking and screaming through her online classes.
The mother of three initially sent emails to her local school officials with videos of the disastrous school days for her middle daughter, Lizzie, who has Down syndrome. Over time, she connected with other parents and joined several protests calling for school buildings to reopen.
Now she helps organize events and has become a voice for what has become a statewide movement of parents calling for children to return to school in Oregon, one of only a handful of states that has required at least a partial closure of schools as long as local coronavirus infections remain above certain levels.
“This just isn’t plausible anymore. It’s not fair to the kids, who I am afraid aren’t getting an adequate education,” Dale said during an interview at her home in Lake Oswego as she juggled her work and helping her children who are distance learning. “Something needs to change. It is not working, and our kids are the sacrifices.”
In debates nationwide about opening schools, parents unhappy with distance learning are taking increasingly vocal roles in calling for more in-person instruction through grassroots organizing and legal challenges.
As the surge in coronavirus cases brings a new round of school closings, lawsuits by parents have followed in states including New York, California and Pennsylvania, arguing that remote learning is falling short of state education standards and causing harm to students.
In many communities, parents have turned out at demonstrations for school reopenings, often greeted by groups of other protesters including teachers and their union supporters asking for improved safety measures before students return.
The movement has gained substantial traction in Oregon, where parents have organized protests across the state, including one at the state Capitol in October that drew hundreds of parents. They have submitted petitions with thousands of signatures, posted anecdotes on social media and written to state officials.
A coalition of parent groups in the state is demanding that Oregon officials remove statewide barriers to in-person learning by Jan. 6 — the 300th day since the vast majority of students were last in a classroom.
Based on data from the state’s education department, around 9% of Oregon public school students have returned for in-person school or a hybrid schedule, a result largely of stringent metrics set by Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, for school reopening.
Initially, schools weren’t eligible to reopen their buildings, with some exceptions, unless the state’s positivity rate remained for three consecutive weeks below 5% — a number the state has not met since early July.
New reopening metrics were announced in October, allowing counties to transition toward in-person learning once they have fewer than 200 new infections per 100,000 residents. But still, state officials said only about 20% of Oregon students would be eligible for in-person learning.
