Parents who kept kids at home for fear of Covid are reported for neglect

[Jilly_in_VA]

Paullette Healy can tick off the ways her family’s life has been disrupted over the last three months: her younger child’s nightmares, the hours she has poured into collecting evidence to prove she’s a fit parent and an arduous legal process that still looms to clear her name.

From early November through 1 January, the Brooklyn family was under investigation by the administration for children’s services, or ACS, the New York City agency tasked with looking into suspected cases of child abuse and neglect. Healy had been reported for “educational neglect” for not sending her two children to school amid Covid fears, though she says her kids kept up with their work remotely.

Last fall, the city government issued guidance discouraging educators from reporting parents who kept kids home out of fear when schools reopened. But that has not been enough to stop families motivated by Covid concerns from getting caught up in the web of child protective services – a blunt instrument that disproportionately targets low-income families of color who have already suffered the most harm during the pandemic.

The report that spurred the investigation into the Healy family was one of more than 2,400 that New York City school personnel made to the New York statewide central register for child abuse and maltreatment during the first three months of the 2021-22 school year, according to data obtained by the 74 through a public record request – about 45% more than were reported over the same time span a year prior, when most of the city’s nearly 1 million students were learning remotely.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/27/covid-kids-school-reported-for-neglect
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Appalling and discriminatory

[questionseverything]

1. When the guidelines were changed from 10 days to 5 days

Parents who said their child was still sick at 6 days were threatened

The administrations want kids in school wether they are safe or not it seems, probably because they don’t want their summer schedules messed with

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. Gotta keep that school-to-prison pipeline pumping!

[BigmanPigman]

3. School districts get a certain amount $$$ for each student

showing up at school each day. That is why teachers make learning contracts when kids are on a trip and out of school. A student has to do work at home to get credit for each day. It is a contract and the school gets the $$$ if the student completes the contract.

I don't know why this would be a reason to call CPS. Being absent from school is not a legit reason to call CPS. I know teachers have to report any abuse they see or they could get fired. I taught for almost 20 years and this is how it works in CA.

None of this makes sense from my perspective.

[SheltieLover]

4. Switch to homeschooling!

[liberal_mama]

5. If she's keeping the kids home anyway, she has the option to homeschool

My sister and I homeschooled our sons in New York State. New York doesn't make it easy to homeschool. There is a lot of paperwork, standardized testing, ect, but announcing they were homeschooling (in writing to the superintendent of their school district) and complying with the homeschool regulations would protect this family from this bullshit.