Thursday, September 16, 2021, Volume 16 Issue 2
Regular School Attendance
Regular consistent attendance at school and engagement in learning is critical for student success. The challenges of Covid-19 continue to plague the city and continue to impact the school. Governor Jay Inslee has ordered all schools open for the 21/22 school year and has required that all schools provide in-person instruction. As you know, we have been extremely busy in creating and implementing mitigating strategies as well as numerous health and safety protocols to keep the children and staff healthy in this challenging time. Your partnership in supporting regular school attendance is vital.
What you can expect from us?
A phone call when your student is absent and you have not let us know a reason ahead of time.
If your student is missing a lot of school, you may get a letter or phone call requesting a meeting so that we may work together to improve attendance.
Stay Home When Sick
Seattle Public Schools has initiated a new campaign this school year to help all of us maintain health and safety. This campaign is called Stay home when sick. You can help us by keeping your student home when they have a known exposure to someone with COVID-19, or new symptoms that are not caused by another condition.
Symptoms of COVID-19 may include:
· Fever or chills
· Cough
· Fatigue
· Headache
· Sore throat
· Nausea or vomiting
· Congestion or runny nose
· Diarrhea
· New loss of taste or smell
· Muscle or body aches
· Difficulty breathing
Online Learning Options
We have heard from some families that they are keeping their unvaccinated students at home until they can be vaccinated or they are keeping their student home due to ongoing fears of Covid-19. This means you will need to establish another way for your student to receive their education. There is a compulsory attendance law in the state of Washington that requires school attendance either at public school, private school, online schools, or home schooling provided by the parent.
Seattle Public Schools has created an online learning option for a limited number of students in grades K – 5. This is a separate school. It is not part of Thurgood Marshall Elementary. The school is called VOPP (Virtual option pilot program). You can find out more about VOPP at https://www.seattleschools.org/news/virtual-learning-option/ We understand that there is currently a waiting list for student enrollment at this school.
For students who are unable to enroll in VOPP, SPS has identified several alternative online learning options that are state approved and available at no cost to our students. The state-approved online programs are available to any student in SPS. If a student disenrolls from SPS, students will not be guaranteed a space at their option school next school year.
State-approved online options include:
· OASIS
· Washington Virtual Academies (The K-5th grade enrollment is rolling; the 6th-12th grade application deadline was Monday, August 23.)
For families interested in homeschooling, with district resources, please view our Cascade Parent Partnership website.
We truly hope that your student will remain enrolled with us at Thurgood Marshall Elementary and that we can continue to work together. The Thurgood Marshall Community is a warm and caring place and we value each and every one of your children as well as you. We are here. We will continue to provide high quality instruction and enriching educational experiences for your child. We will continue to follow all health and safety protocols and use all mitigating measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Please reach out if you have questions.
Other News
The district is now tracking COVID cases by school and not just by region.
You can find that information on the COVID-19 Dashboard here:
2021-2022 COVID-19 Dashboard
The district’s Business Intelligence and Health Services teams partnered to design a public-facing dashboard showing confirmed COVID-19 cases at Seattle Public Schools.
Refreshed weekly on Mondays, this dashboard disaggregates (dividing data into parts) cases by region, week, and role to provide an understanding of the pandemic across the district.
