Over 400 students across the Anglophone East School District registered to be homeschooled this year, according to the superintendent.
Greg Ingersoll says that’s aside from the 41 students learning from home because they or a family member are immuno-compromised.
“So this year, there’s over 200 new students. So the 210 last year plus another 200 in the summer, so those are students that would be in our classes this fall if it wasn’t for COVID but their parents have decided to keep them home,” he says.
Ingersoll is worried many of them will decide to come back to school later this year.
“So if all 200 of them all say ‘well, it looks like things are going pretty good at public school, things I was worried about aren’t that bad, I think I’ll send the kids back’, so what could start happening in October, November, December…
He recommends making that decision before the end of the month to ensure they have a spot in class.
“What if there’s no space in the classrooms in the school that they were last year, then they’ll have to go to another school and we’ll have to bus them to the other school because that’s our responsibility to do that,” he says
Ingersoll adds that the district is already facing logistical challenges as an increasing number of students who opted out of school transportation are now opting back in.
