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Challenges parents are facing with remote schooling

remote schooling challenges
Posted at 5:49 AM, Apr 03, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-03 05:49:44-04

LANSING, Mich. — Parents are speaking out about the challenges they're facing trying to make sure their children are educated at home.

Jacob Gonzalez is a full time working parent with 5 kids.

Gonzalez says he doesn't worry too much with his younger kids learning remotely, but worries more about his son in High School.

"He kind of fell behind this year, so without, you know being able to be there and get the extra tutoring that he was getting prior to this I'm kind of worried about him falling behind even more," said Gonzalez.

The online learning concerns come after Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an Executive Order Thursday to suspend face to face learning for all K-12 schools for the rest of the school year.

Gonzalez says that now his kids have to work online for class he's concerned they wouldn't be as focused as they would be in a traditional classroom setting.

"When he's got the option sometimes to be on his computer to be on his video game or something like that -- I know he's not always going to make the right choice when I'm not around."

Kelly Mackey is familiar with the homeschooling process and has even used it to teach children before. But, she says she is still running into obstacles when it comes to making sure she has all the materials for the children in her home.

"Our biggest resource is our library so the fact that we don't have that to be able to check out books to supplement any curriculum that we have," said Mackey.

"If we don't have the books to be able to pull from the library to show this was the life of such and such or this was the timeline or something then we are really, really dependent on computer access," added Mackey.

Eaton Rapids Superintendent Bill DeFrance says their district is one that is working to make materials for students who don't have online access.

"We're going to build a hybrid network that takes advantage of the online capabilities that we have as well as building in, putting together what you and I would call learning packets," said DeFrance.

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