With Covid cases exploding in the Hudson Valley, we believe that we should be allowed to keep our children home for the first two weeks of 2022. The states numbers but are worsening daily. We are now seeing the highest numbers of cases since the pandemic began in 2019.

ABC7 states, “New York State is starting 2022 with a new single-day COVID case record - 85,476. The state's 24-hour positivity rate is currently at 22.24% and the 7-day positivity rate is just shy of 20%.” (1/1/22)

We request that our children be allowed to do remote learning, as they did for over a year. 

The school district is asking us to have our children tested for covid if they travelled for the holidays. We were informed of this less than two days before our children are due back in school.  Testing centers are overrun, and at home tests are incredibly hard to find.  

We do understand that many parents do not have someone available at home during the week to take care of their children. However, many of us do have someone that can ensure our children are learning at their computer. We should have the option to keep our children home while covid cases soar. The less children that are in school, the slower the spread will be in our community.  

It is unfair that in order to keep our families safe our children’s education be stunted.

We deserve an option BESIDES unexcused absences.

Some of us are unable to be vaccinated due to health reasons. Some of our children are unable to be vaccinated due to health reasons. Some of us care for family members that are unable to be vaccinated due to health reasons.

You are asking us to put actual lives at stake when there is already a system in place in which our children could learn safely. We are requesting that as parents, we have this option made available to us. 

The position you are putting us into, as parents, is terrible. We want our children to learn, but we also do not want them, and others around them, to get ill.