'This Is Unacceptable': Fairfield's Long-Term Remote Learning Not Enough, Some Parents Say

FAIRFIELD, CT — After months of uncertainty amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Fairfield schools have introduced a remote learning option for students with immunocompromised family members, but some parents say it’s not enough.

“This is unacceptable,” said Lazeh Yeoh, who has an adult son fighting cancer after three organ transplants and a younger son, Mason Yeoh, who is learning remotely full-time during his junior year at Fairfield Warde High School.

Mason, who has high-functioning autism, has an individualized education program and a 504 plan. He is also entitled to a paraprofessional, Lazeh said.

“Mason has to educate himself,” she said last week in an emotional public comment delivered over the phone during a school board meeting. “He has one tutor now, who is an English teacher, who is supposed to be tutoring my son in all subjects.”

Lazeh and Mason were among about 25 Fairfielders who rallied for long-term remote learning last month outside Sullivan Independence Hall after the school district did not offer its Remote Learning Academy for a second year due to limitations at the state level.

The district’s new policy, approved Sept. 14 by the board, extends existing homebound instruction availability on a case-by-case basis to students whose family members are medically fragile.

Lazeh said the remote learning setup is harmful to her son’s mental health, a sentiment echoed by Macy Schulman, another Warde student who is participating in long-term remote learning.

“I have no interaction with my classmates, which is isolating,” Schulman said in a public comment made via phone call.

Her mother, Elizabeth Vienneau, expressed frustration that her daughter may not be able to take the classes in which she enrolled.

“Orchestra, Mandarin 3 and honors history aren’t luxuries, they were earned through hard work,” said Vienneau, who has type 1 diabetes and earlier in her public comment told the board that, “if (Macy) brings the delta coronavirus home, she could be without a mother.”

Executive Director of Special Education and Student Services Robert Mancusi said the district has struggled to find staff to teach specialized courses to long-term remote learners and may not be able to offer those students certain advanced classes. Officials hope to find certified staff who will agree to teach the uniquely situated students in the evenings.

As of last week, nine families had students who were approved for long-term remote learning and another five requests were pending, Mancusi said.

“It is a very individualized plan,” he said. “We want to work with our families to make this work. We know this is really hard.”

Also included in the board’s remote learning vote was a policy for how to handle short-term at-home education for students mandated by health officials to quarantine after a positive coronavirus test or potential exposure. Board members Jennifer Jacobsen and Bonnie Rotelli opposed the measure on the grounds that the policy was too broad and did not require the appropriate continuity of education.

Elementary students learning from home in the short-term will be included in a daily Google Meet with their class and will work with a support instructor, three of which the district is hiring, as well as their classroom teacher before and after school.

Secondary students will receive assignments via Google Classroom and have access to their teachers through email, as well as recorded lessons, live instruction with classroom cameras or 20-minute Google Meet sessions.

As of Monday, 21 students were in quarantine and another 13 had recently tested positive for the virus, according to district data.