ST LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — School district leaders in St. Lucie County are working to help students better learn while quarantining.
Beginning last week, the district created a quarantine support staff.
Teachers from each campus have been hand-selected to assist students with the online learning platform and also tutor them if needed.
"My role as the quarantine support teacher is to support our students in their learning while they're on quarantine," said Ciara Trabal, Math Coach at White City Elementary School. "Typically it's about 20 minutes of a tutoring session."
In 2020, academic learning suffered due to the nuance of online learning.
"We do know that some students do much better when they have the support of an adult," said Helen Wild, Chief Academic Officer at St. Lucie Public Schools.
"With math, if they are not seeing the teacher model through the problem and work through the problem and give them something as a guide then that's when they have difficulty," said Trabal.
When students are notified that they're subject to quarantine, a support staff teacher from their respective school will reach out right away.
"I call the student or I set up the meeting and they join in onto my meeting and they'll see me, I'll see them," said Trabal.
From there, teachers can help the students with whatever questions they have.
"The parents are receptive," said Trabal. "They're glad that somebody has called because this is a tough time. It can be overwhelming."
Tutoring sessions are typically scheduled after school lets out.
Quarantine support staff teachers are teaching in physical classrooms during the day.
"Flexibility is key right now I think," said Trabal.
District leaders said they plan to keep the program in place indefinitely.