COLUMBIA, S.C. — Education's future in South Carolina was discussed at the State House today highlighting many points of concern
One of the first points was brought up by Senator Katrina.
Sen. Shealy, who heads the Joint Citizens and Legislative Committee on Children, said Thursday, that there are children who are unaccounted for since the pandemic shutdown in-school learning.
Shealy says every day students are not in school, some are in actual physical danger, "There are 50% less cases reported to DSS of child abuse and neglect. Well, let me tell ya, some of those kids haven’t been found, have been abused and neglected.”
Also at this meeting, the Accelerate Ed Task Force presented their report on schools returning in the fall.
Kathy Coleman, chair of the task force said, "The work of the task force has been guided, of course, by the key principle of protecting health, safety and wellness of students and staff while giving students the best possible learning experiences that are close to normal as health and safety would allow.”
After summarizing the report that includes individual school districts deciding what they will do along with the importance of stress support services and bullying prevention, Senator Brad Hutto questioned whether there would be a uniformed policy across the state.
"I get it if there’s – if the pandemic is still raging and its unsafe – I think safety’s got to be first," Hutto continues, "I think everybody would agree to that. But at some point and time, doesn’t the state, doesn’t superintendent Spearman have to set a statewide policy of whether we’re going to do this or not as opposed to letting each individual district set that up?”
To which Accelerate Ed Chair Kathy Coleman restated that their guidelines are meant for individuals school districts to decide.
Click here to watch the entire meeting.