district for an option for remote learning. that was put into place for a virtual academy. only available for students with certain medical needs or individualized learning plans. i spoke with one parent. she made the hard decision to not send her three girls back to school. and she s feeling isolated when it comes to her concerns as a parent. i want you to hear a little bit of our conversation. my concerns are being ignored. they re being belittled. i m being shamed for not having the confidence of sending my kids in. and i wish the district would acknowledge their responsibility in offering a safe public education to all our children. reporter: because it doesn t feel safe to you? no. reporter: now, this comes as the public school system says they will have the test and trace program up to speed by the end of this month. this also comes as they ll be getting a new superintendent brought in.
do that contact tracing and make sure our students and staff stay safe for the long run. tony, thank you. enjoy your weekend. appreciate you. thank you. and we re going to answer more of your questions about keeping kids safe in school, next. g kids safe in school, next frequent heartburn? not anymore. the prilosec otc two-week challenge is helping people love what they love again. just one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn. because life starts when heartburn stops. take the challenge at prilosecotc dot com. i m so glad you re ok, sgt. houston. this is sam with usaa. do you see the tow truck? yes, thank you, that was fast. sgt. houston never expected this to happen. or that her grandpa s dog tags would be left behind. but that one call got her a tow and rental. .paid her claim. .and we even pulled a few strings. making it easy to make things right: that s what we re made for. usaa. what you re made of, we re made for.
are back in the classroom. coming up, doctors on stand by to answer the questions you tha have tested positive for covid-19. of the 530, nearly 400 are students. the district s testing and contact tracing programs have yet to be fully implemented despite assurances to parents their children would be safe. nbc s marv barrett is live at a chicago elementary school where 11 of 17 classrooms, 11 of 17, currently in quarantine. and mar, there s a parent i know, a chicago public schoolteacher. she told you she s, quote, walking in the door with trauma every day. what else are you hearing there? and how are city officials handling all of this? reporter: well, nearly a
with us. it makes sure everyone is going to stay safe. we re going to continue to build the protocols that are going to make a difference. every day we have 26,000 students coming to school, and our focus is with the shortages to continue to provide service. there s a lot of anxiety. there s a lot of frustration with all covid responses. i can say with assurance that every person that comes to work every day is doing everything we can to ensure safety. we re making sure that we clean as best as we can. we do need more kus toad yabs and teachers, but we re not going to do anything to short-change. we ve changed our policies. if you re showing any symptoms, we re asking that you stay home out of the abundance of caution. we re asking that any time there is any possible exposures, you notify the principal so we can