Only fraction of MPS students allowed into class now are showing up

MILWAUKEE - The doors are open, but not many students are walking through them.

This week, as Milwaukee Public Schools welcomed some students back who have special needs, FOX6 News learned just a fraction of the amount allotted took the district up on the offer.

Sarah Peoppel said her K5 daughter Lakelyn has Down syndrome, a G-tube, and a disease that causes a lot of physical delays. 

"We have to be comfortable with the education and the care that my child is receiving in that school," Peoppel said.

It is one reason Peoppel declined the offer to return her daughter to in-person learning.

"You want to take my, basically size of a 3-year-old, bus her across town for two days a week, three hours each day. I don't know if this school has a nurse. I don't any of these teachers or therapists," Peoppel said.

Peoppel was also not feeling comfortable with having to change her daughter's IEP.

"It was very inconvenient -- the options," Peoppel said.

Although there is the capacity to serve up to 300 students at three selected schools, Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association President Amy Mizialko is not shocked.

"We’ve seen very few families make the decision to send their children in," Mizialko said. "It does not surprise me that many families have chosen consistency and stability and predictability." 

The MPS spokesperson could not give FOX6 News specific numbers on the number of students who returned.

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Meanwhile, parents like Peoppel hope for some progress this year, while Mizialko said teachers want to be able to fully provide support.

"We want vaccines. We want to be inoculated -- and we want to be able to move into the next step," Mizialko said.

From just three schools to hopefully all of them, the plan is for all students to be back in class in April. The vote on a phased-in approach happens next month.