LOS ANGELES – When it comes to remote learning, parents say students across LAUSD weren’t dealt the same hand. Even within the same household.  

“With each child I had a different experience," Adrianna Ruiz said.

Ruiz is the mother of five children in elementary, middle and high school. She says her oldest – an 11th grader -- had Zoom meetings twice a week for one hour with only one of her teachers.

“Other than that, she just had work sent her way and she was told if you have any questions then contact us," she said.

Meanwhile her youngest, who she describes as a feisty fourth grader, started with meetings twice a week but those eventually dwindled down to nothing. She says her child with special needs had the most contact, but overall Ruiz was disappointed with the amount of face time her kids got with their teachers.

“It wasn’t enough," she said. "Our kids got cheated.”

Ruiz is a member of the grassroots parent advocacy group Speak Up. The group surveyed their members and based on some 400 responses found what they called “huge inconsistencies” in online instruction.

Two out of five students had live online contact with teachers every day, but for other students, it was once a week or even less.  More troubling, they say, according to parent responses, Black and Latino students were far more likely than white students to have had no live interaction with teachers at all once schools closed down.

Speak Up also asked parents to list their top priorities when it comes to reopening schools in the fall. Ninety-two percent said they want the district to get parent input before decisions are made. They also want all students to get feedback and be graded on their work. 

Ruiz says she found it difficult to motivate her son to try harder since he knew his grade wouldn’t be affected. 

“Because he kind of settled," she explained. "He had bad grades and he was like, 'Well, I’m still going to pass.'”

Internet connection was also tricky with five devices competing for bandwidth, but what she felt was really lacking was training for parents.

“How do you paste from Schoology to maybe Google docs and come back this way and share your screen and….no," she said, adding she often had to teach herself by searching for instructions online.

LAUSD declined to comment on the Speak Up survey but in his most recent update, Superintendent Austin Beutner said the district had conducted a survey of their own regarding reopening. 

“There were a significant number of families who, based on current circumstances, would not send their children to a school facility," he said. He added that parents want to see regular cleaning and sanitizing in school facilities, as well as social distancing and the use of masks.  

As for Ruiz, she's definitely not ready to send the kids back to school.

“Because me as a parent, I see that they have a hard time keeping their mask on," she explained. "They still want to touch everything."

She’d like to keep her kids home at least through the end of 2020 and she wants the district to focus less on reopening and more on improving online learning.