Returning students to school at a time when COVID-19 cases are on the rise again puts many parents in a dilemma: Return their unvaccinated children to school or enroll in an independent study. A parent in the Sacramento area told KCRA 3 News that she shouldn’t have to choose between her children’s health or education. “Our anxiety is growing day by day,” said Geetha Kapse. Kapse said Thursday she had to choose between sending her two daughters back to Winston Churchill Middle School, a prep school college, or choose independent online studies, which offer basic education and not advanced placement courses. Kapse said she does not feel safe sending her children to school when they are not vaccinated or protected against the coronavirus. Last year Winston Churchill continued to offer advanced learning through an online platform, but this year the hybrid online platform is not an option. A statement from the San Juan Unified School District reads: “This year, the district’s primary alternative to learning is independent study or homeschooling due to new state legislation making it distance education more difficult. We do not have a distance learning option this school year. Kapse said her children are now enrolled in standard learning classes as part of independent study and fear the girls will be too late when they eventually return to their advanced placement classes at Winston Churchill. “I love going to school and being with my friends,” Kapse’s daughter Pratha Kamble said. “Education is very important but it’s not worth putting my life on the line. And we don’t have to be forced to choose between education and health. “” I think maybe they should do some good social distancing, or just come up with distance learning and make it a hybrid model for people who want to go to school and people who want to stay in distance education, ”added Vipra Kamble, Kapse’s other daughter. San Juan Unified in a statement to KCRA 3 said that students enrolled in the district’s home-study or independent programs return to their current school during this school year and into the 2022-2023 re-entry. Thus, in the case of the children of Kapse, they are guaranteed to be able to return to Winston Churchill during the period indicated by the district. “The program my daughters are in right now – it’s amazing and I really like my current school district,” Kapse said, referring to Winston Churchill’s advanced placement classes. “I want to stay with this school district. They’ve been great so far, except now, only now I’m disappointed.” Kapse is one of more than 13,000 California parents who have signed a petition to get all of them. schools have an online hybrid model Click here for more details on the petition.