Archives for category: Safety
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Dr. Nan Fulcher and Justin Parmenter: A Warning for North Carolina

By dianeravitch
July 15, 2020 //
4

NBCT Teacher Justin Parmenter and microbiologist Dr. Nan Fulcher write here about North Carolina’s reliance on limited studies to justify reopening schools.

 

A Warning for Governor Cooper: the burden of COVID-19 in NC is far higher than in countries that struggled with school outbreaks after reopening

On Tuesday Governor Roy Cooper announced that North Carolina students will return to school for in-person instruction in August. Schools will be expected to follow distancing protocols and symptoms screenings will be done as students and staff enter school buildings. Also on Tuesday, North Carolina set new records for single day death totals and COVID hospitalizations.

On Saturday we wrote about the COVID-19 data that North Carolina school officials are mulling over. In analyzing the specific points presented by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) to the NC State Board of Education, we noted the scarcity of information on COVID-19 spread in schools, and the potential for misinterpreting the few studies that do exist.

In our article, we only addressed the studies cited by the NCDHHS that supported the statement “schools do not appear to have played a major role in COVID-19 transmission.”

We did not address the fact that the NCDHHS failed to include other data in their report — information about countries that had already reopened their schools prior to the end of the 2019-2020 school year.

To shed more light on reopened schools, we now highlight a recent New York Times (NYT) article, which was published the same day as our last blog article.

The NYT outlines critical considerations for reopening U.S. schools, citing much of the same research we analyzed — and identifying the same flaws.

In addition, the authors discuss what happened when countries reopened their schools following initial closure due to the first COVID-19 cases. Information about reopened schools was absent from the NCDHHS’s literature review. This data could have greatly helped to inform discussion about North Carolina’s plan for the upcoming school year.

The NYT article cites the report entitled “Summary of School Re-Opening Models and Implementation Approaches During the COVID 19 Pandemic, which was distributed by the University of Washington Department of Global Health (updated 7-6-2020).

To set the stage for analyzing the UW report, we generated some values that reflect the COVID-19 burden in each country at the time they reopened their schools. Because the studies had different methods for determining transmission rates, direct comparison of each country’s infection data was not possible.

Therefore, to illustrate the prevalence of COVID-19 in each country, we determined the number of new daily cases expressed as a fraction of the country’s total population. (For example, Denmark had 198 new reported cases the day schools reopened; that value divided by the total population of 5.8 million equals 0.34 cases/10,000 people)

Table 1. COVID-19 infection data from six countries on the date that schools reopened.

New daily cases on reopen date per 10,000 people

Denmark 0.22
France 0.01
Germany. 0.15
Israel. 0.1
Norway. 0.07
S. Korea. 0.01

In the UW report, the authors considered Denmark and Norway to be among the European countries with low community transmission, while Germany was considered to be “higher”. This conclusion doesn’t track with our calculations, but high variability among the number of new daily case reports at the time could account for the discrepancy.

As for the outcome of reopening schools, the UW report presented the following results: [*NOTE: each country employed different mitigation measures and different strategies for grouping students and determining which ages returned to school.]

Denmark and Norway – These two countries reopened schools gradually, starting with preschool and then all students six weeks later. This approach did not result in an increased rate of growth of COVID-19 cases in either country.

Germany – The return of older students later in the reopening process was accompanied by increased transmission among students; staff infection rates were equivalent to that of the general population. Individual schools were closed for quarantine as outbreaks occurred. Recently, Germany closed a small number of schools preemptively in response to local community outbreaks.

Israel – Schools adopted fewer social distancing measures due to crowding. After reopening schools, over 300 children and staff were infected within a month, with over 130 cases at a single school. Around 200 schools out of 5,200 were closed for quarantine during June, others remaining open through the end of the month.

South Korea – Soon after reopening, schools near a warehouse facility outbreak were closed and other schools postponed reopening. Other closings have occurred in response to other small community clusters. No reports of school-related infections have been reported to date.

France – There were no publications on the outcome, but news accounts indicate that, despite a small number of cases (70 per 1.2 million students) after gradual opening in mid-May, cases have subsided and schools have fully reopened with no additional outbreaks.

The overall conclusion from UW was that reopening schools in countries where community transmission was low did not increase overall spread, but opening schools in countries where community transmission was higher correlated with school outbreaks and subsequent school closures.

To consider how reopening U.S. schools will compare to the other countries’ experiences, we looked at the current data for new daily cases for the entire country and for North Carolina (Table 2).

Table 2. Current COVID-19 infection data (7-11-2020) for the United States and North Carolina.

New daily cases per 10,000 people, 7-12-20

United States 1.87
North Carolina 2.35

It’s clear that none of the countries that reopened schools in late spring had anywhere near the extent of COVID-19 that’s present in the U.S.

Further, the value for new daily cases from each country that reopened schools (with the exception of Israel) continued to decline after school was back in session.

With transmission rates continuing to rise in the U.S. and in North Carolina, the number of daily new cases in both places could double by the time school starts on August 17th.

If the experience of other countries holds true — that COVID-19 spread in reopened schools reflects the prevalence of the infection in the community — reopening schools where the number of active cases is high would present an enormous risk for students and staff in those areas.

Even if children don’t pass along SARS-CoV-2 as easily as adults, there could still be a significant increase in spread among students and their families in communities hardest hit by COVID-19.

NC school officials urgently need to consider the lessons from other countries’ school reopening experiences, and look at the pace at which the virus is spreading right now … and where it’s predicted to be this fall and beyond.

Nan Fulcher earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of North Carolina, specializing in infectious disease research. She’s involved in science and outdoor education programming for children and does freelance graphic design.

 

Categories Health, North Carolina, Safety

Ralph Ratto: COVID and School Ventilation

By dianeravitch
July 15, 2020 //
19

Ralph Ratto is a retired teacher in New York State. In this post, he reminds readers of the importance of school ventilation systems, which are seldom in a good state of repair, and the necessity of paying to clean and upgrade them for the safety of students and staff.

He asks: Why is Congress willing to fund banks and big corporations but not the health of our nation’s children and their teachers.

If school ventilation systems fail to provide fresh air before Covid, what do you think will happen with Covid? So my question is really this, why haven’t school districts, and states remediated while school buildings were closed?

This is not rocket science! Clean those univents and filters in classrooms, install new ones where needed, and add exhaust fans.

Spacing desks 6′ apart is not enough, cleaning surfaces is not enough! If the air quality is poor all of that will not matter.

The Feds and states must pour money into our school infrastructure if they want to open the economy. Forget the corporate bailouts, for once in my lifetime I would love our nation to put schools at the top of a national priority and support them with the funding needed.

Categories Funding, Health, Safety

The Reopening Question: Is It Safe?

By dianeravitch
July 14, 2020 //
99

There is one basic principle that must be honored in deciding whether and when to reopen schools: SAFETY FIRST.

No child or teacher or staff member should die because of a rush to reopen.

NBC News reported:

WASHINGTON — As the calls from the White House to fully reopen schools grow louder, evidence continues to pile up to show that scenario is unlikely to happen, at least not on the national scale President Donald Trump desires. That’s not because state and local officials aren’t trying, but because the spread of the virus is beginning to overwhelm even the best-laid plans.

Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, for example, had been working on a blueprint to reopen schools in August as part of a long and delicate process. But with the virus now surging across Texas, the outbreak may make the decision for him.

“Initially I thought we would be ready, but I’m starting to have second thoughts,” Hinojosa told MSNBC’s Garret Haake last week. “Our parents have pivoted, more than 50 percent of them are now saying they don’t want to come, and we’re hearing loud and clear from our employees, especially our teachers, that they have a lot of concerns about how we can pull this off.”

His experience could be a preview of what’s to come for many school districts.

Public health experts, school officials, and teacher unions are warning that any proposal to physically reopen likely depends on containing the broader spread of the virus outside the classroom.

“I think it does become hard or impossible in areas with very high rates of infection,” Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins University and an advocate for reopening schools, said. “People will just be getting sick in the community and bringing it into the school. It will be very disruptive to the ability to stay open.”

With cases rising rapidly in much of the country, even states and districts with the most well-crafted and aggressive reopening plans could be whistling past the empty schoolyard if that’s the case.
San Diego, which was planning to open five days a week, announced on Monday it would only offer online learning thanks to the recent rise in coronavirus cases. Los Angeles will do the same.

Officials in Nashville and Atlanta have also announced the school year will start online due to their own coronavirus surges. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has warned that school districts, some of which are already adopting hybrid plans, will not reopen if the state can’t keep infections down.

This presents obstacles to President Trump’s late scramble to open up schools, which he’s so far pursued by demanding that the Centers for Disease Control scale back its safety guidelines and by threatening schools that don’t open with some kind of financial punishment.

Even as Texas state officials move forward with a plan to require all schools to reopen full-time, for example, Governor Greg Abbott has cautioned that “if we continue to see COVID spreading the way that it is right now, it may be necessary to employ that flexibility and use online learning.” State guidance materials caution schools to design plans for “intermittent closure” if outbreaks occur.

The CDC offers some guidance to schools on how to isolate students or staff if they fall ill, but if parents pull their kids out of class in large numbers in favor of a remote learning option, that could effectively quash reopenings even if they continue on paper.

Both the worsening pandemic and Trump’s demands threaten to accelerate the trend by increasing anxiety about health conditions in schools. In Texas, a poll in June by the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project found 65 percent of respondents still considered schools “unsafe” for students.

“For me the goal is not just to open, it’s to stay open,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, a former CDC director, said on MSNBC. “If we open for a week or two and have to shut down the nation again, that would be a much worse travesty for our nation’s young children.”

Keeping teachers on board with reopening amid a raging series of outbreaks is also likely to be a struggle. American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten has warned of a potential exodus of teachers retiring, quitting, or taking leave if they decide conditions are unsafe.

Some officials affiliated with the Trump administration have notably hedged their calls for reopening with disclaimers that pushing down cases is a critical step.

“The first thing we need to do is we need to get the virus under control,” White House testing czar Admiral Brett Giroir, who has advocated for reopening schools, said on ABC News on Sunday. “When we get the virus more under control, then we can really think about how we put children back in the classroom.”

While the White House has not presented a clear alternative to CDC guidelines or committed to funding new safety measures, plenty of outside health officials have argued that physically reopening schools should be the nation’s top priority given the immense strain even partial closures put on families.

Experts have proposed an array of potential measures to get there, from isolating groups of students to prevent large outbreaks, to installing partitions around desks, to pooling staff tests to detect infections early, to hiring aides to back up teachers.

The White House has frequently cited recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, to attempt 5-day-a-week reopenings in schools.

But the AAP, seemingly alarmed by Trump’s approach, issued a joint statement with national teachers unions and the School Superintendents Association on Friday warning that any approach to schools needed to follow public health guidance and get buy-in from local parents and teachers.

Critically, they warned that reopening plans should be scrapped if the outbreak becomes too severe.
“Schools in areas with high levels of COVID-19 community spread should not be compelled to reopen against the judgment of local experts,” they wrote.

Categories Health, Safety

Orange County Approves Full Reopening

By dianeravitch
July 14, 2020 //
74

The Orange County, California, school board approved a full reopening of schools in the fall, with no mandatory masks or social distancing.

Orange County education leaders voted 4 to 1 Monday evening to approve recommendations for reopening schools in the fall that do not include the mandatory use of masks for students or increased social distancing in classrooms amid a surge in coronavirus cases.

The Board of Education did, however, leave reopening plans up to individual school districts.

Among the recommendations are daily temperature checks, frequent handwashing and use of hand sanitizer, in addition to the nightly disinfection of classrooms, offices and transportation vehicles.

The recommendations, contained in a white paper, widely support schools reopening in the fall. The document states that remote learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic has been an “utter failure” and suggests allowing parents to send their children to another district or charter school to receive instruction if their home district does not reopen.

Categories California, Health, Safety

New York Times: Secret CDC Report Warned of Danger of Opening Schools Without Proper Safeguards

By dianeravitch
July 12, 2020 //
77

Eileen Sullivan and Erica L. Green of the New York Times managed to get a copy of an internal (secret) report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that warned of the dangers of opening schools without adequate protection of students and staff.

WASHINGTON — Federal materials for reopening schools, shared the week President Trump demanded weaker guidelines to do so, said fully reopening schools and universities remained the “highest risk” for the spread of the coronavirus.

The 69-page document, obtained by The New York Times and marked “For Internal Use Only,” was intended for federal public health response teams to have as they are deployed to hot spots around the country. But it appears to have circulated the same week that Vice President Mike Pence announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would release new guidelines, saying that the administration did not want them to be “too tough.” It is unclear whether Mr. Trump saw the document, nor is it clear how much of it will survive once new guidance is completed.

(The cover page of the document is dated July 8, 2019, an obvious typographical error since the novel coronavirus did not exist then.)

What is clear is that federal health experts are using a road map that is vastly different from what Mr. Trump wanted.

While it is mostly a compilation of C.D.C. documents already posted online, it includes reopening plans drafted by states, districts and individual schools and universities. And the package, from the Community Interventions and Critical Populations Task Force, is pointed.

In a “talking points” section, the material is critical of “noticeable gaps” in all of the K-12 reopening plans it reviewed, though it identified Florida, Oregon, Oklahoma and Minnesota as having the most detailed.

“While many jurisdictions and districts mention symptom screening, very few include information as to the response or course of action they would take if student/faculty/staff are found to have symptoms, nor have they clearly identified which symptoms they will include in their screening,” the talking points say. “In addition, few plans include information regarding school closure in the event of positive tests in the school community.”

And its suggestions for mitigating the risk of school reopenings would be expensive and difficult for many districts, like broad testing of students and faculty and contact tracing to find people exposed to an infected student or teacher.

The debate about school reopenings comes as the virus is spreading at its fastest pace yet across the country, a trend some attribute to states reopening prematurely this spring on a timeline encouraged by Mr. Trump. Now some states are pausing their reopening plans and in some cases reimposing restrictions to contain the spread. Schools in California have had to cancel their plans for in-person classes as the virus surges..

And as Mr. Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos were trying to pressure local schools to comply with their reopening vision, the document was expressly saying the federal government should not override local judgment.

“These C.D.C. considerations are meant to supplement — not replace — any federal, state, local, territorial, or tribal health and safety laws, rules, and regulations” with which schools must comply, the packet states in bold lettering. “Implementation should be guided by what is feasible, practical, and acceptable and be tailored to the needs of each community…”

“This is the document we needed six weeks ago,” said Daniel A. Domenech, the executive director of the AASA, the School Superintendents Association, calling it “concise, accessible and actionable.”

“While it is a great resource for superintendents as they navigate the myriad issues they need to address as they work to reopen schools,” he said, “it is also a great communication tool, a resource that can be shared with the community to help account for decisions being made and to share reliable, science-based information.”

Since May, the C.D.C. website has cautioned that full reopening would be “highest risk,” and that in both K-12 and higher education settings, the more people interact, “and the longer that interaction, the higher the risk of Covid-19 spread.” The “lowest risk,” the guidelines say, would be for students and teachers to attend virtual-only classes — an option the administration this week began a full-court press against.

All week, the Trump administration has been raising the pressure on schools and universities to reopen with in-person education. On Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that international students whose colleges went fully online would have to transfer to a school offering in-person classes or leave the country.

By Wednesday, Ms. DeVos had publicly chastised a public school district in Fairfax County, Va., for offering parents a choice of in-person classes two days a week or fully online instruction. The department and the president said they were exploring options for using federal funding as leverage to force full reopening.

That Wednesday, Mr. Trump rejected the C.D.C. guidelines, calling them “very tough & expensive” on Twitter. Then Mr. Pence announced that the C.D.C. would issue new recommendations next week. “We just don’t want the guidance to be too tough,” he said.

On Friday, after repeating threats of cutting off federal funding from schools that do not fully reopen — which he does not have the authority to do — Mr. Trump lashed out again.

“Now that we have witnessed it on a large scale basis, and firsthand, virtual learning has proven to be TERRIBLE compared to In School, or On Campus, Learning,” he wrote on Twitter. “Not even close! Schools must be open in the Fall.”.

You may recall that when Betsy DeVos was interviewed by the Senate when she was confirmed, she sang the praises of virtual schools, despite the copious research that shows the deficiencies of online charter schools. Now she and Trump are insistent that schools must reopen fully for in-person instruction, five days a week, without the money to provide the safety protocols that the CDC recommends. In effect, they are urging the highest possible risk for students in K-12 and in colleges and universities.

What becomes clear is that they want students in schools so their parents can go back to work and jumpstart the economy. They don’t care about the risks to lives. For them, reopening the schools is a political necessity. Neither of them recommend appropriating the funds to make students and staff safe. If schools don’t reopen, or reopen only partially, they can conveniently blame the “greedy,” “selfish” teachers unions for keeping schools closed. They accept no responsibility to comply with the CDC guidelines.

Betsy DeVos said on CNN that schools need not follow the CDC guidelines.

The CDC guidelines for schools to reopen contain steps to keep children safe, including keeping desks placed six feet apart and for children to use cloth face coverings. The CDC suggests the closing of communal areas like dining rooms and playgrounds and the installation of physical barriers like sneeze guards where necessary.

“There is nothing in the data that would suggest that kids being back in school is dangerous to them,” DeVos said, when asked by Bash if she can assure parents and students that schools will be safe and pressed on health guidance that says children are at highest risk when meeting in full-sized, in-person classes — doubling down on a similar comment she made last week.

Trump and Pence has admitted that they pressured the CDC to water down the guidelines to make it easier for schools to reopen. So far, the CDC has not done so.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Bash later in the program that CDC guidelines should be a requirement and called DeVos’ comments on schools being safe for students a “malfeasance and dereliction of duty.”

“This is appalling,” said Pelosi, a California Democrat. “The President and his administration are messing with the health of our children. We all want our children to go back to school. Teachers do, parents do and children do. But they must go back safely.”

Just today, the nation’s leading education groups–the National Education, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Association of School Superintendents, as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics, called for schools to reopen safely, safely, safely, and calls on the Administration and Congress to provide the necessary resources for reopening safely to be possible.

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a few days ago that his father wants “open schools and closed borders,” while his opponent Joe Biden wants “closed schools and open borders.” Opening the schools without the funding to make them safe is a demagogic and dangerous tactic in the midst of a pandemic that still is out of control in many states.

If Trump and DeVos want schools to reopen for full in-person instruction, Trump should tell Mitch McConnell to bring the Senate back into session to pass the HEROES Act and demand all the funding necessary to make schools and colleges safe.

The American people need to know that Trump and DeVos want the schools to open fully with no safeguards in place for students or staff.

That’s wrong. It should not happen.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Health, Safety, Trump

Oakland: Teachers Will Not Go Back to Work Unless the Schools Are Safe for Students and Staff

By dianeravitch
July 11, 2020 //
10

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 10, 2020
Contact: Bethany Meyer
OEA Secretary and Communications Chair
(510) 575-7060
bethanynmeyer@gmail.com

This week, educators from the Oakland Education Association began talks with the Oakland Unified School District to determine what learning will look like for students in the upcoming school year. We, the educators of Oakland, want more than anything to return to our classrooms so we can be with our students on the first day of school. However, we do not believe it is safe yet to do so.

“I would love more than anything to be back with my students,” said Chela Delgado, Humanities teacher at Coliseum College Prep Academy, “but we know that COVID is disproportionately impacting black and brown communities, and the rates in East Oakland are higher than anywhere else in the country. I believe it would be irresponsible to open in the Fall.”

We believe that the planned date for a return to in-person instruction must be based on community safety and grounded in objective public health metrics.

Our plan puts safety first. Over the course of yesterday and today, we presented our plan to OUSD, and explained that unless the following criteria are met, we cannot return to in-person instruction:

Criteria One: We must determine Risk is Low enough to return, with low community transmission in Oakland. OUSD must have a detailed, science-based testing and contact tracing program for all students, families, and school staff, paid for and supervised by county public health departments. There must be a downward trajectory, and near zero incidence of documented cases, hospitalization, and positivity rates for at least 14 days in Oakland in order to consider in-person instruction.

Criteria Two: Once Criteria One is met, OUSD must then ensure that Safety Standards and Precautions can be established and maintained. This includes providing PPE (i.e. masks, face shields, gowns, etc.) for all students and staff, class sizes small enough to accommodate six feet of physical distancing, increased cleaning and staffing inside buildings, and facilities upgrades for proper ventilation.

We are disappointed that OUSD’s initial offer does not contain a serious plan to address the safety of students, staff or the community.

“Cases are much higher now then they were when schools were closed in March.” said Keith Brown, president of OEA. “It is difficult to understand how it would be safe to open schools in a matter of weeks when the community transmission is so much higher than it was in March. We want to return to the schools, but we can only do so once we contain the spread of the virus, implement widespread testing and tracing, and ensure proper safety for students, families, and school staff.”

Categories Health, Oakland, Safety

Los Angeles: UTLA Votes to Keep Schools Closed Until They Are Safe

By dianeravitch
July 11, 2020 //
5

For immediate release
July 10, 2020
Media Contact
Anna Bakalis 213-305-9654

POLL Results: 83% of UTLA members say LAUSD schools should not physically reopen August 18

Out of the more than 18,000 UTLA members who submitted responses to our informal poll in less than 12 hours, 83% agree with the UTLA Board of Directors and Bargaining Team that LAUSD should not physically reopen schools on August 18.

Because of the overwhelming response to the online member poll, the deadline to submit responses was extended to 8 pm. There were technical issues related to some aggressive spam filters that interfered with delivery and the poll function. The poll asked one question: Do you agree with the UTLA Board of Directors and UTLA Bargaining Team that LAUSD should not physically reopen school campuses on August 18th?

“It is hitting us hard to think we may not be back with our students in the fall,” UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz said. “And we know this is hard on our students and their parents, so many of whom have stepped up as our partners in teaching while struggling with the economic fallout of this crisis. But safety must come first, along with a commitment to focus on strengthening distance learning.”

The spike in COVID cases — with California recording its highest one-day virus death toll this week — has changed the calculations for when it is safe to go back to schools. Even before the surge, there were serious issues with starting the school year on physical campuses. State and federal governments have not provided the resources or funds to start school safely, and there is not enough time for the district to put together the detailed, rigorous plans that must be in place to reopen our sites.

UTLA is bargaining with the school district and we have another bargaining session scheduled with LAUSD next week.

Other countries that have reopened schools — such as New Zealand, Vietnam, and Germany — did so only after they had flattened the curve, accompanied by broad societal preparedness, including rapid case identification, contact tracing, and isolation. The U.S. is not even close to meeting these benchmarks.

Categories Health, Los Angeles, Safety, Teachers, Unions

Texas and Florida Tell Schools to Reopen Fully, Despite Surge in Virus Cases

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2020 //
27

Two states—Texas and Florida—are moving forward to open their schools for five-day, in-person instruction, even though the rate of coronavirus infections in both states is rising.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has demanded that schools across the nation restart and become fully operational, although she has no power to force schools to reopen when local officials believe it is unwise and unsafe. She and Trump are trying to force schools to open as if there were no pandemic and no risks to students and staff. They think that opening schools will be good for the economy and help his re-election. It’s hard to see how it will help his standing in the polls if the pandemic continues to spread and claims more victims.

DeVos made a point of praising Florida Commissioner Richard Corcoran (former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives who has no background or qualifications in education and has expressed his desire to totally voucherize every school in the state) for ordering every school to reopen fully in mid-August.

As reported in Education Week, Corcoran left a loophole:

Corcoran’s Monday order says that, when they reopen in August, “all school boards and charter school governing boards must open brick and mortar schools at least five days per week for all students.” But those decisions are “subject to advice and orders of the Florida Department of Health, local departments of health” and other state orders.

Calling on schools to open “at least five days per week for all students” seems to eliminate the possibility of hybrid remote learning plans that have been among the most popular models for districts around the country. While the Trump administration has not clarified what exactly it expects from schools, DeVos has criticized hybrid plans as inadequate.

The school boards in Palm Beach County and Miami-Dade have announced that they will seek exemptions and continue remote or hybrid programs rather than reopen fully.

Texas has been promoting reopening, but local boards and teachers in hard-hit areas of the state are resisting.

The Trump administration has been citing the American Academy of Pediatrics as its justification for forcing schools to open, but AAP President Sally Goza pushed back and said that schools should not reopen without the financial resources to do so safely.

She told NPR that the AAP does not support rigid state mandates:

“We will be sticking to what our guidelines say —that if it does not look safe in your community to open schools, that we need to really have that looked at. We also need to make sure that schools have the needed resources to reopen safely so that a lack of funding is not a reason to keep students home, which we’re hearing in a lot of communities—to do what we’re asking people to do to make schools safe is not really financially feasible in some of these communities.”

Categories Betsy DeVos, Education Reform, Florida, Health, Safety, Texas, Trump

UTLA: It Is Not Safe to Open Schools This Fall

By dianeravitch
July 9, 2020 //
78

Media Contact / Anna Bakalis 213-305-9654

For immediate release / June 9, 2020

Press release: https://www.utla.net/news/utla-recommends-keeping-school-campuses-closed

UTLA recommends keeping LAUSD school campuses closed; refocus on robust distance learning practices for Fall

LOS ANGELES — Amid COVID-19 infections and deaths surging to record highs, Trump’s threats to open schools prematurely, and a groundbreaking research paper that outlines necessary conditions for safely reopening schools, the UTLA Board of Directors and Bargaining Team are recommending to keep school campuses closed when the semester begins on Aug. 18.

“It is time to take a stand against Trump’s dangerous, anti-science agenda that puts the lives of our members, our students, and our families at risk,” said UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz. “We all want to physically open schools and be back with our students, but lives hang in the balance. Safety has to be the priority. We need to get this right for our communities.”

UTLA is also engaging all members in a poll on Friday, July 10, to find out where they stand on re-opening campuses. UTLA will notify members of the results of the poll Friday night.

The research paper, Same Storm but Different Boats: The Safe and Equitable Conditions for Starting LAUSD in 2020-21, (attached) looks at the science behind the specific conditions that must be met in the second-largest school district in the nation before staff and students can safely return.

Even before the spike in infections and Trump’s reckless talk, there were serious issues with starting the year on school campuses. The state and federal governments have not provided the additional resources or funds needed for increased health and safety measures and there is not enough time for the district to put together the detailed, rigorous plans for a safe return to campus.

According to UTLA’s research paper, there is a jarringly disparate rate of COVID-19 infection, severe illness, and death among Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) working communities, where structural racism and economic inequality mean people live with economic and social factors that increase risk of illness and death. In these communities, people are more likely to have “essential” jobs, insufficient health care, higher levels of pre-existing health conditions, and live in crowded housing. Because of the forces of structural racism, Blacks, Latinx, and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County are dying of COVID-19 at twice the rate of white residents.

Categories Health, Los Angeles, Parents, Safety, Students, Teachers

Reject the Trump-DeVos One-Size-Fits-All Plan

By dianeravitch
July 9, 2020 //
7

Call on Congress and Governors to supply the funding to reopen our schools safely!

Don’t open schools where the pandemic is raging.

Protect the lives of students and staff!

Categories Betsy DeVos, Funding, Health, Safety, Trump
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »