COVID-19 Policy Update #102
COVID-19 Policy Update
SATURDAY 9/12
A day late with the daily update! I'm decamping from DC and working from Florida for the next two weeks. In the whirlwind of last minute preparations, I wasn't able to get the email out. But some important studies in this update as well as some promising news out of Europe. Have a great weekend!
--John
TOP THREE
Young Children Can Transmit COVID: New CDC study that found young children can catch COVID-19 and spread the virus to adults. The study focused on three childcare facilities in Utah from April to July and found 12 children became infected but had mild to no symptoms. Through contact tracing, researchers were able to determine that the children infected at least 1 in 4 of the people they were in close contact with, usually mothers and siblings.
Hispanic and Black Students More Likely Than White Students to Start the Year Online: The AP and Chalkbeat surveyed the largest school districts in every state in each category of urban, suburban, town and rural. Survey responses from 677 school districts covering 13 million students found that most students will begin the school year online. Districts where the vast majority of students are white are more than three times as likely as school districts that enroll mostly students of color to be open for some in-person learning.
Promising News From Europe Reopenings: Evidence suggests school reopenings haven’t been the primary cause of local outbreaks across Europe. "Denmark has been seen as a model for implementing reduced class sizes, near-hourly hand-washing and a blend of online and on-site learning to avoid overcrowding."
FEDERAL
HHS Authorized Pharmacists to Give Children COVID-19 Vaccines Once Available: HHS issued guidance under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act to expand access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines when they are made available. The guidance authorizes state-licensed pharmacists to order and administer COVID-19 vaccinations to persons 3 years and older. State-licensed or registered pharmacy interns under the supervision of a qualified pharmacist were also granted authorization.
STATE
Arizona: Closed schools has kept nurses at home, preventing from returning to hospitals and hospices.
California: Power outages create new challenges with distance learning in wildfire-torn California. “I just feel like we can’t win this year,” said one California mother who had to rig up a generator to power a Wi-Fi hotspot so her kids could continue their online schooling.
Idaho: Governor Little announced additional funding for schools, which when totaled amounts to a 10.5% increase over last year. The Governor also announced $50 million that will go directly to families as part of the new “Strong Families, Strong Students” initiative. Under the program eligible families could receive $1,500 per eligible student with a maximum award of $3,500 per family. Families can use the funds to purchase eligible educational materials, devices, and services.
Illinois: A company donated tree stumps to Prospect School to create two outdoor classrooms. The company said, “We’re finishing up by stenciling them with some words of encouragement and putting a seal on them."
Maryland: Baltimore City public school officials reported the first week of remote learning went relatively smoothly. They estimate that 80% of students logged on for live instruction Tuesday, followed by roughly 83% on Wednesday and 82% on Thursday.
Michigan:
Students are using their smartphones to cue up a video that plays the sound of a garbled Zoom call so it seems like they tried to answer — but there's a technical glitch. Here's an example from a TikTok video.
Parents in Ann Arbor are expressing frustration with the early experiences with remote learning. One quote: "My 4-year-old just cannot sit on an iPad all day, and when she is instructed to take breaks, she usually watches TV because I have to work and cannot interact with her,” Dortch said. “She is antsy, agitated and bored constantly. This is not conducive to her development, She needs to move, play, and interact. I am asking, begging, pleading with you to find a way to get our little kids back to school.”
North Carolina: Governor Cooper announced $40 million in funding for NC Student Connect. The partnership will purchase 100,000 wireless hot spots; $8 million to create accessible sites in locations such as school parking lots, municipal areas, and state parks, museums and historic sites; and $2 million for educator professional development.
Texas:
FBISD Superintendent Charles Dupre said district officials believe it will take two years to remedy the learning loss that happened when school closed for nine weeks at the end of the 2019-20 school year.
The Texas American Federation of Teachers launched a website to track COVID-19 cases, deaths and unsafe working conditions in Texas schools.
Virginia: Andy Rotherham offers some thoughts on homeschooling after referencing this post: "The number of homeschooled students reached nearly 45,000 in 2019; if homeschoolers were a school division, they would have comprised the seventh largest of Virginia’s 133 school divisions."
Washington:
Half of Seattle students haven't logged into remote learning system so far.
Spokane Public Schools created "Day in the life of" videos to help students get a sense of the new normal with remote learning. One fun example.
INTERNATIONAL
International Reopening Plans: I missed this paper which was published in July, but sharing it as it provides a good summary of when schools are opening, max class size, if classes or schedules are staggered, mask requirements, social distancing measures, and other protocols.
EdTech Use in International Schools: EdWeek article covering new ISC Research report that surveyed school leaders and technology directors at 82 international schools in 41 countries on ed-tech usage.
80% of schools said they turned to Google Classroom to help facilitate those online lessons, which was more than twice as many responding to the second highest answer of "other"
84% of international private schools say they plan to integrate ed-tech tools much more into daily curriculum as a result of their experiences during COVID-19 remote learning.
Teachers Unions Clash With Governments Around the World: Interesting article which includes one labor expert's observation:
"In places with “high trust, high dialogue” — including Argentina, New Zealand and Scandinavian countries — teachers “haven’t needed to resort to industrial action. Instead, they have been in continuous talks with policymakers over when and how to reopen schools, and related issues such as sick pay and overtime."
"In Britain, France, Germany and Greece, among other countries in Europe, some unions have been very vocal in opposition to official plans."
"In countries with “a history of lack of dialogue and consultation with the government,” teachers have been more likely to threaten or resort to strikes."
Germany: Schools reopened a month ago without seeing a surge of cases.
China:
New JAMA Network Open study that found primary school students in China experienced more depressive symptoms and made more suicide attempts after schools closed for the pandemic. Close to 25% of students reported depressive symptoms in May, compared to only 19% in November. Suicide attempts more than doubled -- at 6.4% in May compared to the 3% in November.
NYT article: How China Brought Nearly 200 Million Students Back to School. "The Ministry of Education’s guidelines call for temperatures to be taken at least three times a day and reported to school officials. The rules are tighter in areas that the government sees as particularly vulnerable to an outbreak. In Beijing, for example, masks are required at all times."
LEARNING PODS
Colorado Guidance: Governor Polis’ executive order eases the creation of learning pods to help parents navigate the school year. Pods will be exempt from licensing if they provide care for five or fewer children between the ages of 6 and 9, or if they provide care for eight or fewer children 10 years old and up.
Growth in Homeschoolers: One in 10 parents said their child will be home-schooled this year, a number that has doubled since last year. The story also talks about a virtual preschool called BümoBrain, which provides an online curriculum and live lessons taught by teachers, coupled with interactive activities, for their 4-year-old. The program costs $99 a month, including supplies.
That Roof Deck Makes for a Nice One-Room Schoolhouse: Some apartment buildings are offering up outdoor and indoor common spaces for at-home learning pods.
Pods in Kitsap: Teacher Jessica Carithers, on a one-year leave of absence from South Kitsap School District, opened the Innovative Learning Center in Port Orchard, a small group tutoring center where she gives technical help and instructional support to elementary students who are starting the school year in remote learning.
RESOURCES
The Growing Problem of Vaccine Skepticism: New study which found political polarization and online misinformation are threatening vaccination programs worldwide. The study, which examined confidence across 149 countries between 2015 and 2019, found that skepticism about the safety of vaccines tended to grow alongside political instability and religious extremism.
The Problem of Not Tracking Cases in Schools: Spotty virus tracking in schools is leaving millions in the dark on infection rates. "What data is accessible — sometimes crude tallies of total infections — isn’t the kind of stuff that would make it easy for public health officials to glean new strategies, said Tom Inglesby, director of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security. “We’re not going to learn practical information that will help us make value decisions about asymptomatic screening on a large scale.” he said. “We don’t know what best practices are yet. … Why aren’t we doing everything we can to learn from what’s happening?”
Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C): CDC reported 792 confirmed cases including 16 deaths as of September 3. Nearly all cases of MIS-C occurred in children who tested positive COVID. Hispanic/Latino and Black children accounted for more than 70% of those with the condition.
How to Think About Coronavirus Risk in Your Life: Great interview (audio and text) with Harvard epidemiologist Julia Marcus and Eza Klein.
Districts Offer Cash to Families Who Skip the School Bus: Districts are offering to pay parents in an attempt to reduce crowding on buses. In Philadelphia, parents can get up to $1,500 for opting out of their school bus ride. Watertown schools in South Dakota is offering parents 42 cents a mile.
CAP and EduColor: Launched a campaign - WeBuildEDU - to elevate the voices of educators who are Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in the national dialogue about rebuild ing the public education system in light of COVID-19.
How One Middle Schooler Beat A Virtual Learning Algorithm: The system was fooled by the student adding a bunch of keywords. “It was about four lines, one paragraph, and one of the sentences is just a bunch of words at the end."
Guidance for Independent Schools: Great resource from the National Association of Independent Schools.
Will This Be a Lost Year?: NYT panel discussion with:
Susana Cordova, superintendent of the Denver public schools.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, staff writer at The New York Times Magazine.
John B. King, president and chief executive of the Education Trust
Pedro Noguera, a former public-school teacher and a sociologist, is the dean of the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California.
Shana V. White teaches computer science
Swing Voters: CNBC/Change Research Poll: Who swing voters trust to ensure schools reopen safely: Biden/Democrats 52%, Trump/Republicans 48%.
44 Square Feet: A School-Reopening Detective Story: The 44 square feet rule has become dogma among many schools. David Zweig tracked down where it came from and provides a case study for how recommendations and math errors can be passed along and amplified as guidance.
EdTech Investment: VCs pour funding into edtech startups as COVID-19 shakes up the market.
Homework Gap: Pew survey: 59% of U.S. parents with lower incomes say their child may face digital obstacles in schoolwork. About one-in-five parents said it was at least somewhat likely their children would not be able to complete their schoolwork because they did not have access to a computer at home (21%) or would have to use public Wi-Fi to finish their schoolwork because there was not a reliable internet connection at home (22%).
9-11: The Tree That Survived.
President Obama's speech at the 9-11 Museum Dedication
President Bush's "The world can hear you"
And some pictures from the powerful Tribute in Light.