COVID-19 Policy Update #108
COVID-19 Policy Update
FRIDAY 9/18
TOP THREE
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Now Belongs To the Ages: She passed away at 87 from complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer. "Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said in a statement.
Vulnerable School Population: Health Affairs study finding that at least 42% of school employees are vulnerable to COVID-19 and 63% of employees live with someone who is at risk. More than 70% of low-skill employees, employees older than 50 and Black employees live with someone in a vulnerable category.
Texas: Less than half a percent of students back In Texas public schools have tested positive for COVID. Out of an estimated 1.1 million students who have returned to campus, 2,344 have tested positive for the virus.
FEDERAL
CR: House leadership has suggested they will introduce and vote on a CR by next week. The Speaker has signaled that she wants this to be a "clean" CR - meaning no COVID issues/funding would be attached.
Vaccine Distribution Plan: The White House, the CDC outlined its COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan in a report to Congress and separate playbook for states (although the CDC Director has said that an additional $6 billion would be needed to adequately distribute the vaccine).
CDC: HHS and CDC have launched a National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) for state and local governments. In the 8/28 update, we mentioned that the University of Arizona found early signs of COVID-19 in a student dorm by testing wastewater and were able to head off an outbreak there. This type of wastewater testing for the early detection has been used in Australia, the Netherlands, and Sweden, among other regions.
ED:
The Department released the first version of its dashboard showing Per Pupil Expenditure in states. Under ESSA, states are required to report on the PPE data for Federal, State, and local funds, including actual personnel and non-personnel expenditures for each district and each school in the State
As part of the Big Idea series, Secretary Devos: Funding students, rather than systems for school choice
STATE
California: Private schools are close to reopening, but public schools may not return until January.
DC: More than 11,000 D.C students expected to attend public schools for the 2020-21 year haven’t completed the enrollment process as of Tuesday. The district is seeing about 4,500 fewer students than at this time last year.
Florida: COVID-19 cases in local children rose by 32% since schools started.
Hawaii: Released their framework of health indicators to guide the type of learning model:
New York: NYC's Independent Budget Office estimates the weekly cost for opening in a hybrid format is $31.6 million.
North Carolina: Gov. Cooper told school districts across the state they will have the option of opening elementary schools for full time in-person learning.
Ohio: Gov. DeWine unveiled two dashboards from the Ohio Department of Health meant to track cases of COVID-19 in school districts as well as in children by county.
Pennsylvania: Health experts say Philadelphia schools could consider reopening this month based on coronavirus transmission rates.
INTERNATIONAL
Canada: Saliva COVID test now available for B.C. school children
India: 64% parents in Delhi prefer online learning for their children.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Retail Sales: Retail spending increased in August for the fourth straight month but at a slower pace than earlier in the summer. Retail sales make up about 25% of total consumer spending.
$500 Million in Black Communities: Mastercard announcement that includes committing to connect 1 billion people to the digital economy by 2025.
LEARNING PODS
NDWA Recommendations: The National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) issued guidance for nannies and pod leaders. With pods, NDWA recommends:
$18/hour for online learning support for one child. For a pod of 2-4 children.
For two children, at least $26/hour. "Note that this rate of $13.00 per child/family is a 72% of the rate ($18/hour) that each family would pay for the online learning supervision of their child alone."
For three children from two-three different families, at least $30/hour. For a rate of $10.00 per child.
For four children, at least $36/hour. For a rate of $9.00 per child.
Groups Urging Gov. Kemp To Support Microgrants: "This coalition wants Kemp to use the remaining $20 million in “micro grants” to parents “to provide immediate relief to students during this time. The decision belongs entirely to Kemp. It is one of the perks of governing in a national crisis."
PodUp: PodUp "developed by Shift3 Technologies, matches caregivers and organizations at no cost, to a network of local families who can safely share resources and childcare options."
RESOURCES
Outschool: Raised a $45 million Series B led by Lightspeed and alongside USV, Reach Capital, Y Combinator and SV Angel.
Vaccine Skepticism: Morning Consult survey. It's growing increasingly clear that just the availability of a vaccine will be insufficient. We were in a crisis of institutional trust before COVID, saw it play out with the safety of reopening schools, and now it's surfacing with the vaccines.
51% of U.S. adults say they would get a COVID-19 vaccine if one became available, down from a peak of 72% in early April.
47% of Republicans say they’d get a coronavirus vaccine, a decline of 22 points over the same period, while the share of Democrats who said the same dropped 20 points to 61%.
In early April, 69% of U.S. adults without a college degree said they would get a COVID-19 vaccine if one became available. That share has since declined by 24 points to 45%.
COVAX Has Less Than 10% of Needed Funds: Countries around the world have to make a binding commitment by today if they're participating in COVAX, the vaccine arm of the ACT-Accelerator to speed up development and access to COVID-19 tests, vaccines, and therapies. "The ACT-Accelerator urgently needs $35 billion to develop and provide tests, treatments and vaccines for the world and to have the health systems to deliver them. So far, less than 10% of this has been raised."
Mathematica Expands Their School Reopening Model: Working with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Mathematic conducted 400,000 simulations using an agent-based computational model to predict the spread of infections in schools for hundreds of combinations of local circumstances and school operating and quarantine strategies. Researchers found that part-time hybrid operating strategies where students are divided into groups that attend school separately could substantially slow the spread of infections. Mathematica has updated their model to include 108 different school situations, varying by grade level, school size, community infection rate, operating strategy, and response to detected infections, so that nearly any school can find relevant data for its circumstances.
Love This Teacher's Energy: A video of Mackenzie Adams, a kindergarten teacher teaching online, has gone viral.