COVID-19 Policy Update #109
COVID-19 Policy Update
MONDAY 9/21
TOP THREE
CDC: The agency reversed its controversial COVID-19 testing guidance. The Sept. 18 updated recommendation now says that close contacts of a person with a confirmed COVID-19 infection needs a test even in the absence of symptoms. Continuing Resolution (CR):
The House released the text and summary of the CR. It is mostly a partisan bill and unlikely to garner Republican support. The House is expected to vote on the CR later this week. Senate Majority Leader McConnell signaled that Republican senators would oppose the measure. Given the September 30 deadline, the House and Senate will need to quickly resolve their differences or risk a federal government shutdown.
The House CR would fund the federal government through December 11. Education elements include:
Early Childhood Education
Head Start Designation Renewal System: Allows HHS to extend for not more than two years the designation of a Head Start agency if the Secretary lacks information necessary to make a determination.
Maintains Funding for TANF and Mandatory Child Care Funding to States: Continues funding for TANF and mandatory child care funding to states. According to the Appropriations Committee summary, the extension “will allow HHS to make first-quarter payments to states.
K-12 Education
Extension of Accreditation for DC Schools Participating in the Voucher Program: Current DC law requires a private school in order to accept a scholarship to have been accredited within 5 years of seeking accreditation. The bill extends this to 6 years.
Postsecondary Education:
National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI): The CR extends the authority of NACIQI to provide recommendations to ED regarding accrediting agencies that monitor the academic quality of postsecondary institutions and educational programs for federal purposes.
Food and Nutrition Services:
Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) Program: According to the Appropriations Committee summary, the CR “allows the Food and Nutrition Service to spend at a higher rate during the CR to ensure the Summer EBT program is fully operational by May 2021.” The Summer EBT program provides additional resources to purchase food during the summer months for families whose children are certified to receive free or reduced-price school meals during the school year.
Commodity Supplemental Food Program: According to the Appropriations Committee summary, the CR “allows the Food and Nutrition Service to spend at a higher rate during the CR to provide supplemental [U.S. Department of Agriculture] foods to low-income seniors (age 60 and over) and to some low-income women, infants and children up to age six.”
2020 Survey of Higher Education Admissions Leaders: Most colleges expect enrollment to decrease this year. Community Colleges report the most significant decrease in enrollment.
STATE
California: How Cajon Valley got its students back into classrooms.
Colorado: COVIDCheck Colorado, a network developed by Gary Community Investment Company and The Piton Foundation, is partnering with Clayton Early Learning to provide free tests to more than 300 children along with their families — all of whom are low income — and their teachers.
Connecticut: New Haven Public Schools reports that 23% of students are not fully engaging in online learning.
Florida: The Classroom Teachers Association called for the termination of Palm Beach County Superintendent Donald Fennoy saying they had "zero confidence" in the district's superintendent.
New Jersey: New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli warned that people may be suffering from “pandemic fatigue” from the months of dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. She urged those who are feeling weary, depressed or helpless to get more sleep, go for walks, eat healthy food, unplug from social media and connect with others in phone or video chats.
New York: One NYC charter school reopened weeks ago: "Over the summer Zeta bought air purifiers and touchless faucets. It put lids on toilets to prevent germs from being dispersed during flushes. It gave teachers fanny packs full of extra gloves and hand sanitizers. They had voluntary testing for the virus before school started."
West Virginia: Six counties remain in the red or orange in the newly released state Department of Education COVID-19 map requiring remote learning only in those counties for at least the next week.
Wisconsin:
Appleton parents are frustrated with district and all-online learning plans and lack of a plan to get kids back into classrooms.
The Kenosha school district is transitioning to online learning at seven middle and high schools after 276 teachers reported absent.
INTERNATIONAL
Germany: Merkel says the government is committing 6 billion euros ($7.1 billion) to support the development of digital learning and infrastructure in schools. She says all schools need high-speed internet access as soon as possible and teachers need computers suitable for providing digital lessons.
South Korea: Students returned to school this week.
Uganda: Reopened schools.
UK: British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that he wanted schools to remain open as the government was considering new measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. “Schools aren’t where a lot of the transmission happens, it’s more about people socialising."
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Pandemic Threatens to Widen Racial Homeownership Gap: "With Black Americans less able to pass property to their children, that aggravated the racial wealth gap. Black families’ median net worth was $17,600 in 2016 compared with $171,000 for white households, according to Federal Reserve data. For white families who owned homes, their house, net of mortgage debt, was worth $215,800 on average, compared with $94,400 for Black families."
LEARNING PODS
Penny’s Pandemic Pod: Penny Thomas is a certified teacher who decided to convert her basement into a school and work with four students in the neighborhood, ranging from 2nd grade to 4th grade.
Charleston County Schools: Is launching its own ‘learning pods’ in October. “It’s lonely right now in the middle of a pandemic. We want to make sure kids have a chance to connect with each other," Chief Academic Officer Karolyn Belcher said. "There would be an adult there to help supervise, help with challenges on the learning, make sure the children are signing on, because not all parents can do that. That helps us on the academic side.”
Citizen Care Pod: A joint effort of Citizen Care Pod Corp, WZMH Architects, and PCL Construction in collaboration with Microsoft, utilizing modified shipping containers to create portable screening centers with applications for any building or space where people gather.
The Need for ‘Learning Pods’ Creates a Generation of Unexpected Teachers: “Some are calling themselves tutors, others teachers. Regardless of the title, we are agents in a profoundly new educational space.”
Spot-Virtual Learning Support: The owner, Taylor Hassell, had been a teacher but last spring decided to leave education and go into business. The Spot provides a space for students to take classes online and provides supervision for students taking classes online in their homes.
How Small Grants Are Empowering Parents of Underserved Students to Form Pandemic Microschools: Via The 74. The grantees are funded using $700,000 from the VELA Education Fund to make awards of up to $25,000. VELA, in turn, is supported by the Walton Family Foundation and the Charles Koch Institute in underwriting several organizations, including the parents union, that are funding microschools, homeschool co-ops and other “out-of-system” models.
RESOURCES
Election Analysis: With 8 days until the first debate and 43 until Election Day, Bruce Mehlman put together a new deck assessing where things stand in the elections.
Creative Bridge to the Digital Divide: Rural TX school district creates free internet service to keep students connected. Superintendent Mark Estrada brought a budget amendment to the board in April asking to divert money from other projects into funding to create the district’s own free wireless internet service called LionLink, a network of seven towers to connect 500 families.
Vaccine Skepticism: Via Pew: Only half of adults (51%) say they would definitely or probably get a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 if it were available today.
EdChoice / Morning Consult: Surveyed teens. Well worth reading the Blog Post and the Deck. Almost a quarter of teens don’t have access to the internet, and many are lacking other resources for virtual/remote learning.
Transmission on Airplanes: CDC study of a coughing COVID+ passenger with no mask on a 10 hr flight. 92% attack rate among passengers seated w/in 6 feet.
Just Resting Over The Weekend: Only to be rudely awoken on Monday.