COVID-19 Policy Update #119
COVID-19 Policy Update
FRIDAY 10/2
TOP THREE
President Trump: Less than 24 hours after tweeting that he had tested positive for COVID, President Trump said he would spend "a few days" at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Questions abound including who else might be infected, what conditions might trigger a transfer of power to the Vice President, and how the news will impact the campaign, the Supreme Court nomination process, and the economic relief package negotiations. As we have experienced so much during 2020 - these are uncharted waters. Yes, other heads of state have contracted COVID and even President Wilson caught the 1918 influenza, but we've never had this kind of health crisis so close to an election with so much uncertainty. As the Dispatch pointed out, "This is a serious moment, likely the gravest health threat to a sitting U.S. president since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. The election is 32 days away and the incumbent will have to remove himself from the campaign trail for the foreseeable future. Adversaries could very well look to take advantage of the chaos. Lord knows there will be conspiracy theories."
AAP Calls for Children to Be Added to Vaccine Trials: In a letter to HHS and the FDA, AAP argued that "beyond the direct impact of infection, children have been greatly affected by the pandemic.... Children must be included in vaccine trials to best understand any potential immune responses and/or unique safety concerns."
Schools Reopenings Do Not Seem to be Causing a Spike in Cases:
Over 700 primary, middle and high schools that have at least partially reopened and reported only 0.07% of students and 0.14% of staff had a confirmed coronavirus infection in the first half of September, according to data collected by Brown University (new CZI grantee).
"There is starting to be some reassuring data that when you put in place the right measures - and have control of community spread ... you can open schools safely,” said Dr. Nathaniel Beers, co-author of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ school opening guidelines."
FEDERAL
Phase 4:
The House passed their $2.2 trillion HEROES 2.0.
According to CNBC, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said President Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis could change the dynamic of talks toward a relief deal. House members were told that they could be expected to return to DC to pass a package next week and would get 24 hours of notice before a vote.
The Speaker outlined the areas that still needed to be resolved: unemployment insurance, money for cities and states, and tax credits for children and families. She also signaled support for passing a standalone airline bill to help cover payroll.
All of this suggests after thinking a relief package was dead, we might see an October surprise of a negotiated deal which includes additional funding for schools.
STATE
Arizona: Rapid COVID-19 tests will go to Arizona schools.
California:
San Diego opened dedicated testing sites for teachers and students.
Fresno Unified reports that the number of "absent but not excused" students has actually risen from 4.7% when schools reopened to 5.5%.
DC: The Washington Teachers’ Union told its members to ignore letter emailed this week asking staff members to select whether they plan to teach in person in the upcoming months or stay home.
Florida: COVID now a factor in family law cases: “Melanie Joseph wants to see her son, but a judge won’t let her — for no reason except that she won’t wear a mask. Joseph’s 14-year-old son has asthma, a condition that could put him at risk of contracting COVID-19 during this pandemic, court filings show. Broward Circuit Judge Dale Cohen called the mother an 'anti-mask person' who had the 'audacity' to brag about it on Facebook."
New York: Schools across the state report 1,200 coronavirus infections among students and staff.
North Carolina: Cumberland Family Academy allows parents to log into a Zoom chat room every Thursday evening, where teachers explain the software students are using for remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic. Parents also can ask questions about any problems their children are having online.
Ohio: Private schools see a surge of enrollment:
36% of private schools are above their enrollment targets this year
Archbishop Lyke and St. Thomas Aquinas have seen enrollment increase by 30%.
“We actually tripled the number of parents and student visits over those months,” said Hathaway Brown Director of Enrollment Management Elizabeth Pinkerton.
Oregon: Families call for in-person school option. "Teachers are doing a great job trying to make it sound great and fun and positive, but the kids show it, and they are the ones who voice their frustrations and tears,” said Olson. “I’m gonna start crying so I apologize. It just makes you feel sad."
Virginia: Some Fairfax County Public Schools will resume in-person learning, but staff says they were initially only given 48 hours to decide if they wanted to come back.
Washington: Seattle Public Schools still doesn’t know for sure how many students have sufficient internet for school.
INTERNATIONAL
EU: Madrid will become the first European capital to go back to lockdown on Friday night due to a surge of coronavirus cases.
UK: COVID infection rates in teens and young adults have risen since the academic year began.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
September Jobs Report: BLS reported that the economy added 661,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate fell to 7.9% from 8.4% in August. The previous two months were revised up 145,000 combined.
The Half Full View: That’s significantly better than CBO's May projections of 15.8%. Combined, over the last 4 months payrolls have recovered about 49% of the jobs lost in March and April. The number of persons working part time for economic reasons decreased in September to 6.2 million from 7.6 million in August.
The Half Empty View: The numbers fell short of the 800,000 jobs in the consensus forecast and the unemployment rate drop was due to falling labor market participation. An astonishing 865,000 women dropped out of the workforce. And, according to Gene Sperling, the 781,000 increase in long-term unemployment in September, is the single largest monthly increase in long-term unemployment since they started keeping records in February 1948. According to CBPP, of the 1.2 million state and local jobs lost from February to September, over two-thirds (836,000) were in K-12 schools or higher education.
RESOURCES
IHME: Weekly update. IHME now forecasts daily deaths to rise to over 2,900 a day by the end of December and 360,000 cumulative deaths by January 1, a further 156,000 by the end of the year. Map is estimated percent of state population infected with COVID.
‘Children Have Become Acceptable Carnage’: Long piece from Politico covering the reopening of large urban districts.
Jeb Bush: New OpEd Broadband Internet Is an Imperative, Not a Luxury. "We need a national investment to bring internet to millions of Americans. $100 billion is a good place to start."
The Digital Divide and COVID-19: New RAND report on Teachers' Perceptions of Inequities in Students' Internet Access and Participation in Remote Learning.
Only 30% of teachers in high-poverty schools reported that all or nearly all of their students had access to the internet at home, compared with 83% of teachers in low-poverty schools.
Approximately 43% of teachers reported concerns related to communication with students and student participation, including difficulty reaching all students, concerns about students’ work completion, and challenges with holding students accountable for schoolwork
Tracking K12 Innovation: The Christensen Institute launched the Canopy project which allows education leaders, school designers, and researchers to see both the “trees”—individual schools—and the whole “forest” of schools that are innovating. The interactive portal makes it easy to search for schools based on characteristics like geography, demographics, and innovative practices.
Tips For Improving Hybrid Learning: From EdX's Anant Agarwal.
Vaccine for Children: Children will not likely see a coronavirus vaccine until late 2021.
Prevent the Homework Gap from Turning Into an Educational Sinkhole: Great oped from IIA.
A Moment: That brought us together this week was the outpouring of support for Chrissy Teigen and John Legend who were so open about their grief over the loss of their son. It invited others to share their stories.
A Prayer: From a homeschooling mother "The spirit of Common Core has attacked our household... right now the only thing in common is frustration and not knowing the answer to the math problem"