COVID-19 Policy Update #227
COVID-19 Policy Update
TUESDAY 4/6
We're back after a two week hiatus recovering from COVID. It was a pretty miserable experience but I'm glad to be past the worst of it. It also serves as a useful reminder to stay vigilant, mask up, and get one of the vaccines as soon as you're able. Thanks for all the kind notes and checkins - they were beyond appreciated!
TOP THREE
40,000 Children Have Lost a Parent to COVID: According to a model published in JAMA.
Black children made up 20% of those who have lost a parent.
"Sweeping national reforms are needed to address the health, educational, and economic fallout affecting children."
"The establishment of a national child bereavement cohort could identify children who have lost parents, monitor them for early identification of emerging challenges, link them to locally delivered care, and form the basis for a longitudinal study of the long-term effects of mass parental bereavement during a uniquely challenging time of social isolation and economic uncertainty."
Back to School: The Effect of School Visits During COVID-19 on COVID-19 Transmission: NBER paper
"We find that increased school visits lead to increases in COVID-19 infections for households with children, relative to households without children. However, the increase is modest in magnitude."
Households with kids going to school saw a "0.3 per 10,000 household increase in COVID-19 diagnoses" - a very small increase.
"We also find that the increase in school-based COVID-19 transmission is driven by households that reside in counties in the bottom income quartiles. This finding is particularly relevant, as it suggests that the socioeconomic disparities observed in other studies also exist for school reopening policies"
"These families in particular may have less access to important resources that include high-speed Internet access, computers, and job flexibility. Remote instruction also imposes costs to parents, many of whom are also balancing remote work and childcaring responsibilities"
"We find that increased school visits are not associated with increased transmission rates for households in which the primary insurance subscriber is employed by a firm in the education industry relative to other industries."
Parents Split on Vaccinating Kids: Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index.
Only half (52%) of parents currently say they are likely to have their child get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it is available to their age group.
Have you sent your child to school in the last week:
April 2-5 48% (yes) 52% (no)
October 1-5 33% (yes) 67% (no)
FEDERAL
Infrastructure Bill: The $2 trillion American Jobs Plan
PennHill Summary of education and workforce provisions
EdCounsel Summary of education and workforce provisions
Vox on the broadband provisions. Via Bloomberg Law: "Municipal Broadband War Reignited in Biden’s Infrastructure Push"
A Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce estimates that of the jobs created through the infrastructure program, 60% would require six months of training or less, and 40% would require more than six months of training.
ARP: Bellwether Education Partners Analysis of Funding for Education, Children, and Families
ED: Via ChalkBeat: ED denied Georgia’s and South Carolina’s requests to cancel statewide testing entirely. They approved Colorado’s request to effectively cut testing in half — offering a path for other states that want to reduce the burden of exams this year.
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Vaccines:
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine found to be 100% effective in teens ages 12-16.
Real world study by CDC shows Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were 90% effective
"We Can Do This": New campaign launched by HHS aimed at boosting confidence in the vaccine.
Includes $10 million ad buy. Ads here. Campaign resources here.
Nearly 300 organizations -- including doctors' groups, sports leagues, rural organizations, unions and religious groups -- have signed up to be part of that effort, which the administration is calling the COVID-19 Community Corps.
Made To Save Launched: Civic Nation officially launched the Made to Save campaign today (website / press release / list of partners).
"Working closely with the White House and Department of Health and Human Services, Made to Save focuses on communities disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus, where access to vaccination sites and information is often limited."
"Campaign priorities are to increase access to the vaccines in communities of color, address vaccination concerns and encourage people to get vaccinated when it is their turn. Those who know someone who has been vaccinated are 40 percent more likely to say they will get a vaccine as soon as they can."
"Made to Save also will provide grants to trusted community-based organizations for organizing outreach programs and partner with local leaders in more than 30 states to increase access to the vaccines. The campaign will use the most up-to-date research and data to inform these outreach efforts and grassroots organizing to identify community-specific needs to reach those impacted by health disparities and least likely to get vaccinated"
81% of AFT Members Vaccinated: As of April 1.
Disinfecting: The CDC updated its guidance for schools saying that disinfecting chemicals such as ammonia and bleach need be used only within 24 hours after an infected person has been there. Previous guidance recommended disinfection on a regular schedule, leading many schools to close for a day a week to allow for "deep cleaning." The new guidance also suggests high-touch surfaces should be cleaned at least once a day.
Risks of In-person Schooling to Teachers Are Comparable to Risks of Commuting by Car: NBER paper:
"Students and teachers at in-person school during 2020 were about 20 times more likely to be infected outside school than in school"
"To put it another way, the fatality risk to self and living partners, which may include an elderly person, for one day taught in-person by the average nonelderly teacher is similar to the risk of driving 16 miles alone in a car."
STATE
California:
Almost 75% of San Diego families responding to survey want their kids in schools
40,000 high school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District are at risk of not graduating according to a new Great Public Schools Now analysis.
"Over 13,000 middle and high school students were consistently disengaged in fall 2020. An additional 56,000 did not actively participate on a daily basis"
Colorado: Colorado Education Initiative (CEI) announced that they have launched a new partnership with Schoolhouse.world.
Illinois:
The state estimates 35,822 public school students did not attend school in the fall (the equivalent of nearly 2% of the prior year’s enrollment)
The Governor announced a new P-20 Learning Renewal Resource Guide created by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and 300 stakeholders. 190 pages of suggestions to assist with learning recovery/renewal.
Massachusetts: Boston Children's Hospital reports that between July and October of last year it saw a 47% increase, over the same period the year before, in kids needing to be hospitalized for suicidal ideation or attempts.
New Jersey: Paterson Education Association President John McEntee Jr. said the union will oppose any reopening plan until its representatives are allowed to inspect school buildings to make sure sufficient measures have been taken to keep employees and student.
New Hampshire: Schools told to offer 5 days of in-class learning by April 19.
New Mexico: All schools move to in-person learning this week.
New York: Mayor Bill de Blasio is easing the two-case rule about positive virus cases that had been forcing many schools to temporarily shut this year.
North Carolina: The “Summer Learning Choice for NC Families” bill passed. It requires school districts to offer students at least 150 hours or 30 days of summer in-person instruction, along with enrichment activities such as sports, music and arts. The program is geared toward at-risk students, but attendance is voluntary and is open to any student, space permitting
Texas: Denton ISD launching permanent online learning option
INTERNATIONAL
France: Schools to close under third lockdown
Germany: Merkel says British coronavirus variant more dangerous to children
"The British mutant, and this is the difference with the spring, is proven to be more dangerous in children and young people so we need to put the protection of schools more front and centre than with the original virus,” she told lawmakers."
UK: Return to school playing key role in slowing fall in UK Covid cases.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
From Federal Sources to Local Uses: Maximizing the American Rescue Plan from the Ground Up: New resource from New Localism.
RESOURCES
Randi Weingarten on Opening Schools Safely: Isaac Chotiner interview with Randi Weingarten
"So you have to meet fear with facts. But what we’ve seen is that if you have a game plan that’s based in science and common sense, and people use that game plan and trust that it works, then you’re going to create a lot of trust. So that’s why, in the communities in which I’ve dealt a lot—urban sectors that had huge disinvestment in school buildings—we really have had to have the layer of mitigation, the testing, the vaccine access, and school-based committees on a local level. Parents and teachers would walk into a school building before it reopens in person, so they could see the windows being able to open, they could see the hand-washing stations."
"Our message right now has been: if you have the road map of viral mitigation and testing and vaccines, it’s safe for you to go to work in person, except for those who are high-risk."
"So I think that the issue that’s unknown to me right now is: when do you get to herd immunity? When do you get to that magic number where there’s enough immunity, there’s enough vaccination, that everybody’s basically taking off their masks? So what happens next year? Do you have the three-foot rule? Do you have the mask on? I think that’s the reason why there is still some hesitation."
Accelerating Learning As We Build Back Better: Piece from Linda Darling-Hammond:
Positive relationships and attachments are the essential ingredient that catalyzes healthy development and learning … and enables resilience from trauma.
Children actively construct knowledge by connecting what they know to what they are learning within their cultural contexts. Creating those connections is key to learning.
Learning is social, emotional, and academic. Children learn best when they feel safe, affirmed, and deeply engaged within a supportive community of learners.
Learning is enhanced by physical activity, joy, and opportunities for self-expression.
Students’ perceptions of their own ability influence learning. All children are motivated to learn the next set of skills for which they are ready; few are motivated by labels that rank them against others or communicate stigma.
Closing the Learning Gap: New report from the March 2021 Horace Mann Voice of the Educator Study. More from CNBC.
A majority (57%) of educators estimated their students are behind by more than three months in their social-emotional learning progress.
53% see a need for a narrower focus on grade-level standards to ensure students learn the most important concepts for their grade level, with many also recommending less focus on standardized test preparation
34% would like more paraprofessionals to provide targeted support to struggling students
30% requested access to more social-emotional learning resources to help students process the events of the past year
My Kids’ School Closed Again. So I Started Calling Experts: ProPublica's Eric Umansky on New York's two-case rule.
With New Aid, Schools Seek Solutions to Problems New and Old: Via AP
Fed Up With Remote Learning, Governors Make a Push to Reopen Schools: Via NYT
Summer School Looks Different. Will It hHelp Kids Catch Up?: Good piece from Erin Richards at USA Today
School Isn’t Closed for Lack of Money: Corey DeAngelis and Christos Makridis in the WSJ.
"But our new analysis suggests funding isn’t the reason teachers unions are keeping schools shut. In fact, our prior work has found that union influence, rather than scientific concerns about the spread of the virus, is the primary driver behind reopening decisions."
RISE to Thrive: A Vision for a Transformed and Equitable Education System: Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) report based on 300 conversations with students, families, teachers, education leaders, and organizers.
Broadband: The National Urban League released its Lewis Latimer Plan for Digital Equity and Inclusion
Washington COVID Response Corps: Schultz Family Foundation, Service Year Alliance and Serve Washington released a report on the first 6 months of the WA COVID Response Corps.
Teen Survey: From EdChoice and Morning Consult: new report and crosstabs.
Teens learning at least partially online were three times as likely to report declining mental health compared to in-person students.
Teens attending school in-person are more positive about their education this year than those partially or completely online
Forty-four percent of teens say their ideal weekly education schedule would involve some days spent in-person and other days online, compared to 34 percent who say they would prefer entirely in-person and 21 percent preferring entirely online.
One Fifth Grade Teacher: Memorized unique handshakes for 250 students. See him welcome them back to class here.