COVID-19 Policy Update #292
COVID-19 Policy Update
FRIDAY 7/9
TOP THREE
New CDC School Guidance: Released today. Includes language on the importance of offering in-person learning, regardless of whether all of the prevention strategies can be implemented at the school.
Vaccines: Does not suggest mandating vaccines. Instead, the CDC says schools "can promote vaccinations" among teachers, staff, families, and eligible students
Masks:
"Masks should be worn indoors by all individuals (age 2 and older) who are not fully vaccinated."
"Passengers and drivers must wear a mask on school buses."
Distancing:
"Recommends schools maintain at least 3 feet of physical distance between students within classrooms, combined with indoor mask wearing by people who are not fully vaccinated, to reduce transmission risk."
"When it is not possible to maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet, such as when schools cannot fully re-open while maintaining these distances, it is especially important to layer multiple other prevention strategies, such as indoor masking."
"A distance of at least 6 feet is recommended between students and teachers/staff, and between teachers/staff who are not fully vaccinated."
Cohorting:
"The use of cohorting can limit the spread of COVID-19 between cohorts but should not replace other prevention measures within each group."
"Cohorting people who are fully vaccinated and people who are not fully vaccinated into separate cohorts is not recommended."
COVID Test Screening:
"To be effective, the screening program should test at least once per week, and rapidly (within 24 hours) report results. Screening testing more than once a week might be more effective at interrupting transmission."
"Schools may consider multiple screening testing strategies, for example, testing a random sample of at least 10% of students who are not fully vaccinated, or conducting pooled testing of cohorts. Testing in low-prevalence settings might produce false positive results, but testing can provide an important prevention strategy and safety net to support in-person education."
People who are fully vaccinated do not need to participate in such screening.
Reactions
NEA and AFT endorsed the recommendations. Also more from Reuters. “The guidance confirms two truths: that students learn better in the classroom, and that vaccines remain our best bet to stop the spread of this virus," AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement."
"Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, said that while leaving decisions on school safety protocols to local officials might sound good in theory, it could prove “paralyzing” by putting prevention strategies up for negotiation and debate." “I really hoped they could issue very clear guidelines specifying what level of distance is required,” she said, “and not sort of like a meditative journey on the relative benefits of distance.”
“For the first time, I really think they hit it on the nose,” said Dr. Benjamin Linas, an infectious disease specialist at Boston University. “I think it’s science-based and right on the mark.”
"The new guidelines still rely on quarantine as a prevention strategy for unvaccinated students when they are exposed to the virus, which Dr. Oster criticized as a significant hindrance for students and parents, even as research has consistently suggested that transmission in schools is low. “It’s really disruptive,” Dr. Oster said of quarantine requirements."
Elizabeth Stuart, a John Hopkins University public health professor, said “It would be a very weird dynamic, socially, to have some kids wearing masks and some not. And tracking that? Teachers shouldn’t need to be keeping track of which kids should have masks on."
A Roadmap to Kick-Start Recovery in 2021: COVID Collaborative and CRPE released Six Principles for SummerLearning and Beyond by Bree Dusseault, Christine Pitts, and Robin Lake. Key principles:
Tie summer plans to long-term recovery goals
Make the most of limited summer learning time
Center attendance strategies in relationships and responsiveness
Leverage community expertise to expand learning and enrichment options
Create new pathways to recruit, train, and pay high-quality educators
Ensure that students and families have support networks for critical social services
ED: Set limits on which Private Schools can get COVID-19 relief
"Private schools that don’t enroll at least 40 percent of their students from low-income backgrounds may miss out on getting certain funding from the coronavirus relief package enacted in March"
Guidance here.
COVID-19 RESEARCH
In Children, Risk of Covid-19 Death or Serious Illness Remains Extremely Low, New Studies Find: Via WSJ
"Some 99.995% of the 469,982 children in England who were infected during the year examined by researchers survived, one study found."
"Researchers previously had found the risk of severe illness and death from Covid-19 among children under 18 years was relatively low. The new studies confirm the findings, adding to the weight of evidence as policy makers and school officials make decisions about mask-wearing and physical distancing."
"Fifteen of the 25 children in England who died because of Covid-19 during the period examined had underlying serious illnesses, the researchers said, while four had chronic underlying conditions."
More over at Bloomberg
Calls Mount on FDA to Formally Endorse Covid Vaccines as Delta Surges: Via Politico
"Some medical experts have sounded off on social media in recent days, calling on regulators to endorse what they say the data already shows — that the two vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna made with messenger RNA technology safely and effectively prevent severe illness, hospitalization and death from the coronavirus."
"That’s as good as gets when it comes to having data on safety and efficacy," said Céline Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at New York's Bellevue Hospital. "We have it in real life — what more can people ask for?”
“It is time for the agency to at least make clear what its timeline is for approval," a former senior FDA official told POLITICO. "On the other hand, it takes two to tango. It's also up to the company to submit all required and requested data to the agency."
Children's Wellbeing: Study examines children's emotional wellbeing throughout COVID-19 pandemic
STATE
Arizona: The Phoenix Union High School District is hosting COVID-19 vaccination events that includes free backpacks and Lyft rides for kids at least 12 years old.
Illinois: Chicago Tribune Editorial Board: "The pandemic school year was disastrous. Fall should be better — if parents get teens vaccinated."
New York: NY not requiring masks for summer school
INTERNATIONAL
UK: The DfE case for relaxing school Covid rules
UN: 11 million girls worldwide at risk of not returning to school after COVID-19
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Population Change: New analysis from EIG which reveals some trends on in-flows and out-flows of Americans.
RESOURCES
Plan Spending for Long-Term Sustainability: Via ERS:
Four ways district leaders can sustain their new ESSER investments over time
7 Principles for Investing ESSER Funds in Recovery & Redesign
Make Therapy Free for Everyone: Via Richard Reeves
Christensen Institute:
Schools Face Unfamiliar Quandary: How Should We Spend All This Money?: Via WSJ
“Parents will want the money used one way. Teachers will want the money used the other way. Taxpayers who don’t have children in the school will want the money to be used in a different way,” said Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association."
"At a May school board meeting in South Bend, Ind., teachers criticized a district proposal to extend four school days a week by 40 minutes without extra pay and instead asked the district to focus on creating smaller class sizes, according to a recording of the meeting. Because of the pushback, the district recently proposed extending the school day just two days a week."
Varsity Tutors: Announces Virtual Summer Camps — including programming dedicated to “Bridging the Gap ” and improving academic next-grade readiness.
"Stevie Van Zandt is leading the TeachRock Camp, astronaut Leland Melvin, leads the Cosmic Adventure Camp, and Coyote Peterson, leads the Wildlife Creature Camp."
EdTech:
Venture capitalists invested $140 billion into U.S.-based startups in the first half of 2021, an all-time record, per Ernst & Young. At that pace, the 2020 total should be surpassed in a matter of days.
U.S Edtech Roars With Over $3.2 Billion Invested in First Half of 2021
In the first six months of 2021, U.S.-based education technology companies raised over $3.2 billion in investment capital, according to Reach Capital’s analysis of deal data from Pitchbook. The tally already surpasses the $2.2 billion total that EdSurge reported for all of 2020 and $1.7 billion in 2019
Edtech deal flow in 2021 looks set to match or even outpace 2020 levels, per the report: At $9.4 million, average deal size is triple 2020 levels; seven companies have raised $50 million in five different markets; and the U.K. has more than three times as many deals as the next individual market.
Otter, a child care marketplace that matches kids with stay-at-home parents, raised $23 million in Series A funding
PowerZ, a French ed-tech gaming startup, raised $8.3 million
Mmhmm raises $100 million. The company makes video production better for Zoom, YouTube, etc.
Microverse raises $12.5 million to bring income share agreements to the developing world
M-U-R-R-A-Y-A: 14 year old Zaila Avant-garde became the first African American winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Her winning word was Murraya," a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees.
She has three Guinness world records for dribbling multiple balls simultaneously.