TOP THREE
The Remote-Option Divide: Via The Atlantic
"A bitter reality is that many schools will be closing intermittently this year, and not every school has a back-up plan in place—or an ongoing remote option if parents want to avoid the classrooms altogether. For many families, the decision about how their students will learn this semester is already beyond their control."
"Prioritizing in-person learning should not preclude districts from offering a remote option, either as ongoing choice for parents who would like to keep their kids out of the classroom or as a Plan B for when in-person class is canceled."
"There are going to be costs to not having a remote option, though. In the event of temporary closure—or mandatory quarantine for students who are infected—students will simply miss their lessons."
NYC Lays Out Its Safety Protocols: Via NYT
Will test a random sample of 10% of unvaccinated people in schools every other week.
Middle and high school students who are unvaccinated but are considered close contacts of an infected person can leave quarantine early if they receive a negative test result five days into their quarantine.
Elementary school students learning at home during quarantine will receive live online instruction from their teachers, but quarantined older students will work on their assignments on their own at home.
15% of All Mississippi Students Are In Quarantine: This is concerning:
Student Cases
2020: 533
2021: 11,766
Teacher/Staff Cases
2020: 364
2021: 2,383
Students Quarantined (Exposure)
2020: 5,948
2021: 53,749
Teacher/Staff Quarantined
2020: 1,173
2021: 2,942
FEDERAL
IES: Why School-based Mental Health?
NTIA: Establishes two broadband-focused offices: Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth and Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives
CTC: A new study suggests the temporary boost to the child tax credit prevented about 3 million children from being in poverty in July,
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Boosters: “Federal regulators are likely to approve a Covid-19 booster shot for vaccinated adults starting at least six months after the previous dose rather than the eight-month gap they previously announced,” the WSJ reports.
Nearly Record Hospitalizations: More than 100,000 are hospitalized for COVID - the highest number since January before the vaccine was widely available to the public. 30% of ICU beds are holding COVID-19 patients.
Warnings About the Sturgis Rally Have Come True: Via The Daily Beast:
"In western South Dakota’s Meade County, more than one in three COVID-19 tests are currently returning positive, and over the last three weeks, seven-day average case counts have increased by 3,400%. This exponential growth in cases is likely attributable to the 81st Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which drew an estimated half a million visitors to Meade County and its environs from Aug. 6 through 15, potentially acting as a superspreader event.”
“The state more broadly has witnessed a 686.8% increase in daily case counts over the past three weeks, currently more than 10 times the nationwide rate.”
COVID Cases Soar, Especially in the South: Via Axios
Where the Delta Wave Has Driven Up Covid-19 Vaccinations: Great visualization from the NYT.
STATE
Arkansas: Parent demand for remote instruction causes Little Rock School District to consider short-term outsourcing to Pearson.
California: What does the early data from the LAUSD show?
About 3,000 students were in isolation because they tested positive for an infection.
An additional 3,500 were in quarantine after they were identified as close contacts of those who tested positive.
About 451,000 preschool through 12th-grade students are attending Los Angeles public schools in person this fall. More than 10,000 others are attending classes online through an independent study option.
Among some 60,000 employees tested, about 1,000 missed at least one day of work during the first week of classes because of an infection or because they were in close contact with an infected person.
Colorado: On school mask and vaccine mandates, voters split along party lines. (Poll here and summary here).
"Parents as a whole were almost evenly split, with 50% saying masks should not be required and 48% saying they should, within the survey’s margin of error."
Illinois: Governor announces vaccine mandate for teachers and health care workers with testing opt-out.
Louisiana:
More than 6,100 students and 830 employees across Louisiana’s K-12 schools have tested positive for the coronavirus less than one month into the new school year.
Mom asking for hybrid learning after all four of her kids get COVID-19
Missouri: Via KHN: "What Missouri Learned the Hard Way About Rapid Covid Testing in Schools"
"Sherry Weldon, administrator of the Livingston County Health Center in northwestern Missouri, said the public health agency ran tests for personnel in county schools, both public and private. “None of the schools want to take that on themselves,” she said. “They just were like, oh, God, no.”
New York:
Gov. Hochul said she would order a universal mask mandate in the state’s schools and push for Covid vaccine-or-test requirements for school employees.
NYC teachers protest vaccine mandate.
North Carolina:
A look at DPI’s new Office of Learning Recovery & Acceleration
Bill would give liability protections for reopening schools and colleges
Pennsylvania: Two parents pen an oped: "Philly schools’ quarantine protocols maximize student absence"
Texas:
Dallas looking for 12,000 students who didn't show up to school
Boyd ISD closes elementary school due to COVID-19 cases
Texas House committee OKs funding for virtual learning
INTERNATIONAL
Israel: 4,811 recovered COVID patients got reinfected. It is unclear to what extent the Delta variant is more effective and to what extent the reinfections are the result of waning antibodies.
RESOURCES
How Schools Can Protect Our Children and Their Future When Reopening: A Brookings paper that includes among its authors, Chelsea Clinton.
Why Vaccine Mandates for Teachers Have Been a Harder Sell Than Mask Mandates:Kara Swisher interviews Randi Weingarten (Transcript here)
Come for the great discussion. Stay for the "Lockean social contract"
Quarantine Support: Looks like this could be a new category of services. More via Varsity Tutors.
Innovative Learning Models: CRPE says, "Families delivered innovative solutions to pandemic-fueled education disruptions. Policymakers should support them to do so again."
The Politics of Closing Schools: Good EdNext piece looking at how teachers unions engaged at the beginning of the pandemic in five European countries.
Monitor Pandemic-Related Education Setbacks This Fall Using School Tracker Data: PolicyMap is adding Burbio data into their mapping service.
Parents and Teachers Want to See Big Changes Come Out of the Pandemic: EdWeek article on a survey by Understood and UnidosUS
69% of respondents say that schools should offer advice to parents on how to support their children; additional learning devices, such as laptops and/or tablets should be supplied to households with more than one school-age child (66%); along with guidance to access social services (54%) and social-emotional learning support (51%).
44% of parents say they don't know how to start the conversations with educators around learning challenges they've noticed.
39% of Black/African American parents are more likely to hire a learning specialist for their child.
Seven Steps the FCC Should Take on Broadband in Response to the Infrastructure bill:Via Blair Levin
A Third Disrupted Year Can Only Strain Americans’ Ties to Traditional Public Schools: Writes Robert Pondiscio
Outbreaks Force Early Reversals On In-person Learning: Via The AP
Kids Can Recover From Missing Even Quite A Lot Of School: An interesting piece over at Astral Codex Ten
"So my prediction is that an average student could miss a year or two of school without major long-term effects. Their standardized test score would be lower at the end of the two years they missed than some other student who had been in school the whole time. But after a short period they would equalize again."
It’s Governors vs. The White House this School Year. And No One is Winning: Via Politico.
My COVID Parenting Has Reached Peak Inconsistency: Via Slate: "Honestly, I have no idea what I’m OK letting my kids do anymore."
Forward Together: Pandemic Lessons for Effective Teaching Practices: NCLD and Understood commissioned the CERES Institute for Children & Youth at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development to examine general educators’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on their experiences teaching students with learning and attention issues.
Forward Together: Pandemic Lessons for Effective Teaching Practices Key Findings
Collaboration: Partnering With Colleagues, Families, and Caregivers to Promote Student Success
Positive Behavior Strategies: An Approach for Engaging and Motivating Students
Flexible Grouping: A Responsive Strategy to Meet Student Needs in Real Time
We're Forgetting Working Parents: Tweet from the Editor in Chief of Working Mother
Jurassic Park on Rubber Chickens: This is troubling and fascinating all at the same time.
It's International Dog Day: For all those who celebrate, give your pup an extra treat. Bentley sends his best.