School Reopening Update (Feb 19/2021)
Early this week, I went to get a haircut after months of shagginess. I went to a local place that had reopened two weeks before. There was no wait and I was soon in the chair, telling the haircutter (who I didn’t know) how much of the stuff on top I wanted gone. We soon settled into a typical conversation. She happened to have two children, 19 and 21 years of age, just like me. So we talked about how Covid had affected them and how they were doing now.
Then I told her I was a teacher. She wondered when schools would be getting back to normal and I wondered with her. We talked vaccines, indoor spaces, kids following rules, and how the state might eventually get this done.
After a while, there was a lull, but I could sense there was something unsaid. “Do you think teachers should be going back sooner?” I asked. She stopped cutting for a moment and looked at me in the mirror. “Well, yeah, I mean, I’ve gone through this twice, coming back to work. It’s stressful worrying about (getting sick). But we’re here and we’re doing it.”
I’ve heard this in grocery stores, too. A cashier I know has worked throughout the Covid era. She has had to assume the risks of ignorant customers, indoor spaces and who knows who coming through her line. And there are many more like her, working in jobs of relative risk to exposure.
So why should teachers be different? Is it fair for teachers to hold out for both vaccinations before returning to school? So far in California, that has been the basic platform, though many schools are up and running in various hybrid models as I write. The general union position has been that school staff need both rounds of vaccination before return to school, a timeline that puts an early April restart in jeopardy. However, some schools are currently offering group “pod” instruction for students in high-risk groups like English Language Learners or special education. Others are running AM/PM programs where students are divided into cohorts and attend in person in a modified schedule. Some parents have selected remote instruction exclusively so schools must prepare systems to allow for both at one time.
Across the country, there are thousands of schools that are in session. In many parts of Georgia, for example, in-person instruction has been occurring since September. There have been school closures for periods of time during Covid upticks. In New York City, schools have been open for in-person and/or blended learning since December. School administrators there have struggled with matching rules for Covid testing with staff safety. Yesterday (2/18/21), the state of New York reversed itself on student Covid testing, saying that New York City public schools could once again require COVID-19 testing for in in-person classes.
The plot graph below shows current building or classroom closures in NYC Public Schools. It is updated each day. Blue dots represent a classroom or classrooms within a building that have been closed; red dots represent an entire building closure.
Clearly, there are still significant interruptions in instruction here due to Covid. Still, NYC Public Schools intends to bring back all “blended-learning” students in grades 6-8 for in person instruction by Thursday, February 25th.
In LA Unified, instruction has been remote since the start of the school year. In December, Governor Newsom proposed a return to in-person instruction by February 15th. At the time, he asked for $2 billion in state funds to facilitate getting kids back in school across the state, particularly in TK through second grade. His proposal prioritized districts with large numbers of low-income students, English learners, and/or foster youth or English learners. These populations have suffered the most in remote instruction, as Robin Lake, the director of the Center for Reinventing Public Education, describes: “Lower-income kids, kids of color, kids with unique needs like those who have a disability or other challenges – the numbers look very, very bad.” (source: NYTimes – 1/21/21)
But Newsom’s influence has waned significantly in the last two months. Like Ted Cruz’s decision to fly off to Cancun in the midst of the Texas Winter Crisis, Newsom’s November dinner at the exclusive French Laundry restaurant in Northern California continues to haunt him. A recall effort continues to gain momentum and Newsom is temporarily marginalized.
Yesterday (2/18/21), California legislators moved beyond Newsom’s proposal, agreeing to a $6.5 billion dollar package to bring students back to school. The bill (SB86) creates financial incentives to get California school districts to resume in-person classes by April 15th. $4 billion of the funding is specifically targeted for “in-person learning loss,” a critical feature. (Wherever you live in the country, this focus on lost learning will be critical – how these funds are spent by local school districts will be key, something this space will return to in coming months).
Though there is increasing evidence that transmission rates in schools is very low, teachers and school staff in some areas of the country may band together and hold on for both vaccination rounds. Because priority will go to K-3, I can see scenarios where some high schools don’t resume instruction until early May, if at all. In January, Superintendent of Santa Rosa City Schools in Northern California, Dr. Diann Kitamura, pledged that the district’s elementary students would be back in classrooms by March 1st. It was a gutsy call, but Covid circumstances haven’t been kind. On Wednesday (February 17th), Kitamura announced that the March 1st deadline would have to be moved back. The main sticking point appears to be negotiations with the Santa Rosa Teachers Association. A proposal by the union to ensure that staff had received both rounds of vaccination before returning may have been the difference. (Perhaps significantly, Kitamura has also announced her retirement at the end of the school year. She described her frustration with Covid and trying to steer education versus politics in the Covid era. “It’s an impossible situation that superintendents have been placed in and it’s taking away from what I love to do, which is teaching and educating. We have been placed in situations to make medical decisions…and it’s just not fair.” (source: Press Democrat, 2/17/21)
Evidence has increased that schools, particularly elementary schools, are unlikely to seed transmission when community spread is at moderate or low levels, provided they use mitigation strategies, including mask requirements, social distancing and good ventilation. Updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (2/12/21) includes the following statement from CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky:
FINALLY, I CANNOT ADDRESS SCHOOL REOPENINGS, AND OUR OPERATIONAL STRATEGY, WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT VACCINATIONS FOR TEACHERS AND STAFF. OUR OPERATIONAL STRATEGY, SPECIFICALLY, INCLUDES A COMPONENT ON VACCINATIONS FOR TEACHERS AND SCHOOL STAFF, AS AN ADDITIONAL LAYER OF PROTECTION THAT CAN BE ADDED TO THE RECOMMENDED FIVE KEY MITIGATION STRATEGIES. THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON IMMUNIZATION PRACTICES, OR ACIP, RECOMMENDS THAT FRONTLINE-ESSENTIAL WORKERS, INCLUDING THOSE WHO WORK IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR, OUR TEACHERS, AND SCHOOL STAFF, ALONG WITH PEOPLE AGED GREATER THAN 75 BE PRIORITIZED FOR COVID-19 VACCINATION.
AS SUCH, WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE STATES TO PRIORITIZE TEACHERS AND OTHER SCHOOL STAFF TO GET VACCINATED. IF WE WANT OUR CHILDREN TO RECEIVE IN-PERSON INSTRUCTION, WE MUST ENSURE THE TEACHERS AND SCHOOL STAFF ARE HEALTHY, AND PROTECTED FROM GETTING COVID-19 IN PLACES OUTSIDE OF SCHOOLS.
It’s sometimes true that EVERYONE is simultaneously right, from parents who are desperate to get their kids back in school to teachers who want to teach in person but who fear a potentially deadly disease to administrators and superintendents who can’t find a way to parse the divide.
We will get back to in-person instruction, hopefully before the end of the school year. However, what has become increasingly clear is that teaching and learning during Covid has been significantly hampered. Far more low-income students are failing by percentage. The achievement gap has very likely widened and it will take an all out effort to restore educational equity.
That post is coming next week!
Please take care and stay safe. – ds
David Stirrat 