Washington Post: Reopened schools in Europe and Asia have largely avoided coronavirus outbreaks. They have lessons for the U.S.. “Many countries around the world are pushing ahead with plans for full-time, full-capacity, in-person classes, after having largely avoided coronavirus outbreaks linked to schools during more tentative reopenings in the spring. From Belgium to Japan, schools are abandoning certain social distancing measures, such as alternate-day schedules or extra space between desks. They have decided that part-time or voluntary school attendance, supplemented by distance learning, is not enough — that full classrooms are preferable to leaving kids at home.”
schools
NPR: How Hong Kong Reopened Schools — And Why It Closed Them Again
NPR: How Hong Kong Reopened Schools — And Why It Closed Them Again. “When Hong Kong appeared to be winning its war against COVID-19, schools started to reopen. That was the end of May. Things looked promising: From June 13 to July 5 there were no locally transmitted cases in Hong Kong. But the city is now fighting a third wave of infections, and the education bureau announced that the school year would end on Friday — about a week before the scheduled last day in mid-July.”
New York Times: Internal CDC documents warn full reopening of schools is ‘highest risk’ for coronavirus spread (CNN)
CNN: New York Times: Internal CDC documents warn full reopening of schools is ‘highest risk’ for coronavirus spread. “Internal documents from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that fully reopening K-12 schools and universities would be the ‘highest risk’ for the spread of coronavirus, according to a New York Times report, as President Donald Trump and his administration push for students and teachers to return in-person to classrooms.”
New York Times: Reopening Schools Will Be a Huge Undertaking. It Must Be Done.
New York Times: Reopening Schools Will Be a Huge Undertaking. It Must Be Done.. “Here is what it’s going to take: more money and more space. The return to school, as with other aspects of pre-pandemic normalcy, rests on the nation’s ability to control the spread of the coronavirus. In communities where the virus is spreading rapidly, school is likely to remain virtual. The rise in case counts across much of the country is jeopardizing even the best-laid plans for classroom education.” Please note that I don’t necessarily agree with the editorials I post here.
LAist: LA Teachers’ Union Pushes Back On Trump Administration’s Push To Reopen Schools
LAist: LA Teachers’ Union Pushes Back On Trump Administration’s Push To Reopen Schools. “Amid pressure from the Trump Administration to fully reopen schools this fall, the union representing L.A. Unified School District teachers is calling for campuses to remain closed and for online learning to continue when classes start again in August.”
WFLA: Hillsborough Co. crossing guards get new electronic whistles amid coronavirus pandemic
WFLA: Hillsborough Co. crossing guards get new electronic whistles amid coronavirus pandemic. “With new school year set to start in some form or fashion, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is preparing for a new normal by introducing technology to help crossing guards. On Thursday, crossing guards in Hillsborough County tested out new electronic whistles. They are able to sound off to alert drivers that kids are crossing without the crossing guards having to actually remove their masks.” Or blow possibly-contaminated spit through the air.
Vox: Reopening schools safely is going to take much more federal leadership
Vox: Reopening schools safely is going to take much more federal leadership. “America’s entire education system is teetering on the brink of catastrophe. Distance learning has proved to be the education disaster experts feared, parents are at the end of their tethers, and the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) is now calling for schools to reopen. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), unlike the AAP, has assessed the school question essentially without reference to the educational impacts.”
Johns Hopkins University: Johns Hopkins Launches Reopening Policy Tracker For K-12 Schools
Johns Hopkins University: Johns Hopkins Launches Reopening Policy Tracker For K-12 Schools. “A multidisciplinary team of Johns Hopkins University researchers has launched a new website that provides a range of tools dedicated to assessing and guiding K-12 school reopening plans across the United States, including a School Reopening Policy Tracker that provides real-time analysis of the latest guidance documents from every state.”
The Hill: Teachers union president dares Trump to sit in classroom amid coronavirus ‘and breathe that air’
The Hill: Teachers union president dares Trump to sit in classroom amid coronavirus ‘and breathe that air’. “The president of the nation’s largest teachers’ union hit back at President Trump over his demand that schools resume in-person classes this fall, saying reopening cannot take place without guaranteeing the safety of students and staff.”
CNN: Trump trashes CDC school-reopening guidelines — then CDC updates them
CNN: Trump trashes CDC school-reopening guidelines — then CDC updates them. “After President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that he disagreed with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for safely reopening schools because they are ‘very tough’ and ‘expensive,’ the agency said it would issue new recommendations next week. The move came as the Trump administration makes a concerted push for schools to reopen by the fall, even as cases surge in some parts of the country.”
New York Times: N.Y.C. Schools, Nation’s Largest District, Will Not Fully Reopen in Fall
New York Times: N.Y.C. Schools, Nation’s Largest District, Will Not Fully Reopen in Fall. “About four months after 1.1 million New York City children were forced into online learning, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Wednesday that public schools would still not fully reopen in September, saying that classroom attendance would instead be limited to only one to three days a week in an effort to continue to curb the coronavirus outbreak.”
AP: Schools or bars? Opening classrooms may mean hard choices
AP: Schools or bars? Opening classrooms may mean hard choices. “President Donald Trump insists that schools reopen this fall. Many parents, educators, doctors and economists want the same thing. But getting children back to school safely could mean keeping high-risk spots like bars and gyms closed. A growing chorus of public health experts is urging federal, state and local officials to reconsider how they are reopening the broader economy, and to prioritize K-12 schools — an effort that will likely require closing some other establishments to help curb the virus spread and give children the best shot at returning to classrooms.”
AP: DeVos rejects part-time reopening for schools amid pandemic
AP: DeVos rejects part-time reopening for schools amid pandemic. “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday assailed plans by some local districts to offer in-person instruction only a few days a week and said schools must be ‘fully operational’ even amid the coronavirus pandemic. Anything less, she says, would fail students and taxpayers.”
Coronavirus: Kenyan schools to remain closed until 2021 (BBC)
BBC: Coronavirus: Kenyan schools to remain closed until 2021. “All schools in Kenya will remain closed until next January because of the coronavirus pandemic. Final year exams, usually taken in October and November, have also been cancelled. Education Minister George Magoha said students would repeat a year as schools had closed in mid-March, three months after the school calendar had begun.”
San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area charter schools tap tens of millions in federal small business loans
San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area charter schools tap tens of millions in federal small business loans. “Charter schools in the Bay Area received tens of millions of dollars from a federal coronavirus relief program intended for small businesses, money they say is necessary to stay afloat amid the pandemic. The schools are alternatives to traditional public schools and are exempt from many state regulations related to class size, curriculum and teacher tenure, yet still receive state funding.”
