Facing pressure from parents, conflicting messages from experts and initial silence from the federal government, superintendents began making their own decisions to close.
Palms Middle School in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest in California, announced on Friday that it was closing. Credit … million students. A majority of closings announced by school districts range from two to six weeks, which the
And while it had data that could help decide when to close schools, the CDC said it did not have data on the right time to reopen them.
On Thursday , the Education Department announced that it would relieve school systems of some of their responsibilities under federal law. It will consider one-year waivers for state-administered tests or requirements that districts test percent of their students. It would also allow waivers for certain measures of a school’s effectiveness ratings, such as chronic absenteeism, as required under the Every Student Succeeds Act.
The Department also said schools were not obligated to provide special education while classes were canceled for all students, but they must resume services when they reopen or if they shift classes online.
The administration’s guidance came at the end of an anxiety-ridden week for elementary and secondary school leaders who have argued over (whether to follow their counterparts in higher education in sending students home.
The CDC’s previous guidance had advised only on hygienic measures and local decision-making. It was quietly updated on Thursday to include a recommendation that a school should consider closing for two to five days if it had a confirmed case.
(While) colleges and universities moved swiftly to empty campuses and teach remotely for the next several weeks – some for the entire semester – school superintendents have had to contend with the fact that mass school closings could upend entire cities. The nation’s public school system serves more than 75 million students – more than double the number of college students – and provide the most reliable form of child care and social services.
“In college, you’re dealing with adults and the ability to provide online instruction, which many colleges are already doing. That’s not the case in K – 20, ”said Daniel A. Domenech, the executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association. “In terms of educational continuity, we’re going to see a lot of disparity between the districts that have the capacity to do it and those that don’t.”
Congressional lawmakers and education leaders have pressed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to help schools navigate the mass closings. The most vulnerable students in public schools rely on critical services like food and special education. Those hardships have led some of the nation’s largest school districts, like New York City – which serves overwhelming numbers of homeless and poor students – to hold off on shutting down. “There are three pillars to protect this city and the long-term health and safety of our people: our schools, our mass transit and our health care system, ”Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York said on Friday.
“Because there’s no way to track the vector, people don’t want to put anyone in harm’s way,” she said.
from the common cold to lung lesions and pneumonia. Symptoms, which can take between (two to) days to appear , include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Milder cases may resemble the flu or a bad cold, but people may be able to pass on the virus even before they develop symptoms.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings