Jennifer Smith Richards, Jodi S. Cohen and Haru CoryneProPublica
To encourage learning while schools are shut down, Illinois
education officials have gathered online tools for educators and
promoted the hashtag #keeplearning.
Some students in Illinois, however, won’t be able to watch their
teacher conduct live science experiments or download a story time
video. They don’t have a computer or high-speed internet at home,
or a cellphone data plan that would support it.
In her family’s one-bedroom home every day unfolds with one
distraction after another for 17-year-old Anais Hernandez: her
mother cooking and cleaning in the kitchen; her disabled father
watching high-volume TV news; the bustle of her younger sister in
their East Los Angeles home.
There’s no escape from the noise as Anais attempts to focus on
Advanced Placement Spanish literature and English and economics.
Two weeks into shelter-at-home schooling, this Mendez High
School senior could use a tool that would be hard for her family
to afford — sound-canceling headphones.
Harvey Kesselman, president of Stockton University, got the bad
news in a text from New Jersey’s secretary of higher education:
Half of Stockton’s state operating aid would be held back for the
rest of the fiscal year.
On Monday, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, New Jersey
announced a spending freeze of $920 million that had
already been allocated by the Legislature, including half of all
funds headed to public colleges like Stockton. (New Jersey
had more than 6,000 confirmed cases of the new
coronavirus as of Thursday.)
Even under normal circumstances, Cheri Mann does a lot to help
her students cross language barriers and make sense of an
unfamiliar school environment.
She teaches a half-dozen high schoolers who recently moved to the
U.S. from Guatemala and Honduras, many as unaccompanied minors,
in a small school district in north-central Kentucky. Most days,
Mann helps her newcomers practice their English for one period,
then accompanies them to their other classes to make sure they
understand the instruction.
People across the country are responding to the alarm set
off when health care workers on the front line of the
coronavirus pandemic reported shortages of N95 face
masks.
Now several Brandywine High School students hope to
soon start producing masks made with 3D printers so they can
be used by health care professionals in need.
“I’m really stoked that my teacher gave me this opportunity,”
said Ian Wilt, a Brandywine high junior. “It’s doing everything
for a good cause.”
Schools are confronting a wide range of potential problems around
student data privacy as they scramble to put technology
tools for virtual instruction in place during extended
school building shutdowns.
Teachers have already begun connecting with students using a
variety of digital tools, some of which are new to them and their
schools and weren’t designed for classroom use—everything from
videoconferencing apps like Zoom to digital devices like
Chromebooks and learning platforms like Babbel and BrainPop.
Carol Gibbs started providing child care from her home in
Bellevue 30 years ago. Usually she and her staff are serving 12
kids a day, doing everything from diapering infants to teaching
4-year-olds. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, attendance is
down to three.
“We’re like an extension of their home,” she said of the children
in her care. “I have an intimate relationship with these
families.”
Educators and advocates are raising alarms over the city’s
decision to stop publicly confirming positive cases of the
coronavirus in school communities — as even with schools closed,
teachers, parents and students may be left in the dark over their
exposure to the potentially fatal disease.
In the rush to move classes online, there are some concerns that
students who need special accommodations might be left out.
For schools that specialize in behavioral and other needs, having
to go to school remotely is presenting a lot of new challenges.
Melissa Belsito, with the Center for Applied Behavioral
Instruction in Worcester, explained a lot of her students
struggle with change and depend on their schedules.
North Carolina’s year-end testing is likely to be put on hold for
this year, as students face at least nine weeks of learning from
home to avoid the coronavirus.
The federal government has granted a testing waiver, and Brian
Gwyn, a legislative analyst and lawyer, said that’s all that’s
required to cancel End of Grade and End of Course exams.
However, he said, “legislative action would be needed to address
all the other statutes that rely on data from the assessments.”
Maryland has voted in favor of awarding four state
universities more than half a billion dollars in compensation for
years of institutional racial discrimination, signaling the end
of a long legal battle.
In a victory resulting from a lawsuit filed more than a
decade ago, four historically black colleges and universities
(HBCUs) can expect a boost to their budgets of a total of $577m
after the Maryland senate, in a rare legislative resolution to
legal action, gave bipartisan support to a landmark settlement.
A Tennessee school district seeks to help local medical professionals by printing personal protective equipment, reports Meghan Mangrum of Chattanooga Times Free Press.
How one Tennessee school district is using 3-D printers to meet the demand for personal protective equipment for local medical professionals fighting COVID-19. #tellEWA
The Hechinger Report examines how the impacts of college closures are being felt beyond the traditional classroom.
The closing of colleges and universities has disrupted the educations of millions of students. But it’s affecting the lives of many in ways that are not yet widely understood. #tellEWAhttps://t.co/xNlPjJT2tF
— The Hechinger Report (@hechingerreport) March 25, 2020
For The Wall Street Journal, Douglas Belkin and Melissa Korn cover the impact COVID-19 will have on college fall admissions.
MIT has agreed to extend the pay for dining hall workers who have
been sidelined because of the coronavirus through May 22, a small
victory for some of the lowest-wage employees on college
campuses.
MIT announced this week that it had reached a deal with the union
representing 225 dining hall workers and the university’s food
service vendors, Bon Appetit and Restaurant Associates. MIT
agreed to provide funding for the workers, who were slated to be
laid off, after the university sent students home to contain the
spread of the coronavirus.
Nick Anderson and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel The Washington Post
Colleges and universities are expected to receive billions of
dollars from the coronavirus relief bill moving through
Congress. But a top higher education advocate in Washington
called funding levels “woefully inadequate” to stabilize a sector
of the economy that is hemorrhaging cash.
With campuses across the country shuttered for the foreseeable
future, many schools are issuing refunds for room and board,
subsidizing plane and bus fare for students forced to leave in a
hurry and absorbing myriad other unforeseen expenses and revenue
losses.
Allia Phillips was excited about picking up an iPad from her
school in Harlem last week. She did not want to miss any classes
and hoped to land on the fourth-grade honor roll again.
On Monday, the first day that New York City public schools began
remote learning, the 10-year-old placed her iPad on a tray she
set up over her pillow on a twin bed in a studio that she shares
with her mother and grandmother inside a homeless shelter on the
Upper West Side.
Less than a week after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide
stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the coronavirus
pandemic, one small rural school district in California remains
open.
As health officials predict a months-long continuation of the
coronavirus pandemic, the state Board of Education on Wednesday
ordered school districts to keep buildings closed for the
remainder of the academic year and pivot to distance learning
programs, a directive that lacks uniformity and allows districts
extreme flexibility.
“It’s going to look different for all schools and we have to
accept that,” said State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister at
Wednesday’s board meeting.
Douglas Belkin and Melissa KornThe Wall Street Journal
As the coronavirus pandemic upends college life, it is causing a
knock-on effect for admissions: High-school seniors may find it
easier to get into some schools this year.
Students considering offers or awaiting decisions later this week
from colleges across the selectivity spectrum can expect higher
acceptance rates, as colleges take measures to ensure they will
still have enough students enrolled come fall.
The abrupt closing of nearly the entire American school system is
a massive story. It deserves an enormous amount of attention. And
so far, the quality and quantity of the coverage that I’ve seen
has been encouragingly high — especially given what a
fast-moving, complex situation we’ve been in since the advent of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arailia Jeffries works for a plasma collection company, but her
hours as a phlebotomist are being cut as the coronavirus pandemic
scares away potential donors. Her husband, a metal fabricator,
also is working reduced hours for reduced pay. So Wednesday
evening, as dark clouds built outside Jeffries’ house near the
Pearsall Park neighborhood, frustration built inside her
sweltering living room where, still wearing navy scrubs, she and
her four school-aged children waited on hold with Spectrum.
Advocates and correctional officials are calling on Illinois and
other states across the country to release youth from juvenile
detention facilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are currently about 200 youth incarcerated in Illinois’
juvenile detention facilities. A recent report from the Children
and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University found that
more than 90% of incarcerated youth have at least one mental
health disorder diagnosis, and about two-thirds have multiple
diagnoses.
s he sat in a Louisville psychiatric hospital preparing to hand
over his 7-year-old daughter, Brian Carroll knew none of it felt
right.
The security guards. The sterile waiting room. The clerk
positioned behind a glass window. He didn’t believe his daughter
Pepper, who has autism, was truly in the midst of a mental health
crisis. Yes, she had an outburst at school. But did she
deserve to be here?
The new coronavirus has closed schools for weeks, and in some
places for the rest of the academic year. Thousands of parents
have already lost their jobs. And many believe a recession is on
the way. That’s a cocktail with the potential for harmful,
long-lasting effects on students, research suggests.
LYNCHBURG — As the coronavirus threatens to spread across the
Lynchburg region, Liberty University officials are preparing to
welcome back up to 5,000 students from spring break this week.
Defying a national trend of campus closures, President Jerry
Falwell Jr. has invited students to return to residence halls and
has directed faculty members to continue to report to campus even
as most classes move online.
The U.S. Supreme Court in November heard oral arguments on a set
of cases challenging the legality of President Donald
Trump’s efforts to terminate DACA, which provided temporary
protection from deportation and work authorization to some
825,000 undocumented young people, including those who are
studying to enter the medical field. A decision from the
high court could come any day.
As many schools across the state are still figuring out how to
teach online, Shively and other teachers at Holy Trinity are
implementing the e-learning strategy they already had in place.
Heather Martinez now takes every child’s temperature at the door
to Happy Octopus Early Education, the day care she runs from her
home in Corpus Christi, following a new state regulation for
child care centers issued as COVID-19 cases continue to surge
across Texas.
She disinfects tables, sanitizes toys and requires parents to
stand outside the door at pick up and drop off each day. But she
worries the new rules are not enough to keep everyone healthy:
It’s hard to stop infants from putting toys in their mouths, let
alone expect them to stay six feet away from one another.
The thousands of Florida teens who planned to spend hours this
spring in school testing centers trying to earn college credits
on Advanced Placement exams will be taking the tests at home
instead.
In response to social distancing efforts under way nationally to
slow the spread of COVID-19, test administrator College Board
announced Friday it would provide shortened 45-minute AP exams.
They will be based on curriculum truncated to better reflect what
classes already have covered.
Parents across Ohio had a surprising new role thrust upon them
this week: teaching their children.
With Ohio’s schools shut down, possibly for the school year,
because of coronavirus concerns, parents now have to make sure
their children learn the lessons their schools send home or
post online.
The Plain Dealer asked two groups of people for advice for
parents’ new role: Home-schoolers, who teach their children at
home every day, and professors at teaching colleges, the people
who teach teachers how to teach.
The Trump administration has just announced broad flexibility for
states to cancel their spring standardized tests, and that may
take some strain off teachers and be a huge relief to parents and
grandparents and other caregivers struggling to remember basic
math and science. But what will it mean for our kids’ education?
And how are schools responding? Meria Carstarphen is the
superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, which has nearly 52,000
students.
This spring was supposed to be an exciting time for Xander
Christou. He’s a senior in high school in Austin, Texas, and was
looking forward to all the fun: prom, senior skip day and of
course, graduation.
The spread of COVID-19 throughout the world is evidence
that the virus does not discriminate. It has infected individuals
from all nations, backgrounds, ages, races, genders, and economic
status. However, the impact of the virus is—and will be—felt very
differently by various populations. The most vulnerable people in
our society are likely to disproportionately suffer from the
health and economic implications of this crisis.
Shelby County Schools on Friday suspended its meal distribution
program for students after an employee in its nutrition
department tested positive for the new coronavirus.
Tennessee’s largest district serves 113,000 students, most of
whom are low income, and had been ramping up to begin serving
15,000 meals a day beginning Monday. Due to the spread of
COVID-19, schools that already were on spring break are closed
through at least April 3.
This was the week that American schools across the
country closed their doors.
It was the week that our public schools—often dismissed as
mediocre, inequitable, or bureaucratic—showed just how much they
mean to American society by their very absence.
The unprecedented shutdown public and private schools in dozens
of states last week has illuminated one easily forgotten truism
about schools: They are an absolute necessity for the functioning
of civic culture, and even more fundamentally than that, daily
life.
Nearly 30 million children in the U.S. count on schools for free
or low-cost breakfast, lunch, snacks and sometimes dinner — but
most of those children are now at home. At least 114,000 public
and private schools have been closed to slow the spread of the
coronavirus, affecting the vast majority of the nation’s K-12
students, according to an ongoing tally by Education Week.
Many child care providers won’t survive the coronavirus outbreak,
a coalition of state groups warned Thursday, as they pushed
lawmakers to offer financial relief for day cares and early
learning centers.
“Child care providers are already operating on very small
margins,” the groups wrote in a letter to Congressional leaders,
calling for child care providers to be considered in any economic
stimulus package.
MEREDITH KOLODNER , JON MARCUS , CAROLINE PRESTON, AND DELECE SMITH-BARROWThe Hechinger Report
Moving his education online because of the coronavirus presents a
much bigger problem for Cameron Pelton than it does for many of
his Indiana University classmates.
Pelton is studying ballet and choreography, subjects that don’t
convert easily to virtual instruction. Meanwhile, auditions have
been canceled and seniors who were hoping to land jobs with
ballet companies have had those aspirations delayed.
Last Friday, Gov. Tim Walz told schools to keep their doors open.
He said they were needed to care for the children of people who
worked in health care.
Two days later the plan changed.
“We have thought this through and I will be willing to say at
this time that we have the most comprehensive plan for what
school closing looks like of any state in the nation,” Walz said.
Minnesota’s plan means canceling classes for a week and a half to
give teachers and district leaders the time to prepare for
distance learning.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board’s student representative
is getting a lot of public love after he grilled the adults in
the room at an emergency board meeting this week.
Monday’s session may have been a preview of life in the age of
COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. For starters, it
was called with only a few hours notice to vote on changes forced
by the virus.
Boston school officials and the city teachers union have yet to
come to agreement on how to conduct online learning during the
six-week shutdown of the school system, even as school staffers
have been delivering 20,000 Chromebook computers to students with
much fanfare.
Talks over online learning just began on Thursday — albeit
virtually instead of in person — and are expected to resume
Friday, according to the Boston teachers union, which provided
members an update Thursday night.
President Trump signed an emergency paid leave law that will
provide relief for employees across America—including those who
work in schools—dealing with COVID-19. Here’s a guide to how the
law may affect you.
Are his Omaha Central High School classmates doing all right?
“You just want answers to all these questions you have,” Anderson
said. “But no one has any answers.”
Will graduation ceremonies be held on time or at all? Is prom
canceled? Will this affect his plans for college?
Five high school seniors from public and private districts around
the metro area said they wonder if they have had their last day
of high school.
WASHINGTON — Borrowers with federal student loans will be
able to pause their payments for two months without interest
accruing, President Donald Trump and the Education Department
said Friday.
The move is an effort to help those financially affected by the
spread of the coronavirus. Trump had announced last week the
government would waive interest on federally held loans last
week, but few details had been available. The suspension will be
in effect for at least 60 days, and it started on March 13.
There’s rising doubt among school leaders that their students
will return to school this spring.
Most schools in the St. Louis area are closed through April 3,
for now, to help contain the spread of COVID-19, the illness
caused by the novel coronavirus. That date is starting to feel
like just a placeholder for a more sustained closure.
A majority of states have ordered their schools
closed as the nation rushes to slow the spread of the new
coronavirus, hoping to blunt its potential to overwhelm medical
resources.
It can be difficult to visualize the sheer scale of this wave,
affecting tens of thousands of schools and tens of millions of
students.
Schools will not have to administer federally required tests this
year, President Trump and the U.S. Department of Education
announced Friday — an unprecedented but unsurprising move in
the wake of widespread school closures due to the new
coronavirus.
“Students need to be focused on staying healthy and continuing to
learn. Teachers need to be able to focus on remote learning and
other adaptations,” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a
statement. “Neither students nor teachers need to be focused on
high-stakes tests during this difficult time.”
North Carolina school districts are finding ways to pay employees
while schools are closed this month, but employees are worried
about how long that will last with the closures expected to
continue.
The State Board of Education and state Department of Public
Instruction told school districts to consider the weekdays that
schools are closed through March 30 to be teacher workdays. This
means salaried employees like teachers will continue to be paid
and hourly employees will get paid if they work.
For international students studying at U.S. universities that
suspended in-person classes, the last week has not been easy.
The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed that
international students can take classes online without it
adversely affecting their visa statuses. But as the COVID-19
pandemic has forced universities to partially close their
campuses, many unanswered questions remain.
Not All Schools Can #KeepLearning
To encourage learning while schools are shut down, Illinois education officials have gathered online tools for educators and promoted the hashtag #keeplearning.
Some students in Illinois, however, won’t be able to watch their teacher conduct live science experiments or download a story time video. They don’t have a computer or high-speed internet at home, or a cellphone data plan that would support it.
With Coronavirus, Low-Income Students Need Headphones To Study
In her family’s one-bedroom home every day unfolds with one distraction after another for 17-year-old Anais Hernandez: her mother cooking and cleaning in the kitchen; her disabled father watching high-volume TV news; the bustle of her younger sister in their East Los Angeles home.
There’s no escape from the noise as Anais attempts to focus on Advanced Placement Spanish literature and English and economics. Two weeks into shelter-at-home schooling, this Mendez High School senior could use a tool that would be hard for her family to afford — sound-canceling headphones.
If the Coronavirus Collapses State Budgets, What Will Happen to Public Colleges?
Harvey Kesselman, president of Stockton University, got the bad news in a text from New Jersey’s secretary of higher education: Half of Stockton’s state operating aid would be held back for the rest of the fiscal year.
On Monday, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, New Jersey announced a spending freeze of $920 million that had already been allocated by the Legislature, including half of all funds headed to public colleges like Stockton. (New Jersey had more than 6,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus as of Thursday.)
Teachers of Newcomer Students Try to Keep Them Connected as Schools Close, Routines Shift
Even under normal circumstances, Cheri Mann does a lot to help her students cross language barriers and make sense of an unfamiliar school environment.
She teaches a half-dozen high schoolers who recently moved to the U.S. from Guatemala and Honduras, many as unaccompanied minors, in a small school district in north-central Kentucky. Most days, Mann helps her newcomers practice their English for one period, then accompanies them to their other classes to make sure they understand the instruction.
Delaware Students Use 3D Printers to Help Meet Need For Coronavirus Masks
People across the country are responding to the alarm set off when health care workers on the front line of the coronavirus pandemic reported shortages of N95 face masks.
Now several Brandywine High School students hope to soon start producing masks made with 3D printers so they can be used by health care professionals in need.
“I’m really stoked that my teacher gave me this opportunity,” said Ian Wilt, a Brandywine high junior. “It’s doing everything for a good cause.”
Massive Shift to Remote Learning Prompts Big Data Privacy Concerns
Schools are confronting a wide range of potential problems around student data privacy as they scramble to put technology tools for virtual instruction in place during extended school building shutdowns.
Teachers have already begun connecting with students using a variety of digital tools, some of which are new to them and their schools and weren’t designed for classroom use—everything from videoconferencing apps like Zoom to digital devices like Chromebooks and learning platforms like Babbel and BrainPop.
Child Care Centers Are Essential to the Economy. But Can They Survive the Coronavirus Pandemic?
Carol Gibbs started providing child care from her home in Bellevue 30 years ago. Usually she and her staff are serving 12 kids a day, doing everything from diapering infants to teaching 4-year-olds. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, attendance is down to three.
“We’re like an extension of their home,” she said of the children in her care. “I have an intimate relationship with these families.”
Teachers, Parents Say City’s Silence on School-Based Infections is Putting Families At Risk
Educators and advocates are raising alarms over the city’s decision to stop publicly confirming positive cases of the coronavirus in school communities — as even with schools closed, teachers, parents and students may be left in the dark over their exposure to the potentially fatal disease.
Disability Advocates Worry the Quick Shift to Online Learning Could Overlook Needed Accommodations
In the rush to move classes online, there are some concerns that students who need special accommodations might be left out.
For schools that specialize in behavioral and other needs, having to go to school remotely is presenting a lot of new challenges. Melissa Belsito, with the Center for Applied Behavioral Instruction in Worcester, explained a lot of her students struggle with change and depend on their schedules.
If Virus Brings a Break From NC Testing, Ripple Effects Could be Huge
North Carolina’s year-end testing is likely to be put on hold for this year, as students face at least nine weeks of learning from home to avoid the coronavirus.
The federal government has granted a testing waiver, and Brian Gwyn, a legislative analyst and lawyer, said that’s all that’s required to cancel End of Grade and End of Course exams.
However, he said, “legislative action would be needed to address all the other statutes that rely on data from the assessments.”
Maryland HBCUs Awarded Half a Billion in Racial Discrimination Compensation
Maryland has voted in favor of awarding four state universities more than half a billion dollars in compensation for years of institutional racial discrimination, signaling the end of a long legal battle.
In a victory resulting from a lawsuit filed more than a decade ago, four historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) can expect a boost to their budgets of a total of $577m after the Maryland senate, in a rare legislative resolution to legal action, gave bipartisan support to a landmark settlement.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Mar. 20-26)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
A Tennessee school district seeks to help local medical professionals by printing personal protective equipment, reports Meghan Mangrum of Chattanooga Times Free Press.
The Hechinger Report examines how the impacts of college closures are being felt beyond the traditional classroom.
For The Wall Street Journal, Douglas Belkin and Melissa Korn cover the impact COVID-19 will have on college fall admissions.
MIT Agrees To Pay Food Service Workers Through May 22
MIT has agreed to extend the pay for dining hall workers who have been sidelined because of the coronavirus through May 22, a small victory for some of the lowest-wage employees on college campuses.
MIT announced this week that it had reached a deal with the union representing 225 dining hall workers and the university’s food service vendors, Bon Appetit and Restaurant Associates. MIT agreed to provide funding for the workers, who were slated to be laid off, after the university sent students home to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Colleges Are Likely To Get Billions In Coronavirus Aid, But Advocates Say It’s Not Enough
Colleges and universities are expected to receive billions of dollars from the coronavirus relief bill moving through Congress. But a top higher education advocate in Washington called funding levels “woefully inadequate” to stabilize a sector of the economy that is hemorrhaging cash.
With campuses across the country shuttered for the foreseeable future, many schools are issuing refunds for room and board, subsidizing plane and bus fare for students forced to leave in a hurry and absorbing myriad other unforeseen expenses and revenue losses.
She’s 10, Homeless and Eager to Learn. But She Has No Internet.
Allia Phillips was excited about picking up an iPad from her school in Harlem last week. She did not want to miss any classes and hoped to land on the fourth-grade honor roll again.
On Monday, the first day that New York City public schools began remote learning, the 10-year-old placed her iPad on a tray she set up over her pillow on a twin bed in a studio that she shares with her mother and grandmother inside a homeless shelter on the Upper West Side.
And then, Allia saw nothing.
Rural California District Stays Open Despite Statewide Stay-at-Home Order
Less than a week after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, one small rural school district in California remains open.
Board Permanently Closes Oklahoma School Sites; Patchwork of Distance Learning Programs to Begin
As health officials predict a months-long continuation of the coronavirus pandemic, the state Board of Education on Wednesday ordered school districts to keep buildings closed for the remainder of the academic year and pivot to distance learning programs, a directive that lacks uniformity and allows districts extreme flexibility.
“It’s going to look different for all schools and we have to accept that,” said State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister at Wednesday’s board meeting.
Coronavirus Creates College Uncertainty, Admissions Gets Easier
As the coronavirus pandemic upends college life, it is causing a knock-on effect for admissions: High-school seniors may find it easier to get into some schools this year.
Students considering offers or awaiting decisions later this week from colleges across the selectivity spectrum can expect higher acceptance rates, as colleges take measures to ensure they will still have enough students enrolled come fall.
Read the full story here.
OPINION: School Closures Require Digging Deep Into Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic
The abrupt closing of nearly the entire American school system is a massive story. It deserves an enormous amount of attention. And so far, the quality and quantity of the coverage that I’ve seen has been encouragingly high — especially given what a fast-moving, complex situation we’ve been in since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.
San Antonio’s Digital Divide Gapes Wider As Coronavirus Forces Schools Online
Arailia Jeffries works for a plasma collection company, but her hours as a phlebotomist are being cut as the coronavirus pandemic scares away potential donors. Her husband, a metal fabricator, also is working reduced hours for reduced pay. So Wednesday evening, as dark clouds built outside Jeffries’ house near the Pearsall Park neighborhood, frustration built inside her sweltering living room where, still wearing navy scrubs, she and her four school-aged children waited on hold with Spectrum.
Advocates Demand Illinois Release Youth From Juvenile Detention Centers Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Advocates and correctional officials are calling on Illinois and other states across the country to release youth from juvenile detention facilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are currently about 200 youth incarcerated in Illinois’ juvenile detention facilities. A recent report from the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University found that more than 90% of incarcerated youth have at least one mental health disorder diagnosis, and about two-thirds have multiple diagnoses.
JCPS Pulls Troubled Kids From Schools, Outraging Parents
s he sat in a Louisville psychiatric hospital preparing to hand over his 7-year-old daughter, Brian Carroll knew none of it felt right.
The security guards. The sterile waiting room. The clerk positioned behind a glass window. He didn’t believe his daughter Pepper, who has autism, was truly in the midst of a mental health crisis. Yes, she had an outburst at school. But did she deserve to be here?
The Coronavirus Double Whammy: School Closures, Economic Downturn Could Derail Student Learning, Research Shows
The new coronavirus has closed schools for weeks, and in some places for the rest of the academic year. Thousands of parents have already lost their jobs. And many believe a recession is on the way. That’s a cocktail with the potential for harmful, long-lasting effects on students, research suggests.
Thousands of Liberty Students Expected To Return to Campus Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
LYNCHBURG — As the coronavirus threatens to spread across the Lynchburg region, Liberty University officials are preparing to welcome back up to 5,000 students from spring break this week.
Defying a national trend of campus closures, President Jerry Falwell Jr. has invited students to return to residence halls and has directed faculty members to continue to report to campus even as most classes move online.
They Can Help Fight Coronavirus. Trump Wants to Deport Them.
The U.S. Supreme Court in November heard oral arguments on a set of cases challenging the legality of President Donald Trump’s efforts to terminate DACA, which provided temporary protection from deportation and work authorization to some 825,000 undocumented young people, including those who are studying to enter the medical field. A decision from the high court could come any day.
Read the full story here.
Remote Learning Activated For Chicago Catholic School
As many schools across the state are still figuring out how to teach online, Shively and other teachers at Holy Trinity are implementing the e-learning strategy they already had in place.
Read the full story here.
Texas Day Cares Are Closing Just When Some Parents Need Them More Than Ever
Heather Martinez now takes every child’s temperature at the door to Happy Octopus Early Education, the day care she runs from her home in Corpus Christi, following a new state regulation for child care centers issued as COVID-19 cases continue to surge across Texas.
She disinfects tables, sanitizes toys and requires parents to stand outside the door at pick up and drop off each day. But she worries the new rules are not enough to keep everyone healthy: It’s hard to stop infants from putting toys in their mouths, let alone expect them to stay six feet away from one another.
High Schoolers Will Take Their AP Exams at Home, College Board Says
The thousands of Florida teens who planned to spend hours this spring in school testing centers trying to earn college credits on Advanced Placement exams will be taking the tests at home instead.
In response to social distancing efforts under way nationally to slow the spread of COVID-19, test administrator College Board announced Friday it would provide shortened 45-minute AP exams. They will be based on curriculum truncated to better reflect what classes already have covered.
Help! I Don’t Know How to Be a Teacher! Home-schooling Parents, Teacher Trainers Offer Advice During Coronavirus Shutdown
Parents across Ohio had a surprising new role thrust upon them this week: teaching their children.
With Ohio’s schools shut down, possibly for the school year, because of coronavirus concerns, parents now have to make sure their children learn the lessons their schools send home or post online.
The Plain Dealer asked two groups of people for advice for parents’ new role: Home-schoolers, who teach their children at home every day, and professors at teaching colleges, the people who teach teachers how to teach.
How Atlanta Public Schools Are Coping With the Pandemic
The Trump administration has just announced broad flexibility for states to cancel their spring standardized tests, and that may take some strain off teachers and be a huge relief to parents and grandparents and other caregivers struggling to remember basic math and science. But what will it mean for our kids’ education? And how are schools responding? Meria Carstarphen is the superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, which has nearly 52,000 students.
College Admissions and Financial Aid Questions Amid Coronavirus
This spring was supposed to be an exciting time for Xander Christou. He’s a senior in high school in Austin, Texas, and was looking forward to all the fun: prom, senior skip day and of course, graduation.
Redesigning College Admission: COVID-19, Access, And Equity
The spread of COVID-19 throughout the world is evidence that the virus does not discriminate. It has infected individuals from all nations, backgrounds, ages, races, genders, and economic status. However, the impact of the virus is—and will be—felt very differently by various populations. The most vulnerable people in our society are likely to disproportionately suffer from the health and economic implications of this crisis.
Memphis School District Suspends Food Distribution After Employee Tests Positive For Coronavirus
Shelby County Schools on Friday suspended its meal distribution program for students after an employee in its nutrition department tested positive for the new coronavirus.
Tennessee’s largest district serves 113,000 students, most of whom are low income, and had been ramping up to begin serving 15,000 meals a day beginning Monday. Due to the spread of COVID-19, schools that already were on spring break are closed through at least April 3.
When Schools Shut Down, We All Lose
This was the week that American schools across the country closed their doors.
It was the week that our public schools—often dismissed as mediocre, inequitable, or bureaucratic—showed just how much they mean to American society by their very absence.
The unprecedented shutdown public and private schools in dozens of states last week has illuminated one easily forgotten truism about schools: They are an absolute necessity for the functioning of civic culture, and even more fundamentally than that, daily life.
Districts Search For School Lunch Solutions Amid Coronavirus Closures
Nearly 30 million children in the U.S. count on schools for free or low-cost breakfast, lunch, snacks and sometimes dinner — but most of those children are now at home. At least 114,000 public and private schools have been closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, affecting the vast majority of the nation’s K-12 students, according to an ongoing tally by Education Week.
Child Care Providers Are Feeling An Unprecedented Squeeze. Now, They’re Asking For Help.
Many child care providers won’t survive the coronavirus outbreak, a coalition of state groups warned Thursday, as they pushed lawmakers to offer financial relief for day cares and early learning centers.
“Child care providers are already operating on very small margins,” the groups wrote in a letter to Congressional leaders, calling for child care providers to be considered in any economic stimulus package.
Canceled Research, Sports, Recitals — College Students Are Coping With More Than Closed Campuses
Moving his education online because of the coronavirus presents a much bigger problem for Cameron Pelton than it does for many of his Indiana University classmates.
Pelton is studying ballet and choreography, subjects that don’t convert easily to virtual instruction. Meanwhile, auditions have been canceled and seniors who were hoping to land jobs with ballet companies have had those aspirations delayed.
MN’s Schools Closed For Learning, But Open For Emergency Personnel Child Care, Planning
Last Friday, Gov. Tim Walz told schools to keep their doors open. He said they were needed to care for the children of people who worked in health care.
Two days later the plan changed.
“We have thought this through and I will be willing to say at this time that we have the most comprehensive plan for what school closing looks like of any state in the nation,” Walz said.
Minnesota’s plan means canceling classes for a week and a half to give teachers and district leaders the time to prepare for distance learning.
Student on CMS Board Emerges as Star in Emergency COVID-19 Meeting
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board’s student representative is getting a lot of public love after he grilled the adults in the room at an emergency board meeting this week.
Monday’s session may have been a preview of life in the age of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. For starters, it was called with only a few hours notice to vote on changes forced by the virus.
Amid shutdown, Boston Public Schools, Union Negotiate Over Online Learning
Boston school officials and the city teachers union have yet to come to agreement on how to conduct online learning during the six-week shutdown of the school system, even as school staffers have been delivering 20,000 Chromebook computers to students with much fanfare.
Talks over online learning just began on Thursday — albeit virtually instead of in person — and are expected to resume Friday, according to the Boston teachers union, which provided members an update Thursday night.
Getting Paid During the Coronavirus Crisis: How a New Law Affects School Employees
President Trump signed an emergency paid leave law that will provide relief for employees across America—including those who work in schools—dealing with COVID-19. Here’s a guide to how the law may affect you.
Read the full story here.
‘You Just Want Answers’: High School Seniors Left Wondering on Prom, Graduation, College
Will Anderson wants answers.
Are his Omaha Central High School classmates doing all right? “You just want answers to all these questions you have,” Anderson said. “But no one has any answers.”
Will graduation ceremonies be held on time or at all? Is prom canceled? Will this affect his plans for college?
Five high school seniors from public and private districts around the metro area said they wonder if they have had their last day of high school.
Trump: Student Loan Payments Suspended For 60 Days Without Interest
WASHINGTON — Borrowers with federal student loans will be able to pause their payments for two months without interest accruing, President Donald Trump and the Education Department said Friday.
The move is an effort to help those financially affected by the spread of the coronavirus. Trump had announced last week the government would waive interest on federally held loans last week, but few details had been available. The suspension will be in effect for at least 60 days, and it started on March 13.
‘I Think We’re Done’: Educators Not Optimistic of Schools Reopening
There’s rising doubt among school leaders that their students will return to school this spring.
Most schools in the St. Louis area are closed through April 3, for now, to help contain the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. That date is starting to feel like just a placeholder for a more sustained closure.
GRAPHIC: Visualizing the School Shutdown Wave
A majority of states have ordered their schools closed as the nation rushes to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, hoping to blunt its potential to overwhelm medical resources.
It can be difficult to visualize the sheer scale of this wave, affecting tens of thousands of schools and tens of millions of students.
States Will Not Have to Give Standardized Tests This Year, Trump Says
Schools will not have to administer federally required tests this year, President Trump and the U.S. Department of Education announced Friday — an unprecedented but unsurprising move in the wake of widespread school closures due to the new coronavirus.
“Students need to be focused on staying healthy and continuing to learn. Teachers need to be able to focus on remote learning and other adaptations,” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a statement. “Neither students nor teachers need to be focused on high-stakes tests during this difficult time.”
NC School Workers Will Be Paid During Coronavirus Closure. But How Long Will That Last?
North Carolina school districts are finding ways to pay employees while schools are closed this month, but employees are worried about how long that will last with the closures expected to continue.
The State Board of Education and state Department of Public Instruction told school districts to consider the weekdays that schools are closed through March 30 to be teacher workdays. This means salaried employees like teachers will continue to be paid and hourly employees will get paid if they work.
COVID-19 Disrupts International Student Exchange in Both Directions
For international students studying at U.S. universities that suspended in-person classes, the last week has not been easy.
The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed that international students can take classes online without it adversely affecting their visa statuses. But as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced universities to partially close their campuses, many unanswered questions remain.