The country’s school system, paralyzed a year ago by the spread of the coronavirus, is showing promising signs of a rebound in recent days.
DON’T LOOK NOW, BUT THE country’s public school system, which grinded to a halt when the coronavirus pandemic first hit the U.S. more than a year ago and has since existed largely in a state of paralysis, is tiptoeing back to life.
Educators and school staff are being prioritized for the coronavirus vaccine in every state. The federal government just wrote a $140 billion check to help K-12 schools cover the cost of reopening, including $10 billion for testing and tracing students and staff. Pharmaceutical companies are ramping up vaccine trials for young children, whom Dr. Anthony Fauci said should be able to be immunized as early as this fall.
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its recommendation for social distancing in schools from 6 feet to 3 feet – new guidance that stands to alter the ability of dozens of big city school districts to reopen for in-person learning.
“We’re at a critically important time in our nation’s history in education,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said this week. “My goal, my priority right now is to safely reopen as many schools as possible as quickly as possible.”
As the landscape becomes riper for schools to reopen for in-person learning across the country, the Biden administration is set to hold a national school reopening summit March 24, where educators, school leaders and policymakers will come together to learn about what’s working, how to effectively implement the CDC’s reopening guidelines and how to address the mental health crisis and the academic, social and emotional learning loss that’s been steadily building since schools first shuttered last March.
