Schools reopening: The state of play for K-12

This is the first installment of the Coronavirus Schools Briefing, a new newsletter sent out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday that brings you the latest developments on the seismic changes to education taking place during the pandemic. Sign up here to receive the briefing via email.

The state of play for K-12

In a typical year, nearly two-thirds of the nation’s 50 million public school children return to classrooms by the third week of August. But this year is anything but typical, with many of the nation’s largest districts delaying the start of school or choosing to open remotely as cases of coronavirus spread through their communities.

One thing has become painfully clear: Individual districts have largely been left to map out their own paths, whether it be a return to class, distance learning or a mix of the two.

On the map above, our colleagues in Times Opinion saw which U.S. counties can safely open K-12 schools by investigating where the virus is under control and not. According to their analysis, areas in red should not reopen, those in orange and yellow may partially reopen, and those in green are ready to reopen with conditions such as high-risk activities, wearing masks and physical distance. You can search here for the status of your area.

However, some of those districts in red have already opened their doors to teachers and students. Schools across the South and Midwest are back in session, with some reporting of outbreaks of Covid-19 forcing them to temporarily move online or quarantine large numbers of students and teachers.

But be careful to jump to far-reaching conclusions: Many school outbreaks have occurred in viral hot spots such as Georgia, in districts where classes are not significantly reduced and mask wearing is optional, making it difficult to compare with regions such as the Northeast Polder, where the infection rate is currently lower and stricter requirements for mask-wearing and social-distancing will be in place for schools that reopen.

“The most important thing is that there is no national reopening strategy,” said Eliza Shapiro, who covers New York City education for The Times. “We have an incredibly regional, fractured, dispersed approach to recovery that has no coherence. Places like Florida and New York are currently different countries, in terms of the virus. ”

Some politicians have tried to adopt a more uniform approach, with decidedly mixed results.

• In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is threatening to withhold $ 200 million in funding from the Hillsborough County School District, which occupies Tampa and is one of the nation’s largest, if it does not reopen for personal learning.

• In Chicago, which had planned to open with a hybrid model, schools will now open remotely following opposition from parents and teachers. But many students have returned to personal learning centers, which have been linked to few, if any, cases. In the whole city, cases are low, and the number of infections remains relatively flat.

• In New Jersey, Gu. Philip Murphy turned his demand for some form of in-person teaching back to continued opposition from the union of state teachers.

• At the federal level President Trump tweeted a question in July: “SCHOOLS MUST BE IN THE FALL !!! But as Eliza reported, it seems to have regained its push, and has hardened the view among some teachers and school officials that it would be unsafe again.

These political and policy decisions are taking place as we gradually learn more about the coronavirus and how it affects children.

“It’s all about the place, but the only thing that people are aware of is that most children do not get very sick,” Apoorva Mandavilli, a science reporter for The Times, said. “Even though we consider children to be germ factories, they themselves are not the ones who will take the biggest hit.”

The finish line: The problems with training during the coronavirus are systemic, but the anxiety is personal. Teachers and families are forced to choose between incomplete options based on factors including health, socio-economic status and risk tolerance.

What comes next? Claire Cain Miller wrote for The Upshot about how families navigate an impossible dilemma.

“The one way to help parents the most is to get the virus under control,” Claire told us. ‘The countries that have done this are schools that can open. There could be things like sending a check to parents to spend on counseling or day care or whatever is needed, but Congress has not shown much appetite for that. That it really leaves parents just on their own. ”

Should colleges give a discount?

An uprising against the high cost of a bachelor’s degree, already spreading to the coronavirus, has gained fresh momentum. Some students and parents are refusing to pay face-to-face prices for education that is increasingly online.

Some demand cuts in tuition fees, increased financial aid, reduced fees and sheets of deviation, reports our colleague Shawn Hubler.

By Ithaca College (student population: 5,500) the financial services team reports more than 2,000 questions in the past month about financial aid and lesson adjustments.

Some 340 Harvard freshmen – roughly a fifth of the first-year class – postponed admission instead of possibly spending part of the year online. A group for lobbying for parents, formed last month on Facebook, has asked the administration to reduce lessons and reduce rules for sheets of absence.

And it’s not just about paying for it. To deal with additional expenses for screening and testing students for the virus, and for configuring campus facilities for security, some colleges and universities are asking students to pay additional fees for coronavirus.

Other news from higher ed:

Local updates

• A school district outside Phoenix canceled plans to reopen schools after teachers stepped out ‘sick’ in protest. Teachers also plan to strike Detroit to protest security issues.

• The Cherokee County School District Georgia said Sunday it would close a third high school due to an outbreak of the virus after 25 students tested positive, reports NBC.

• Otherwise, students from the public school system benefit from homeschooling as well as pandemic podcasts. One front group in Texas combats the trend with a simple message: “A strong recovery from Texas requires strong Texas schools.”

Tip of the day: college at home

Many first-year college students will start school from home, without conversations of the entire nightroom, the clutter of a snappy seminar discussion, or the sweet euphoria of a first football game.

As a family, you can help reduce their disappointment. Here are some suggestions on how to help build independence for students starting their college from their childhood.

Tell us your story

“If students go back to school, however they return to school, everyone should have some sort of student cross,” Lara Bergen, an educator, wrote in an advisory piece for The 74 Million.

We agree. Student journalists, we’d love to hear from you on how to plan your first few weeks of coverage. What are the obstacles? What surprised you? We may have some answers in the coming days.