As states and school districts make plans to reopen schools, they must do so with sufficient resources and meaningful community input. In addition to resources schools need every year, schools must be able to address educational inequities that were deepened by COVID-19. It is crucial that school reopening guidelines include students and their families in the planning and implementation process.

 

School Reopening Guidelines and Proposals Vary

Many state education agencies and school districts have begun to issue school reopening plans. For example, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced Thursday that schools across the state will reopen in the fall. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has a set of guidelines that advise school districts on how to begin in-person instruction, plan for likely outbreaks and offer necessary virtual options when applicable for summer instruction. TEA plans to release additional reopening guidance next week and noted the guidance will not require students to wear masks or be tested for COVID-19 symptoms.

 

Even with direction from state agencies, school district and campus leaders will make many of the decisions about how schools reopen. Some districts propose moving to intersessional calendars to help plan for later in the year if COVID-19 infection rates increase and schools are forced to close again. These calendars could include an earlier start date, longer winter or other breaks and a later end of school year date. A wide range of scenarios may take place from fully in-person to fully virtual, adding to the uncertainty and unpredictability this pandemic is causing.

 

The Challenges of Reopening Schools

There are several challenges to reopening schools, including safety concerns. As many states report recent record highs of new infections, families question their school's ability to safely bring faculty, teachers and students back into the classroom. A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found 45% of parents with school-aged children are not comfortable sending their children back to school. Parents fear schools will not be prepared and worry students and staff will not follow rules.  

 

Some state decisions about distribution of federal relief funds complicate district decisions to reopen. In Texas, TEA chose to use the federal CARES Act education relief funds (ESSER funds) to back-fill its 2019-20 budget, leaving little supplemental funds for school districts to use in the 2020-21 school year. In other words, TEA supplanted the originally allocated state public school money for the last 12 weeks of the spring semester with school districts' federal relief funds instead of truly supplementing the additional district expenses for COVID-19. Alabama and Georgia are using CARES Act funds similarly to Texas.

 

Such decisions leave school districts with little to no supplemental funding to plan for what will surely be additional challenges for students' academic, physical, and social-emotional health and safety.

 

Communities Must be Involved in School Reopening Plans

To help build confidence in school reopening decisions, it is crucial to include students, teachers and families in the school reopening decision-making process. Schools should seek to learn more about challenges pertaining to distance learning, academic instruction, special populations, grade promotion and new classroom safety guidelines, to name a few.

 

Some school districts have distributed surveys and other sentiment-gathering tools, which is a best practice in any district's decision making but even more so during times of uncertainty. But surveys are not sufficient.

 

After working with student, parent and teacher groups, IDRA recommends school districts take into consideration the following issues when determining reopening strategies. (These recommendations were informed in part by students during our recent IDRA webinar, "Student Perspectives on a Changing School Climate," that is available for viewing on-demand.)

Overall, school districts should continue to prioritize connecting with the people who are directly impacted by their decisions. If students and families are not central to reopening decisions, schools risk losing the confidence of the community and making affected populations disengaged.

 

This is an opportunity to incorporate our community into how the education system responds when challenged. Reopening is just the first of many steps schools will need to address how students are educated. Going forward, students and families must guide how learning goes on.