School Re-Opening News

Schools Need to Re-Open

• The Case for Reopening Schools
  “…Given the aggregate of findings, it’s no wonder that a growing list of countries have determined that opening schools is appropriate.”
• You Can Oppose Trump While Supporting Reopening Schools
  “Indeed, when you look closely at the pros and cons of opening schools during this pandemic, you soon realize that the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of reopening.”
• How media coverage turned vulnerable kids into an invisible threat
  “For me, this story is a vivid reminder that at least some of the blame lies within journalism, for failing to provide a relentless focus on these kids’ plights and for contributing to the misinformation about the danger that they may generate.”
• Remote Learning Is a Catastrophe. Teachers Unions Share the Blame.
  “Years from now, when we look back at the coronavirus pandemic, it is very possible that the most damaging element we will identify is its catastrophic effect upon public education.”
  

On the Success of School Re-Openings

• Schools Aren’t Super-Spreaders: Fears from the summer appear to have been overblown.
  “We are starting to get an evidence-based picture of how school reopenings and remote learning are going (those photos of hallways don’t count), and the evidence is pointing in one direction. Schools do not, in fact, appear to be major spreaders of COVID-19.”
• Feared coronavirus outbreaks in schools yet to arrive, early data shows
  “This early evidence, experts say, suggests that opening schools may not be as risky as many have feared and could guide administrators as they chart the rest of what is already an unprecedented school year.”
• U.S. schools in suburbs, small cities reopening without COVID spike; big cities up next
  ““There is starting to be some reassuring data that when you put in place the right measures – and have control of community spread … you can open schools safely,” said Dr. Nathaniel Beers, co-author of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ school opening guidelines.”
• The tentative successes of in-person learning deserve more coverage
  “But there is another story, in many ways more intriguing and useful, that isn’t being told, about what’s going on in schools that have been open in person for weeks without generating a massive uptick in cases.”

Local Success Stories

• The New York City Schools That Didn’t Close
  “The success of the centers has assuaged some parents’ fears about a full return to school.”
• De Blasio challenges Cuomo’s assertion NYC schools in hotspot neighborhoods are COVID transmission sites
  ““What we’re seeing in the school system in general is very low levels of coronavirus activity,” said de Blasio. “The facts keep coming in … I think the schools are proving to be very safe.””
• Early success in containing virus prompts more St. Louis area schools to bring students back
  “One month after thousands of students returned to schools across St. Louis, there have been no coronavirus outbreaks or spikes associated with in-person learning.”
• Houston-area school districts report ‘pretty positive’ results, no big outbreaks after reopening
  “The preliminary data offer signs of hope that many schools, under the right conditions, can hold face-to-face instruction and avoid widespread transmission of the deadly novel coronavirus within a campus.”
• California sees no link from school openings to virus spread
  ““We have not seen a connection between increased transmission and school reopening or in-person learning,” Ghaly said. “We’re looking at the information to see if there is a connection, and so far we have not found one.””
• Florida schools reopened en masse, but a surge in coronavirus didn’t follow, a USA TODAY analysis finds
  “As weeks ticked by and a surge of school-linked cases did not materialize, requests to return remote learners to the classroom have surged in some places.”