Re-Opening/Closing Schools During the Pandemic

2020

CDC Guidelines:

New York Specific:


Virtual Learning:


Other Resources:

  • A Blueprint for Back to School.    “Together with a task force of accomplished educational leaders—including former state chiefs, superintendents, federal education officials, and charter network leaders—this report sketches a framework that can help state policymakers, education and community leaders, and federal officials plan appropriately for reopening.” “Policymakers and school leaders should assess the need for additional counselors, social workers, school psychologists, and nurses. ” (20 pages)   Source:   Bailey, J. & Hess, F., 5/2020. American Enterprise Institute.
  • As Europe Reopens Schools, Relief Combines With Risk  Source:  Bennhold, K.  5/10/2020. NY Times. 
  • Back to School:  Slow & Steady School Social Workers in Australia discuss issues and share resources to assist in re-opening schools.  Source: Huxtable, M., 6-28-2020. International Network for School Social Work
  • Creating Trauma Informed SchoolsSource:  2020.  The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
  • Coronavirus:  How do you social distance in schools?   Article discusses how Scotland and other countries have been re-opening.       Source: Lyst, C. 4/25/2020.  BBC
  • Embedding Mental Health As Schools Change.  Free book.  (221 pages)  Source:  Adelman, Howard &  Taylor, Linda.   7?/ 2020. UCLA School Mental Health Project.  
  • Forging a Path Forward:  How to Design a Responsive Return Plan   This article provides a 21 page guide that “presents the Education Elements philosophy on how to use responsive practices to plan your district’s return and provides a four-step process for examining multiple return scenarios given considerable uncertainty and unknowns.”  Source: Reingold, S. 5/6/2020.  Education Elements 
  • How to Plan When You Don’t Know What to Plan For.     Source: Hicks, K. & Schroeder, S.  7/8/2020.  Edutopia
  • Public Health Principles for a Phased Reopening During COVID-19: Guidance for Governors.    (24 pages) Source:  Rivers, C., Martin, E. et. al.  4/17/2020, Johns Hopkins University:  Center for Health Security
  • Scheduling the COVID-19 School Year.   “To help district and school leaders understand some of their options for how to schedule school days in a pandemic, Education Week spoke to more than a dozen superintendents, district leaders, and other experts and pored through numerous planning documents and guidelines outlined by state departments of education and local education agencies.”  Source:  6/24/2020.  EdWeek
  • School Districts’ Reopening Plans:  A Snapshot.     “Education Week is collecting reopening plans from a sample of school districts around the country. ”  Source:  7/31/2020(Rev). Education Week.  
  • COVID-19 School & Community Resource Library    78 pages of studies and articles on the impact of COVID on children/families/staff and the re-opening of schools.  “The COVID-19 School and Community Resource Library is a volunteer effort by a group of Massachusetts physicians, including pediatricians, infectious disease physicians, and school district physicians from multiple institutions across the state. Our objective is to offer a compiled source of published and publicly available data for clinicians who are advising K-12 schools and community organizations regarding best practices to prevent and manage COVID-19 infection as they plan their re-opening efforts this year.” Source:    Andrea Ciaranello,  A., et. al.  7/31/2020 (Rev). Division of Infectious Disease,,Massachusetts General Hospital,Harvard Medical School
  • School Leaders Debate Solutions For an Uncertain 2020-21  Source  Gonser, Sarah. 4/22/2020 Edutopia
  • The Coronavirus Closed Schools in a Flash. But Detailed Planning Must Guide Students’ Return to Classrooms, Groups Urge.    “Schools should evaluate the need for additional social workers and psychologists while expanding access to telehealth counseling services.”  Source: Keierleber, M. 5/27/2020.  The 74
  • Te Rito Toi    “Te Rito Toi helps [educators] work with children when they first return to school following major traumatic or life changing events.”  Classroom support activities.  From Aukland, Australia.  Shared by the International School Social Work Network
  • What Principals Have Learned from COVID-19’s  ‘Stress Test”    Source Superville, D. 11/18/2020 Education Week. 
  • Will Opening Schools Make the Pandemic Worse?    Source: Sparks, S.  7/31/2020.  Education Week

  • COVID-19 School & Community Resource Library    78 pages of studies and articles on the impact of COVID on children/families/staff and the re-opening of schools.  “The COVID-19 School and Community Resource Library is a volunteer effort by a group of Massachusetts physicians, including pediatricians, infectious disease physicians, and school district physicians from multiple institutions across the state. Our objective is to offer a compiled source of published and publicly available data for clinicians who are advising K-12 schools and community organizations regarding best practices to prevent and manage COVID-19 infection as they plan their re-opening efforts this year.”   Source:  Andrea Ciaranello,  A., et. al.  7/31/2020 (Rev). Division of Infectious Disease,,Massachusetts General Hospital,Harvard Medical School