Keeping Kids Safe at School

You don’t have to be a parent to be worried about children heading back to school in September—due to COVID, keeping students safe affects us all. That’s why districts across PA are working hard to plan for this exceedingly complex undertaking.

This week, the School District of Philadelphia released their detailed plan that considers the educational needs of its students and the safety requirements of the entire school community. As comprehensive as it may be, in the era of COVID, the District’s plan is likely to be revised and adjusted as the start of school draws nearer.

We compiled the following 10 principles to enhance and improve the plan to keep our students safe from COVID-19 while they learn.

1. First Rule – Do No Harm! – Schools should re-open for in-person instruction when the science indicates that opening with reasonable protocols does not put children, school personnel, and the families of all students and school personnel at a heightened risk of COVID infection.
2. No Matter What, All Students Must Continue to Learn! – The plan envisions providing every family with the choice of home-based instruction. Such instruction must be high quality and engaging for students to ensure that ELL and SPED students receive quality in-home educational services. Further, the District must deploy significantly more training to help our teachers be highly effective in ensuring children continue to learn via remote instruction.
3. Parents Must Have Confidence in Health Protocols – Mandatory Temperature Screening and Social Distancing Will Save Lives! – Every student and all school personnel must be required to comply with on-site temperature checks upon entering school every day. A voluntary system of compliance will not give parents or staff the needed confidence to promote in-school attendance. When a person has a temperature, a designated isolation space must be available until the person leaves the school building. Further, the plan must make explicit that students will be assigned to class and activity rooms in a manner that permits six feet of social distancing for all occupants of the rooms.
4. Schools Must Meet the Highest Standards of Cleaning and Sanitizing! – In order to meet the stringent cleaning protocols aligned with the CDC and EPA guidance, the District must hire additional staff to keep schools clean and sanitary. Further, the district must create a transparent system of communicating to parents daily that cleaning protocols, aligned with CDC and EPA guidelines, are being met. Based on the challenges the District has faced with ensuring buildings are cleaned regularly, significantly improved training, oversight and support of all building maintenance staff is a necessary predicate for re-opening.
5. Parents need Predictability, and Standard Responses in the Case of Infection are a Must! – Simple directives must be released before the start of school so that parents know whether instruction will continue in-school or shift to home-based instruction should an employee or student test positive for COVID.
6. Air Quality Problems Must Be Avoided! – Where there is no reliable and highly functioning ventilation in any room or school building, the policy must clearly state there will be no instruction or school activities in those rooms or buildings. In addition, any school space known to contain hazardous asbestos, lead, or other containments that put staff and students at risk must not be used for instruction.
7. Traveling to/from School, Students Must Be Protected from Infection! – For students who must ride public transit to get to and from school, SEPTA, the City, and the District should mobilize its staff resources and volunteers so that students can ride transit safely and that the transit system is appropriately sanitized.
8. Make the safest decisions about sports! – While it is important for students to be active and stay outside as much as possible, athletic activities involving contact sports should be suspended. Alternatively, schools should offer students non-contact sport options (i.e. baseball, track and field, tennis, etc.) and other extra-curricular activities to keep them physically and mentally active.
9. Keep Parents and Stakeholders in the Loop! – Provide weekly public briefings on progress toward readiness for opening, and, upon opening for traditional instruction, establish a hotline where parents or staff can report problems; and announce all committees and committee chairs managed by the District or the School Board so that parents and key stakeholders can access information and share updates or problems.
10. Funding Will Be Key! – Engage every Philadelphian to push for the Federal and State funds needed to educate our children while keeping our communities safe from COVID. At a state level, this includes, but is not limited to, the distribution of the $100M in unallocated CARES funding. At a federal level, this includes, but is not limited to, the passage of the HEROES Act, which will bring more than $3B in critically needed funding for K-12 education.

We recognize that the best efforts of our teachers, parents, and students depend on the federal and state governments’ action as well as local plans to ensure that any reopening considerations do not jeopardize the lives of our community members.