Florida Teachers File Lawsuit Over In-Person Schooling Mandate
Meanwhile, Kansas instructs teachers and students to mask up when schools reopen; Catholic schools in St. Louis aim for in-person classes starting in August; and the big experiment that is schools reopening.
Florida鈥檚 largest teachers union sued top state officials Monday over an order mandating a return of in-person schooling, drawing the courts into an increasingly politicized nationwide debate over when and how kids can return to class amid the coronavirus pandemic. The suit from the Florida Education Association asked a judge to stop Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran from requiring the return of in-person schooling without first reducing class sizes and ensuring that educators have adequate protective supplies. (Zapotosky, 7/20)
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) signed an order Monday mandating all students, teachers, faculty and visitors to public or private K-12 school buildings or facilities wear face coverings.聽鈥淚 will continue to use every resource and tool available to this administration to protect Kansans and keep our economy open for business, regardless of the political pushback,鈥 Kelly said in a statement. (Klar, 7/20)
The Archdiocese of St. Louis on Monday announced plans to resume in-person classes next month as one area Catholic school deals with a coronavirus outbreak. At least 19 St. Dominic High School students and two guests tested positive for COVID-19 after attending an outdoor graduation ceremony July 8 and prom July 10, according to the O鈥橣allon school. The school cancelled student activities through Aug. 9. (Salter, 7/21)
Andrew Asemota is a paraprofessional with Atlanta Public Schools. In this guest column, Asemota says schools ought to open for face-to-face instruction. He says the best evidence thus far suggests that students and teachers would not be endangered. This is a view that I am hearing from some parents, who believe children will be at greater risk from remote learning than from returning to school buildings, an opinion shared by the president, the U.S. secretary of education and many state governors. (Downey, 7/20)
As scientists study the burden of COVID-19 around the globe, it's pretty clear that despite some cases of serious illness, kids tend to get infected with the coronavirus less often and have milder symptoms compared to adults. "It seems consistently, children do have lower rates of infection than adults," says Dr. Alison Tribble, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan. (Aubrey, 7/20)
In related news 鈥
Will school start again this fall? How many tests do we really need to tackle covid-19? How long should people quarantine if they do contract the virus?Adults have all of these questions, but so do kids. William Haseltine, a medical researcher and public health veteran with a history of pioneering ambitious projects to tackle HIV/AIDS, cancer and genomics, is tackling those issues with 鈥淎 Family Guide to Covid.鈥 (Blakemore, 7/20)
The school has been closed to students for months, but every morning it opens its doors to a steady brigade of children ready to have their forehead scanned for a fever. The four-story brick building, known as PS/IS 128 in Queens, New York, has been repurposed into what is known as a "Regional Enrichment Center" -- one of a number of child care centers throughout the state that has remained open during the coronavirus pandemic for the children of parents who cannot work from home and are considered "essential" workers. (Jarrett, 7/20)
