On Monday, September 20, 2021, U.S. Secretary Miguel Cardona launched a five-day, five-state bus tour in Eau Claire, Wisconsin to highlight the return to in-person learning at the country’s public schools. He stressed the importance of COVID-19 mitigation efforts, including indoor face mask requirements, in keeping schools from encountering interruptions to in-person learning and moving instruction online as the pandemic continues to infect children and staff. 

The initial stop in the “Return To School Road Trip” bus tour of K-12 schools was held outside with all students, staff, and parents wearing face masks. 

Sec. Cardona also said he would strongly support school districts’ efforts to require students to be vaccinated if the vaccines are deemed safe, while expressing hope in the Pfizer company’s “promising news” in its Monday, September 20th release of data that show its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective for children ages 5 to 11. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, as of September 9, 2021, nearly 5.3 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began, but nearly half a million of those cases have come in just the past two weeks,

Sources: NPR and WPR.

On September 9, 2021, the Biden Administration unveiled its Path Out of the Pandemic plan, which includes:

• Requirements that teachers and staff at Head Start and Early Head Start programs, teachers and child and youth program personnel at the Department of Defense (DOD), and teachers and staff at Bureau of Indian Education-operated schools get vaccinated. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will initiate rulemaking to implement this policy for Head Start and Early Head Start programs, which provide comprehensive education and child development services to ensure that children are well prepared for kindergarten. The Department of Defense operates 160 K-12 schools for students from military families across the U.S. and abroad, and the Department of the Interior operates 53 schools through the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) across the U.S. on and off tribal lands. These schools and programs collectively serve more than 1 million children each year and employ nearly 300,000 staff. This action will help more schools and early childhood centers safely remain open and give comfort to the many parents that rely on them every day to keep their children safe.
• A call for governors to require vaccinations for teachers and school staff. Currently, nine states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have vaccination requirements for K-12 school staff, including California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington. Building on Administration policies to require vaccination among federal employees, including those serving children in DOD and BIE schools more states are being asked to join in requiring the vaccine for school employees to make sure we are keeping students safe.
• If a state cuts the funding to a local school district or the pay of a local education leader who is implementing CDC-recommended prevention strategies like universal masking, the school district may use ARP funds to fill those gaps. School districts can begin spending their ARP funds right away, including to reimburse for any allowable cost dating back to when the national emergency for COVID-19 was declared. In addition, the USDE plans to make additional funding available—beyond the ARP dollars—to help local school districts fill gaps when funding has been withheld by their state for implementing COVID safety measures. Local school districts will be able to apply to the USDE in the coming weeks to restore funding withheld by state leaders—such as for school board member or superintendent salaries who have had their pay cut—when a school district implemented strategies to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
• The USDE will assess all of its available tools to take action, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to ensure that state and local officials are giving all students the opportunity to safely participate in full-time, in-person learning. To date, the USDE has launched investigations in five states that have prohibited mask mandates at schools: Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. These investigations will examine whether statewide mask mandate prohibitions discriminate against students with disabilities who are at heightened risk for severe illness from COVID-19 by preventing them from safely accessing in-person education.
• Schools being asked to set up regular testing in their schools for students, teachers, and staff consistent with CDC guidance. CDC currently recommends that screening testing should be offered to students who have not been fully vaccinated when community transmission is at moderate, substantial, or high levels; and screening testing should be offered to all teachers and staff who have not been fully vaccinated at any level of community transmission. In combination with promoting and providing access to vaccination to all eligible members of a school community, schools will better be able to remain open for in-person learning and maintain the health and safety of all students, staff, and families. HHS and the CDC will continue to provide assistance to schools to accelerate the establishment of screening testing programs in all schools.

To view the plan, click here or go to https://www.whitehouse.gov/covidplan/

On Tuesday, August 31, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened directed investigations in five states exploring whether statewide prohibitions on universal indoor masking discriminate against students with disabilities who are at heightened risk for severe illness from COVID-19 by preventing them from safely accessing in-person education.

For more info from USDE, click here.