Giving Compass' Take:

• The authors provide an overview of strategies and exemplary models of how to re-open schools, such as community school practices.

• How can donors help support schools' strategic decisions during this time?

• Learn why caution is essential in re-opening schools. 

The debate about reopening schools this fall has exploded across the nation with new pressure from the Trump administration, which has threatened to withhold federal funding from schools that don’t fully open for in-person classes. This comes on the heels of a recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which in no uncertain terms called on school leaders to make plans with “with a goal of having students physically present in school.”

In-person learning is certainly optimal if schools successfully implement social-distancing strategies to protect students and teachers. But as education leaders move in that direction, they should build on what science tells us about child development and learning to ensure that students get what they need.

Three priorities can pave the way, setting a foundation for a better system long after the pandemic is over: 1) remember the whole child; 2) apply the lessons of quality community-based and early childhood programs; and 3) improve services for English language learners and students with disabilities.

Consider how students have been affected by these past few months. They will not arrive in their classrooms as fresh-faced blank slates. They will arrive with the impact of months of pandemic stress or parents’ job losses combined with weeks of emotionally charged protests for racial justice still pulsing within them.

They will have seen people scared and dying — some of them watching on their TVs or smartphones, others experiencing the pain personally as extended families cope with Covid-19 deaths.

And yet, to contain the virus, schools will have to create systems that work against the kind of bonding and mental-health breaks that these students will need. Extracurricular activities, sports and assemblies will be canceled. Close connection will be discouraged. The wearing of masks will make it nearly impossible to interpret subtle cues about behavior and emotions.

Read the full article about re-opening schools by Laura Bornfreund and Lisa Guernsey at The Hechinger Report.